French green-chemistry company Carbios (Saint-Beauzire; www.carbios.fr) said it will work with petrochemicals and PET giant Indorama Ventures (Bangkok; www.indoramaventures.com) to build a manufacturing plant for its PET bio-recycling technology at Indorama’s production site in Longlaville, France. The capital investment is expected to be around EUR 150 mn for Carbios’ core technology. Additionally, an estimated EUR 50 mn is to be allocated for the site’s infrastructure.

The goal, the French company says, is to construct and operate the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET bio-recycling plant in France, with processing capacity estimated at 50,000 t/y for post-consumer PET waste, said to be equivalent to 2 bn PET bottles or 2.5 bn PET trays.

Related: Indorama acquires major stake in Czech PET recycler

As a first step, a feasibility study is to be conducted for the industrialisation of Carbios’ technology on Indorama’s French production site. Subject to successful completion of technical and economical evaluations, the Thai giant plans to co-invest in the project, which is expected to create approximatively 150 jobs.

Carbios recently signed an agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB, Luxembourg; www.eib.com) to borrow EUR 30 mn to support the commercial development of its C-Zyme enzymatic PET recycling technology (see Plasteurope.com of 12.01.2022). The French company commissioned a demonstration plant for C-Zyme at its site in Clermont-Ferrand last year.