NEWS
Carbios starts work on PET ‘biorecycling’ plant
French biotech company Carbios is building a facility to recycle waste PET using enzymes that degrade it into its component mono- mers – which can then be repolymerised. The €230 million (US$247m) plant, in Longlaville in eastern France, will have a recycling capacity of 50,000 tonnes/year of PET waste when it opens in 2026. Carbios expects to reach full capacity within 18 months of opening. “We have developed enzymes that do what nature has not had time to do: decompose plastics,” according to Emmanuel Ladent, CEO of Carbios. PET waste will be sourced
through partner agree- ments. Carbios has already secured 70% of its input feedstock, including a deal with recycler Landbell to supply 15,000 tonnes/year of PET flakes. Output from the plant –
waste); a higher quality end-product (identical to virgin resin); and greater flexibility in handling ‘contaminated’ waste. Most future revenue is
Above: Ladent: “We have developed enzymes that do what nature has not had time to do: decompose plastics”
PTA and MEG monomers – will be sold to partners, to make ‘new’ PET that is not derived directly from petroleum. Though ‘recycled’, this
PET has identical properties to virgin resin. Carbios claims several benefits for its process, compared to mechanical recycling: the ability to handle diverse waste streams (such as multi-layer
likely to come from licensing its technology. Licensees are likely to be PET producers – who are already looking to reduce their reliance on fossil feedstocks – as well as waste companies and even brand owners. Carbios is working on enzymes for other plastics – including polyamides (nylons) and polyolefins. The work on polyamide is further advanced than that for polyolefins, according to Ladent. The main challenge for these technologies is to improve the performance of the enzymes. Ladent thinks that the PA-digesting enzyme can be developed more quickly than its PET-digesting one – which took five years. �
www.carbios.com
Transcendia gets a new
owner Transcendia, a manufac- turer of custom engi- neered films, has been acquired, following a cash injection of private equity funding. It will provide Transcen- dia with US$114 million in new capital, eliminate more than US$200m of debt and strengthen its competitive position with additional operating resources, it says. An investment fund managed by Industrial Opportunity Partners (IOP), plus funds man- aged by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, will provide the capital. IOP will then assume majority ownership of Transcendia. “This provides addi- tional capital to help us improve our cost struc- ture, optimise our facility footprint and grow our business,” said John Bagnuolo, president and CEO of Transcendia. �
www.transcendia.com
Arkema buys Dow adhesives division
Arkema is to buy’s Dow’s flexible packaging laminat- ing adhesives business, which generates annual sales of around US$250 million.
It says the proposed acquisition will expand its portfolio of flexible
Left: Le Hénaff: “This acquisition is in line our strategy to grow in adhesives”
4 FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION | May 2024
packaging solutions. “This acquisition is in line
with Arkema’s strategy to offer its customers innova- tive products with high technological content and continue to grow in the adhesives segment,” said Thierry Le Hénaff, chairman and CEO of Arkema. The takeover is subject to
approval by antitrust authorities and is expected
to close by the end of this year.
Dow’s flexpack laminat- ing adhesives offer solutions in food and medical applica- tions, as well as for industrial lamination (such as window films and photovoltaic backsheets). The business has five pro- duction sites in Italy, the US and Mexico. �
www.arkema.com
www.filmandsheet.com
IMAGE: ARKEMA IMAGE: CARBIOS
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