AMSTERDAM – [19.05.10] Dutch-based research and technology company Avantium claims to have developed ‘breakthrough technology’ that could produce biomass-derived polyesters that can compete effectively with traditional polymers both on price and on performance.
Avantium has now initiated a collaboration with NatureWorks – a subsidiary of Cargill, which makes the Ingeo bio-polymer which can be used in textiles. The two companies have teamed up to develop ‘YXY’ branded polyesters and say they have already “demonstrated that YXY polyesters have properties that are very similar to PET, allowing [us] to develop a green version of this bulk polymer.”
The two companies will further test its properties to evaluate applications in textile fibres, packaging, automotive, coatings and engineering plastics and says it is now also looking to enter into partnerships to develop YXY for polyamides, polyurethanes and a number of chemical applications.
Unlike other ‘green’ polymers derived from fermented sugars, the new ‘YXY’ polymers are based on furan chemistry. Furanics are typically derived by the thermal decomposition of cellulosic solids such as pine-wood.
“When you start looking at which green building blocks have the potential to replace oil based chemicals, you will always see furanics,” said Avantium in a press statement. “Furanics are chemicals that are formed when you take carbohydrates and remove the water. They can be applied for such a wide range of products that researchers, companies and politicians have recognised its huge potential. But up to now, no one was able to produce them in a low-cost way: this is why they are referred to as sleeping giants.”
Avantium researchers have now developed and patented a new technology that uses a catalyst to convert biomass directly into furanics and the company has plans to build a pilot plant for its YXY technology this year in order to optimise the production process and introduce larger trial quantities of YXY.