A new FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) plant which will be Avantium’s flagship plant is being built in the Netherlands, in Delfzijl. So far, Avantium has successfully raised 70 million euros for this start-up project.

Avantium is a well-known renewable chemistry company who recently announced their huge accomplishment. The funding they have raised will enable them to pay for the completion, commissioning and start-up of this FDCA plant, as well as the acceleration of its commercial deployment. At the moment, the plant is still in its construction phase at its site in Delfzijl, but the aim is for it be a commercial, fully operational facility in 2024.

A plan for how the funds will be used has already been created by the company, with the majority (80%) going to fund the new plant, whilst 15% will go to general expenses and the final 5% will go into scaling up is Volta Technology, so that it will be suitable for a pilot plant, not just a pre-pilot plant. This technology is very important to the project, as through the use of electrochemistry, it converts Co2 into high-value products and chemical building blocks, for example, glycolic acid. The creation of glycolic acid, presents Avantium with the opportunity to combine this product with lactic acid and through this reaction, it is able to create a carbon-negative polyester, polylactic co-glycolic acid (PLGA). This polyester has excellent benefits, such as having a barrier against oxygen and moisture, plus good mechanical properties. It is this innovative polyester which brought Avantium and SCGC into collaboration in early 2023, as they have been collaborating on this material’s growth and development together.

Alongside this project, Avantium is also working on a separate project, focusing on developing a YXY technology that works through using catalysts to convert plant-based sugar (fructose) into FDCA. This result makes up a core component for a wide range of plant-based chemicals and plastics and this includes polyethylene furanoate (PEF). This material, PEF is a plastic that is 100% plant-based and is fully recyclable, it is used to manufacture polyester, polyamides and polyurethanes, plus coating resins, plasticisers and a variety of other chemical products.

These two projects highlight Avantium’s commitment to the environment and to creating more sustainable materials and solutions to current issues.