PBT made from renewable feedstock
20 tons of bio-based BDO made with Genomatica’s process converted into PBT
LANXESS and Genomatica announce that LANXESS has run a production campaign of bio-based PBT in LANXESS’ world-scale production plant using 20 metric tons of bio-based BDO made with Genomatica’s commercially-proven process. This BDO fully complied with the LANXESS specifications for petro-based BDO allowing a direct feed of 100% bio-based BDO into the continuous production process.
The properties and the quality of the resulting bio-based PBT are fully equivalent to conventional petro-based PBT with regard to all tested parameters. The world-scale PBT plant, with a capacity of 80,000 metric tons per year, is located in Hamm-Uentrop, Germany, and operated as a joint venture in which LANXESS has a share of 50%.
Genomatica’s BDO process technology converts sugars – a renewable feedstock – into the major chemical BDO in a patented, ’direct’ fermentation process.
“We were excited to validate the bio-based BDO made with Genomatica’s process as a one-to-one replacement for petro-based BDO for the production of our PBT,” said Hartwig Meier, Head of Global Product and Application Development of the High Performance Materials Business Unit of LANXESS. “This is a strong signal to the market and a tremendous step forward in our future plans to offer our high-tech plastic Pocan in a bio-based version, too. Due to its unchanged properties Pocan compounds based on bio-based PBT can directly be used in established application fields such as automotive or electro & electronics area. This fits very well with our strategy of ‘Green Mobility’.”
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