Carbios doubles its number of issued patents since its last review published

Carbios, headquartered in Clermont-Ferrand, France, is a pioneer in the development and industrialization of biological technologies to reimagine the life cycle of plastics and textiles. Since its most recent review, published at the end of 20201, the company’s number of issued patents has doubled.

336 titles, broken down into 53 patent families, are now held by the firm and its subsidiary Carbiolice globally. Many patents protecting the company’s unique enzymes that break down PET were issued in the USA, Indonesia, South Korea, China, Japan, and India in 2022. The production process for biodegradable polymers, specifically the masterbatch containing the enzyme or its manufacturing technique, is protected by grants that Carbios has received under its patent families.

Lise Lucchesi, director of intellectual property at Carbios, said that during the past two years, they have primarily concentrated on enhancing the protection of their PET biorecycling method and its patented enzymes. In the upcoming years, they will keep filing new patent applications to strengthen the protection of this technique and our PLA biodegradation process. In order to get granted patents, they will also actively follow up on their filed patent applications.

CEO Emmanuel Ladent added that they are certain that biological recycling is the most effective and circular approach for decomposing plastics. They have a devoted intellectual property staff, and protecting their enzymes and processes is at the core of their business. Beginning in 2023, they’ll also concentrate on safeguarding inventions connected to the enzymatic degradation of other polymers.

With the company’s method, any form of PET, the predominant polymer in bottles, trays, and textiles, is broken down into its constituent parts, which may then be recycled to create new PET plastics of virgin-quality standards. A recent scholarly publication published in Nature recognized this breakthrough. Carbios successfully launched its demonstration facility in Clermont-Ferrand in 2021. With the development of a unique unit in collaboration with Indorama Ventures, the company has now made another significant step toward the industrialization of its technology.

With the goal of promoting the recyclability and circularity of their products, Carbios formed an agreement in 2022 with On, Patagonia, Puma, and Salomon. PVH Corp. joined this consortium in January of this year.

Moreover, the business has created an enzymatic biodegradation solution for single-use PLA plastics. By incorporating enzymes into the core of the plastic product, this technology can produce a new generation of plastics that are completely compostable at room temperature, even in household settings.