Avantium, Origin Materials to accelerate mass Production of ‘next gen’ polyester

Avantium, a leading technology company in renewable chemistry, and Origin Materials, Inc., a leading sustainable materials company based in the USA, announced a partnership to accelerate the mass production of FDCA and PEF for use in high-tech chemicals and plastics.

The collaboration intends to combine the technological foundations of the two businesses in order to commercially generate FDCA from sustainable wood waste. The main component of the biopolymer PEF (polyethylene furanoate), a 100% plant-based, fully recyclable plastic material with superior functionality and a much less carbon footprint than traditional plastics, is FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid). PEF has a wide range of applications, including those in significant end-markets, including bottles, packaging, films, fibers, and textiles.

This new alliance combines Origin’s unique technological platform, which transforms carbon from sustainable wood wastes into important building-block chemicals like CMF, with Avantium’s proprietary YXY® Technology, which turns plant-based sugars into FDCA (chloromethylfurfural). By combining these two complementing technologies, a pathway is created for the CMF-to-FDCA conversion of sustainable wood wastes. The first commercial-scale FDCA Flagship Plant in the world is being built by Avantium in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. Carlsberg, LVMH, and AmBev are just a few of the well-known brands and business titans with which Avantium has signed offtake agreements for the supply of FDCA and PEF for a variety of applications.

Recently, Origin Materials announced that its first industrial manufacturing facility, called Origin 1, in Canada, has been mechanically finished. Using sustainable wood waste, this facility is expected to produce materials like CMF, which may then be transformed into high-performance goods used in packaging, textiles, garments, the automotive industry, and other uses. Origin has negotiated a number of capacity reservations and offtake agreements with well-known brand owners for Origin 1 and future plants.

In order to facilitate the conversion of Origin-produced CMF derivatives into FDCA at a facility with a 100 kilotonnes per year capacity, the Avantium and Origin technology cooperation includes a non-exclusive industrial technology license agreement.

For the purposes of (a) planning, building, and managing the licensed facility and (b) producing, using, selling, and converting FDCA produced at such facility, Avantium gives Origin a non-exclusive license to use certain portions of its unique YXY® method (including certain patent rights). In accordance with the licensing agreement, Avantium will also carry out a development program to create a link between Origin’s and its technology. For goods from its future operations, Origin Materials anticipates integrating Avantium’s process technology into the supply chain.

Avantium and Origin Materials have negotiated supplementary agreements to expand the market for FDCA and PEF applications in support of the industrial technology license agreement.