This week in Cincinnati, at the 2007 ANTEC conference organized by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), I attended a keynote presentation by Professor Stephen McCarthy on polymers derived from renewable resources. According to his information, large-scale commercial production of several bioplastics is finally becoming a reality. Here are the key players in this industry:
- NatureWorks LLC (Cargill) - 140,000 MT of polylactic acid (PLA) capacity at the Blair, Nebraska plant. Product branded as Naturework(R) PLA. Also available in fiber form under Ingeo(TM) brand.
- Telles (Metabolix/ADM) - 50,000 MT of polyhydroxy alkanoate (PHA) capacity at Clinton, Iowa plant to be commissioned in 2008. Product branded as Mirel(TM).
- Novamont - 20,000 MT of starch polymer at Terni, Italy. Product branded as Mater-Bi(R). Also acquired Eastar Bio copolyester technology from Eastman in 2004. Estimated capacity for these copolyesters is 15,000 MT at Hartlepool, UK.
- The Stanelco Group - 15,000 MT of PLA
- BASF -15,000 MT of Ecoflex(R), a biodegradable copolyester at Schwarzheide and Ludwigshafen sites in Germany
For more information on Stanelco there is a free Website full of reesearch at
http://www.stanelco.devisland.net
Did you receive the figure of 150,000 MT from Stanelco or what the figure obtained from another source?
Tony Graves
Paul:Thank you for the link.
Tony: I just checked my notes, the correct figure is 15000 MT/year. I have changed it in my original post. I did not get this figure from Stanelco. Do you have updated informaion?
Dear Naveen,
I’m an angel investor and I would be very interested to talk to you about bioplastics. Could you pls contact me on my email?
Dear Mr. Agarwal,
I am a biochemicals consulting analyst and I am really interested in discussing the bioplastics market with you, but mostly asking for your experience as I am quite new in this field.
Do you have any further information about Novamont?
Thank you very much.
Kind regards,
Jinny