Issue 06/2020

daily upated news at
www.bioplasticsmagazine.com
News
Futerro launches the
first fully integrated
PLA plant in China
FUTERRO, a subsidiary of the Belgian GALACTIC
group, has started operating the first integrated
PLA production unit in China in collaboration with
its historical partner BBCA Biochemical.
Located in the city of Bengbu (Anhui), the PLA
unit has a capacity of 30,000 tonnes/year and is
supplied by a lactic acid unit with a capacity of
80,000 tonnes, that also supplies a company
belonging to Galactic producing food ingredients
based on lactic acid for the Asian market.
The 3 factories were built in record time of 24
months by a mixed Belgian-Chinese team.
The new lactic acid and PLA units incorporate
new patented technologies that allow the
production of high-quality products at competitive
costs. Futerro and BBCA are already planning
to bring the lactic acid production to 180,000 t/a
(which will make it one of the largest units in the
world) and that of PLA to 100,000 t/a (which will be
Asia's leading unit in terms of capacity).
“This first plant is an important step in Futerro’s
evolution. Today, we see that PLA is beginning
to find its place in the world of plastics not only
due to its natural origin but also to its intrinsic
properties,” said Frédéric van Gansberghe,
CEO of Futerro. “We believe that after 30 years
of development, PLA will experience a strong
acceleration in the upcoming years. ”
PLA plant for B&F PLA
completed in record time
B&F PLA has completed the construction of China’s first
fully-integrated sugar-to-PLA plant located in Bengbu, Anhui
Province.
The facility utilizes Sulzer’s distillation, crystallization and
polymerization technologies and has the capacity to produce
30,000 tonnes of PLA per year.
The new plant uses glucose from locally sourced corn to
produce lactic acid and different grades of PLA, allowing B&F
PLA to support the expanding market for PLA materials. More
precisely, the manufacturer is now able to deliver plant-based
polymers with different molecular weights and L(+)/D(-) ratios
to provide suitable materials for a wide variety of applications.
Sulzer, the leader in separation and mixing technologies,
played a crucial role in the construction of the plant, which was
completed in record time. The company designed, engineered
and supplied customized mass transfer equipment for the
purification of lactide and polymerization processes. Extensive
remote assistance during pre-commissioning, commissioning
and start-up was also provided to help B&F PLA begin its
operations quickly and smoothly.
The successful completion of this project was enabled
by Sulzer’s extensive experience in delivering customized
equipment and key processing units for bioplastic manufacturing.
In particular, the company develops specialized falling film and
static crystallizers, loop and plug-flow reactors, mixers as
well as distillation and devolatilization technologies for plants
involved in any stage of sugar-to-PLA processing. MT
www.sulzer.com
Futerro is offering licenses for the production
of lactic acid by fermentation monomer, PLA
and LOOPLA, which is a recycling process for
converting PLA back into lactic acid. PLA has a low
carbon foot - print which minimizes the impact of
its production on the global warming. MT
www.futerro.com
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tinyurl.com/news-20200925
Newlight Technologies opens new commercial-scale
AirCarbon production facility
(25 September 2020)
Newlight Technologies, Inc., a California biotechnology company that
manufactures PHB, a type of PHA, has announced the opening of a new
commercial-scale AirCarbon production facility in Southern California,
called Eagle 3.
Newlight has spent over a decade perfecting the production of AirCarbon: a
material made by life from the ocean using air and carbon from greenhouse gas.
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/20] Vol. 15 5