Avantium awarded €5.4 million grant from Netherlands Enterprise Agency for expansion of FDCA pilot plant

Avantium N.V, a leading technology company in renewable chemistry, announcesthat the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO -Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland) has awarded the companya€5.4milliongrantas part of the Demonstration Energy and Climate Innovation (DEI+) scheme, to be paid out in 16 tranches over a period of 4 years. This grant is solely designated for the expansion of Avantium’s FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) pilot plant in Geleen (The Netherlands)and willtherefore not be used for the potential construction of the FDCA flagship plant in Delfzijl. FDCA is the key building block for the high-quality, fully recyclable, plant-based polymer PEF (polyethylene furanoate)to be used in a wide range of applications such as bottles, packaging, filmand textiles.

RVO is an executive department of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, which supports innovative and sustainable entrepreneurship by Dutch companies. With the DEI+ scheme, RVO financially supports projects that contribute to a cost-effective reduction of CO₂ emissions by 2030. Avantium’s YXY® plants-to-plastics technology to produce FDCA and PEF fits perfectly into this initiative.

Avantium will use the grant to set up new unitsin the FDCA pilot plant to demonstrate optimal polymerisation as well as mechanical recycling of pure PEF and PET/PEF mixtures. Avantium’s PEF can be usedin both monolayer PEF applicationsand as a barrier material in multilayer PET applications, enabling improved performance and full recyclability of both pure PEF and PET/PEF mixtures. This is a solution for many plastic applications, such as small sized bottles which are not fully recyclable as they include other materials (e.g. nylon) for barrier properties. With the new units, Avantium can further validate and showcase the quality of (recycled) PEF as a monolayer and PET/PEF multilayers in bottle, film and fibre applications.

With this expansion, the entire PEF value chain will becovered atthe FDCA pilot plant in Geleen. As a result of this, the pilot plant can act as a true centre of excellence for Avantium’sYXY® Technology. Heleen Goorissen, Director Innovation & Technology of Avantium Renewable Polymers, says: “The DEI+ grant of RVO for the new piloting units allows Avantium to independently test and prove all the steps inour YXY®Technology. The pilot plant expansion will support the successful operations of our FDCA flagship plant, planned to start-up in 2023, and enables us to actively file new patent applications to protectour leading FDCA/PEF position and our licensing strategy.”

Source: Avantium, press release, 2020-12-16.