First bio-PET bottles made

4 March 2019 - 0 Submitted by Andrew Warmington

Sustainable technology company Anellotech has announced that it, IFPEN and Axens have processed aromatics from loblolly pine wood feedstock at its TCat-8 pilot plant at Silsbee, Texas, and recovered high-purity bio-based paraxylene (PX), using its Bio-TCat process. This follows earlier production in Europe.

PX is a key raw material for PET and this is seen as a step on the road to making bottles from 100% biobased PET. The samples have all met all of the ASTM International specifications for downstream derivatives for PET. If successful, it will be the first “major production of bio-PET from continuous, cost-effective processing of non-food biomass”, Anellotech claimed.

The three companies will now work on purifying PX to create pilot sample bottles for Suntory, the Japan-based beverages company. As larger amounts are purified, Anellotech will also make renewable PET resin for prototype bottle manufacture and product trials. The firms will also make sample quantities of bio-based benzene, a raw material for many other polymers and other materials, and tolune, again using Bio-TCat.

AGC acquires in two fields

Mar 04, 2019/0

Japan’s AGC has completed the acquisition of Malgrat Pharma Chemicals (MPC), a maker of synthetic APIs based in Spain, from Boheringer Ingelheim. This had been announced in December 2018.

War of words begins over Versum offer

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Merck KGaA has published an open letter to the shareholders of electronic chemicals producer Versum Materials after its board rejected an unsolicited offer to buy the company.

Bankrupt Aceto plans chemical disposal

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Aceto, a US-headquartered distributor active in the pharmaceuticals, chemicals and related sectors, has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell the chemicals related part of its business.

ECHA publishes additives inventory

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The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has published an inventory of all plastic additives used to date in the EU, describing it as “an important step towards better risk assessment of these substances under REACH and CLP”. This is the result of a two-year project between 2016 and the end of 2018.

Ineos chairman blasts European regulation

Feb 18, 2019/0

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder, chairman and 60% owner of Ineos, has written an open letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, lambasting European chemical regulation in general and ‘green taxes’ in particular.