(Bioplastic Innovation) --Toray Industries in partnership with Gevo Inc. signed an offtake agreement for renewable bio-paraxylene (bioPX) produced at Gevo’s planned pilot plant. The agreement will enable Toray to carry out pilot-scale production of fully renewable, bio-based polyethylene terephthalate (fully bioPET), of its fibers and films for the first time in the world. Toray also plans to offer samples to its business partners, who are the end-users, in 2013 for market evaluation.
With the signing of the offtake agreement between Gevo and Toray, the companies are able to integrate the supply chain to convert bioPX into bioPET for end users.
Using terephthalic acid synthesized from Gevo’s bioPX and commercially available renewable mono ethylene glycol (MEG), Toray succeeded in lab-level PET polymerization to produce fibers and films samples in 2011.
Gevo is a leading company in renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels. Gevo, the first company in the world to begin commercial production of bio-based isobutanol. Gevo has also succeeded in the synthesis of bioPX at the laboratory level utilizing conventional chemical processes.
Toray Industries is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered around technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, as well as plastics and chemicals.
MRC