Avantium, a leading technology provider in renewable chemistry, announces that it has been awarded a €0.76 million grant by the EU Horizon Europe programme for its participation in the research and development programme Rebiolution.

This programme aims to design and synthetize biobased and biodegradable polyester blends based on FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) and other biobased monomers, to be used as plastic coating for food packaging and for mulch films for agricultural applications. The €0.76 million grant will be paid out in tranches to Avantium over a period of three years, starting in June 2023.

Avantium has developed the YXY technology that converts plant-based sugars into FDCA, which can be polymerized together with plant-based mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) into the sustainable plastic PEF (polyethylene furanoate).

As a monomer, FDCA brings the opportunity to create a variety of polymers, from polyesters, polyamides and polyurethanes, to coating resins, plasticisers and other chemical products. Avantium is currently constructing the world’s first commercial FDCA facility in Delfzijl (the Netherlands), with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per annum and set to open in 2024.

Under the Rebiolution programme, Avantium will provide several hundreds of kilogrammes of FDCA for the development and production of a biodegradable and compostable polyester blend.

Kai Siegenthaler, coordinator of the Rebiolution project and responsible for biopolymers research at BASF, comments: “FDCA is a key element in the Rebiolution strategy. The potential of FDCA is based on its plant-based origin and on its structural similarity to the largest-volume commodity chemical PTA (purified terephthalic acid). By reacting FDCA with other biobased monomers, we intend to produce a 100% biobased and biodegradable polyester which also fulfils requirements regarding processing, lifetime, performance and cost effectiveness. We strongly believe that the resulting bioplastic can help to achieve the challenging circularity goals which the EU sets itself.”

“We are delighted to supply FDCA for the Rebiolution project. FDCA was listed in 2004 by the US Department of Energy as the number two in the top 12 priority chemicals for establishing the green chemistry industry of the future. Avantium's polymerization-quality FDCA is not only the key building block for the plant-based plastic material PEF, but has many other potential applications in various markets, as shown by this project,” said Bas Blom, Director of Avantium Renewable Polymers.