Page 27 - Plastics News August 2022

FEATURE

Plant-Based Polyamide 6 One Step Closer to Commercialization

Christophe Schilling, Geno CEO.
“We’re working to build purposeful,
traceable, and transparent supply chains,
in this case for PA 6, with the goal
to provide more sustainable products
that consumers demand and material
solutions that can help brands achieve
their ESG goals."

“The world needs every possible approach
put into action to make supply chains
sustainable, and bio-based PA is an
essential piece of that,” said Giulio
ustainability spearhead Genomatica will help determine the final design of Bonazzi, Aquafil CEO. “Plant-based PA
S(Geno) and longtime partner Aquafil future commercial plants. The material can perfectly complement our approach
have completed the first demonstration-
scale production runs for plant-based
polyamide (PA) 6 at an Aquafil facility
in Slovenia. The material is intended
to reshape the $22 billion PA industry,
enabling brands to meet demand from
consumers for sustainable everyday
materials from apparel to automotive
parts to carpets.
Geno and Aquafil have produced
the first several tons of plant-based
nylon-6 building block caprolactam
and converted it to PA 6 polymer. They
are now in the process of transforming
it for evaluation in PA applications
such as yarns for textile and carpet and
engineering plastics for automotive will go to leading global brands and their to depolymerizing PA products once
applications. value chain partners who will develop they reach the end of their useful life.
renewable products, create showcase Together, we share a vision to lead
The companies have been collaborating
first to produce pilot-scale quantities of goods, and test feedback with customers. the transition to more sustainable
plant-based PA 6 and have now advanced “Now, more than ever, global brands are materials, which has driven our long-
to the production of pre-commercial taking action to incorporate sustainable term collaboration.”
quantities at demonstration scale, which materials into their products,” said

27 PLASTICS NEWS August 2022