CARBIOS
Demo plant for enzymatic recycling tech in France / Depolymerisation to make PET into virgin-quality resin / Weak H1 financial results
 First tests of the company’s enzymatic recycling process were successfully completed at the demonstration plant in Clermont-Ferrand (Photo: Carbios) |
French biopolymers and recycling technologies specialist Carbios (Saint-Beauzire; www.carbios.fr) recently launched an industrial demonstration plant that uses its enzymatic recycling technology, “C-Zyme”, installed at the Cataroux site in Clermont-Ferrand / France. The production unit, the construction of which is expected to begin in 2022 and end in 2024, is expected to enable an annual production of 40,000 t of rPET.
The chemical recycling process uses an enzyme for depolymerising PET. The resulting monomers are purified before being repolymerised into virgin-quality PET, Carbios explained. The process is said to offer unlimited recycling of all sorts of PET waste (clear, coloured, opaque, complex plastics, polyester textiles) and the production of 100% recycled and recyclable PET goods. The optimisation of operating parameters and the production of the monomer batches are reportedly carried out by a 10-person team. Earlier this year, Carbios claimed it had manufactured the world’s first food-grade PET bottles made entirely from enzymatically recycled plastics (see Plasteurope.com of 28.06.2021).
CEO Jean-Claude Lumaret said, “The demonstration plant includes a 20 m³ depolymerisation reactor capable of processing 2 tonnes of PET per cycle, which is the equivalent of 100,000 bottles. This is a watershed moment, highlighting how this revolutionary process works on a large scale.” He added that the group’s financial structure had been strengthened by raising a landmark EUR 114m. The transaction enabled Carbios to take full control of compatriot company Carbiolice earlier this year (see Plasteurope.com of 08.06.2021) to accelerate global growth of its proprietary recycling technology.
In April 2020, the company’s chief scientific officer, Alain Marty, who co-authored an article on Carbios’ enzymatic chemical recycling process (see Plasteurope.com of 20.04.2020), said, “The results obtained confirm the industrial and commercial potential of the company’s proprietary process, which will be tested in 2021 in our demonstration plant.”
In H1 2021, the French company reported revenue and other income of EUR 568,000 versus EUR 849,000 in the first half of 2020. The net loss for the period reached EUR 4.4m from EUR 2.2m, after taking into account the positive effect of the research tax credit of EUR 1.1m.
The chemical recycling process uses an enzyme for depolymerising PET. The resulting monomers are purified before being repolymerised into virgin-quality PET, Carbios explained. The process is said to offer unlimited recycling of all sorts of PET waste (clear, coloured, opaque, complex plastics, polyester textiles) and the production of 100% recycled and recyclable PET goods. The optimisation of operating parameters and the production of the monomer batches are reportedly carried out by a 10-person team. Earlier this year, Carbios claimed it had manufactured the world’s first food-grade PET bottles made entirely from enzymatically recycled plastics (see Plasteurope.com of 28.06.2021).
CEO Jean-Claude Lumaret said, “The demonstration plant includes a 20 m³ depolymerisation reactor capable of processing 2 tonnes of PET per cycle, which is the equivalent of 100,000 bottles. This is a watershed moment, highlighting how this revolutionary process works on a large scale.” He added that the group’s financial structure had been strengthened by raising a landmark EUR 114m. The transaction enabled Carbios to take full control of compatriot company Carbiolice earlier this year (see Plasteurope.com of 08.06.2021) to accelerate global growth of its proprietary recycling technology.
In April 2020, the company’s chief scientific officer, Alain Marty, who co-authored an article on Carbios’ enzymatic chemical recycling process (see Plasteurope.com of 20.04.2020), said, “The results obtained confirm the industrial and commercial potential of the company’s proprietary process, which will be tested in 2021 in our demonstration plant.”
In H1 2021, the French company reported revenue and other income of EUR 568,000 versus EUR 849,000 in the first half of 2020. The net loss for the period reached EUR 4.4m from EUR 2.2m, after taking into account the positive effect of the research tax credit of EUR 1.1m.
06.10.2021 Plasteurope.com [248721-0]
Published on 06.10.2021