Avantium and EPC Engineering & Technologies to commercialize continuous PEF production tech
The Netherlands-headed Avantium N.V., a leader in renewable and circular polymer materials, has announced that it has signed a collaboration agreement with Germany-headed EPC Engineering & Technologies GmbH, an international technology provider and engineering and plant construction company. This partnership aims to advance the continuous polyethylene furanoate (PEF) polyester production technology, targeting plant capacities of 100,000 tonnes per annum and beyond.
According to a statement, the collaboration will combine the expertise of both companies to commercialize continuous polymerization of PEF (PEF cPol Technology).
Avantium and EPC Engineering & Technologies will integrate their respective technologies and processes, together with the solid-state polymerization (SSP) of POLYMETRIX AG.
The PEF cPol Technology will be included in Avantium’s “YXY Technology” license package.
EPC Engineering & Technologies will provide engineering, plant construction services, and key equipment, including the SSP equipment from POLYMETRIX, to Avantium’s future licensees.
Avantium has developed its proprietary YXY Technology to produce furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), the essential component for the fully plant-based and circular polymer polyethylene furanoate (PEF).
PEF is branded by Avantium as “releaf”, and Avantium is currently in the process of starting up the world’s first commercial FDCA plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands.
This FDCA Flagship Plant will play a crucial role in Avantium’s commercialization and licensing strategy.
The commercial FDCA plant allows Avantium to sell FDCA and releaf directly to offtake partners while offering technology licenses at full scale to industrial partners worldwide.
Under such a technology license, industrial partners can produce FDCA and PEF in large-scale production facilities using Avantium’s proprietary YXY Technology.
EPC continuously strives to find technical solutions to overcome global environmental challenges. Through this international collaboration with Avantium, we are fully confident to jointly achieve great success by offering the world’s best practices for continuous PEF production, said Karol Kerrane, Managing Director at EPC Engineering & Technologies.
Building on previous collaboration
Avantium and EPC Engineering & Technologies already worked together in 2017, when EPC developed a conceptual design for a 25,000 tonnes per annum PEF continuous polymerization plant using melt state polymerization.
This conceptual design served as the starting point for the Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to further scale the polymerization technology to 100 kilotonnes per annum and beyond.
POLYMETRIX will contribute with its continuous solid-state polymerization know-how. With this collaboration, Avantium can extend its YXY Technology license package to the full continuous PEF production process including performance guarantees at an industrial scale, whether greenfield, brownfield, or retrofit plant.
This collaboration with EPC and POLYMETRIX marks a step forward in our mission to add our renewable and circular polymer PEF to the polyester industry. By combining our expertise with EPC and POLYMETRIX, we are confident that we can offer our potential licensing partners a comprehensive license package that integrates Avantium’s YXY Technology with continuous PEF polymerization technology, providing a high-performance alternative to fossil-based plastics, said Bart Langius, Director Licensing at Avantium.
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