Page 55 - Plastics News July 2023

Origin Materials starts up first commercial manufacturing plant
The arrangement is expected to help
grow the value of the bio-based sup-
ply chain for high-value chemicals and
materials including bio-based PET.

“We are thrilled to be making our in-
termediates available to industry on
a scale never before achieved,” said
Bissell. “The commercialisation of a
molecule like CMF is historic, on the
order of an ethylene. After working
with CMF for over a decade at pilot
scale, we couldn’t be more excited to
begin commercial production here in
Sarnia.”

‘tremendous accomplishment' - ally makes things,” he declared. CMF Origin will initially use the Origin 1
A John Bissel (chloromethyl furfural) is a versatile factory in Canada to fulfill customer
chemical building-block made from demand around qualification and sam-
Carbon negative materials company pling. The plant is expected to play a
Origin Materials announced 27 June sustainable wood residues that can key role in the development of high-
that it had commenced the startup of be used to make numerous down- er-value products and applications for
Origin 1, the world’s first commercial stream products, including para-xy- CMF, HTC, and other co-products.
CMF plant, located in Sarnia, Ontario. lene, which is the precursor to PET
In January, it was revealed that the fa- plastic, and FDCA (furandicarboxylic These higher value products are ex-
cility had reached mechanical comple- acid), which can be used in numer- pected to be produced and sold at
tion. ous sustainable products and materi- world-scale from future plants, includ-
als such as the next-gen polymer PEF ing Origin 2, which is currently being
Calling the starting up of the plant a (polyethylene furanoate). The plant developed in Geismar, Lousiana, Ori-
‘tremendous accomplishment and will also produce HTC (hydrothermal gin 3, and potentially licensed plants.
milestone in our journey to decar- carbon), whose applications include
bonise the world’s materials’, John sustainable carbon black for automo- The company already has numer-
Bissell, co-founder and co-CEO of tive tires. ous partnerships and offtake agree-
Origin Materials said the plant rep- ment in place; in March of this year
resents a substantial scale up of the Previously, Origin announced that it it a multi-year capacity reservation
company’s core technology platform. had partnered with the Green Chem- agreement with South Korean Hyo-
This platform technology converts istry Division of the Minafin Group Mi- sung Advanced Materials for PET and
cellulose, the structural component in nafin. Minafin will serve as the manu- a hybrid polymer PET/F (a blend of
the primary cell walls of green plants, facturing partner for the downstream PET and FDCA) for use in tire cord
into chloromethyl furfural (CMF) and supply chain of Origin 1. applications, HTC for use in battery
lignin (another plant structural com- The CMF produced by Origin at materials, as well as furanic deriva-
ponent) into hydrothermal carbon Origin 1 will be delivered to Min- tives for use in spandex applications in
(HTC). Woody biomass is Origin's afin, which will convert this into the the apparel industry. In April, Origin
feedstock. downstream intermediates and prod- announced a partnership with SCGP, a
ucts that can be used across a wide leading multinational consumer pack-
“We expect the power of our plat- aging solutions provider, to explore li-
form intermediates, CMF and HTC, range of end markets, including cloth- censing Origin technology for an Asia-
to be transformative for the chemical ing, textiles, plastics, packaging, car based plant.
industry and how the world gener- parts, tires, carpeting, toys and fuels.

PLASTICS NEWS 55
July 2023