In the Netherlands, Avantium N.V., a leading renewable chemistry technology firm, has celebrated the First Piling Ceremony marking the start of construction for its FDCA Flagship Plant at the Chemie Park Delfzijl site.
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The world’s first commercial biobased furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) facility is set to produce 5 000 tonnes of FDCA per annum, the key building block for the 100 percent plant-based, recyclable plastic material polyethylene furanoate (PEF).
Avantium is proud to be the first company in the world that is constructing a commercial facility for the production of FDCA, the key building block of PEF. I strongly believe that PEF has the potential to become a major polymer to be used across many applications and markets worldwide, helping us on the path to a circular economy, said Tom van Aken, CEO of Avantium.
The First Piling Ceremony represents the start of the construction of the FDCA Flagship Plant.
Construction is planned to be completed by the end of 2023, enabling the commercial launch of PEF from 2024 onwards.
A growing interest in PEF
Over the years, PEF has attracted the interest and support of many partners – varying from commercial partners, governments, engineering, and supply chain partners as well as financial and grant partners.
With the support of these partners within the PEF value chain, Avantium is now ready to build and operate the world’s first FDCA Flagship Plant, meeting the growing global demand across a range of end-product markets.
One of the first enablers of the FDCA Flagship Plant is the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU), which supported the FDCA Flagship Plant with a “PEFerence” Horizon 2020 grant.
The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking’s goal is to make the European industries green and competitive. Today, we are marking a clear example of this European green renaissance: the EUR 25 million of CBE JU funding for the PEFerence project contributes to transforming the traditionally gas area around Delfzijl into a more sustainable and competitive region, remarked Virginia Puzzolo, CBE JU Head of Programme.
We, at CBE JU, are delighted to contribute to bringing into the market disruptive circular technologies like producing plant-based FDCA in this Flagship Plant, said Virginia Puzzolo.
Ideal location
The new FDCA Flagship Plant is located near Avantium’s demonstration plant for biobased mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) and its pilot biorefinery, which produces glucose and lignin from non-food biomass.
The Northern Netherlands is furthermore a prime location for green chemistry in the Netherlands, with the ambition to achieve a fully sustainable chemical industry by 2050.
Avantium fits perfectly into this ambition, with the FDCA Flagship Plant supporting the transition to a circular economy and helping to shift the chemicals industry away from fossil resources and towards sustainable feedstocks.
The FDCA Flagship Plant will bring increased innovation to the region. In addition, Avantium will create around 50 highly skilled jobs, for which the recruitment has already started, and provide significant indirect employment opportunities.
We are pleased with the support of our partners for our FDCA Flagship Plant. Today everyone can see how our plans for a commercial FDCA facility are becoming a reality, ended Tom van Aken.
