CARBIOS and TechnipFMC sign a contract on PET enzymatic biorecycling

CARBIOS, an innovative green chemistry company specializing in enzymatic bioprocesses applied to plastic and textile polymers, and TechnipFMC announced the launch of a project for the industrial development of CARBIOS PET enzymatic recycling process. This innovation will allow to produce virgin PET from plastic waste. This contract covers assistance to CARBIOS for the scale up of its process to ensure industrial competitiveness.

CARBIOS’ proprietary innovation provides an industrial solution to fulfill sustainable development requirements of PET production processes. The global market of PET records a 4 % to 5 %^[1] annual growth and represents a world production of 64 million tons each year^[2] (eq. $70 billion), split between one third of plastics and two thirds of fibers. In 10 years’ time, the annual production of this market is expected to reach 100 million tons (eq. $110 billion).

This process has been developed for the recycling of PET plastics, namely bottles, films and packaging. It enables to overcome constraints and limits of current recycling processes by the treatment of all kind of plastics containing PET (transparent, coloured, opaque and complex), and by the recovery of high-performance virgin PET directly from plastic waste. For the first time, a biological process paves the way to infinite recycling of PET following circular economy principles.

CARBIOS and TechnipFMC, world-leading Company in the fields of energy, chemistry and bio-sourced industries, signed this contract to transpose CARBIOS’ process from the laboratory to the pilot scale. This assistance will further aim at supporting the development of the project and define the bases of the industrial process. Through this contract, CARBIOS will benefit from TechnipFMC industrial know-how in bioprocess engineering and from the expertise of its German affiliate Technip Zimmer, in PET polymerization technologies.

Alain François, General Manager of TechnipFMC Operating Center in Lyon, notably in charge of the projects for chemical and bio-sourced industries, commented: “We are delighted to work with CARBIOS on this enzymatic recycling process that represents a true revolution in the world of PET. We have gained a solid experience in process engineering and we are very enthusiastic at the idea to assist CARBIOS in shaping the industrialization of this innovation. It’s a premiere in the world of green chemistry to which we can bring our expertise and know-how in the fields of process industrialization, engineering and project management.”

^[1] Source: Smithers Pira in 2014, Icis in 2009 and Pira International in 2012

^[2] Source: SRI Consulting in 2010, ICIS in 2009, Samsung in 2010, Tecnon in 2013 and IHS in 2014