Total Corbion PLA, a 50/50 joint venture between Total and Corbion, kicked off the front-end engineering design stage for its new 100,000 tons per annum Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) plant in Grandpuits, France. The plant, due to be operational in 2024, will be the first of its kind in Europe. It would make Total Corbion PLA the global market leader in PLA, firmly positioned to cater for the rapidly growing demand for Luminy® PLA resins.
“100% Bioplastic”. It’s the name of the research project launched by Bicocca University of Crowdfunding to develop a new material of natural and biodegradable origin. The fundraising is starting today on Produzioni dal Basso with the support of Corepla, the Italian Consortiun of Recycled Plastics.
“Today we can produce PLA directly from glucose, but in the future, we will obtain it starting from organic wastes and, looking more forward, from carbon dioxide”. To say it – in this interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Danilo Porro, professor at University of Milano Bicocca and President of Galatea Biotech, one of the most innovative Italian industrial biotech start-up company. Headquartered in Milan, Galatea has developed a new process to produce PLA from glucose.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Total Corbion PLA, a 50/50 joint venture between French oil giant Total and Dutch biochemical company Corbion, yesterday announced the start-up of its 75,000 tons per year PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) bioplastics plant in Rayong, Thailand. The plant has successfully produced Luminy® PLA resins, a bioplastic that provides a valuable contribution towards the circular economy being biobased and biodegradable and offering multiple environmentally-friendly waste solutions.
Total Corbion PLA yesterday officially launched its operations to produce and market Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) polymers. PLA is a biobased and biodegradable polymer made from annually renewable resources. As announced by parent companies Total and Corbion last November, the new company is a 50/50 joint venture based in the Netherlands.
Corbion, the global market leader in lactic acid, lactic acid derivatives and lactides, yesterday announced it has completed the pre-engineering for a PLA polymerization plant and is entering the basic-engineering phase. Following strong customer interest in PLA, Corbion commenced with pre-engineering in 2015.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 