Page 36 - Plastics News September 2016
P. 36
COMPANY NEWS
Technip and METabolic EXplorer together to assess feasibility
Technip and METabolic EXplorer have signed an for our shareholders. It is also one more con?rmation of
agreement to assess the feasibility of offering the competitiveness and the maturity of our bioprocess
a combined technology package consisting of the as well as a con?rmation of the growth potential of the
companies’ respective 1,3-propanediol (PDO) and PTT textile ?ber.” Andreas Bormann, managing director
polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) technologies. of Technip Zimmer Process Technology, added: “By
The evaluation will include a technical and commercial bundling PDO and PTT technologies, our goal is to offer a
review with a goal of bringing the bundled technology competitive product to a market that is in constant search
package to the market for licensing.PTT is used for the for diversi?ed, high quality polymers with a solid growth
production of high quality textile ?bers, packaging ?lms potential. By combining Technip’s strong technology
and engineered plastics. The growth potential of the and engineering capabilities with METabolic Explorer’s
PTT market is currently hampered by limited quantities technical expertise, we look forward to providing our
of PDO, a feedstock used to produce PTT. METabolic customers with a complete technology and engineering
Explorer has developed a patented, ef?cient technology package, a single point of interface and the highest
to produce PDO through the fermentation of crude quality standards.
glycerins from either vegetable oils (?rst generation) or
recycled oils (second generation). Technip’ s operating Toray to expand polyole?n
foam capacity in USA
center in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which operates
as Technip Zimmer Process Technology - acquired by Toray Industries will add production capacity
Technip in 2014 and today is part of Technip Stone & for polyolefin foams in the U.S. by January
Webster Process Technology - licenses the PTT technology, 2018, to meet growing demand for the material
which was developed in the 1990s in their research used in auto interiors. The Japanese major plans
center in Frankfurt, Germany, and commercialized in to invest US$43 mln to install equipment for 3,000
the early 2000. Technip’s center in Lyon, France, which
has provided engineering services for Metex’s PDO tons of additional annual capacity at its plant in
technology, will support this new evaluation effort. By Virginia. This will increase Toray's global capacity
combining these complementary technologies, METabolic for polyole?n foams by 40% to 11,000 tons a year. In
EXplorer and Technip Zimmer seek to offer a complete the U.S., where drivers like interior materials with a
industrial solution for the production of biosourced PTT feeling of solidity, there is a growing demand among
to the market. Benjamin Gonzalez, founder and CEO automakers for polyole?n foams. The material now is
of METabolic EXplorer, declared: “I am glad about this used mainly for the door interiors of pickup trucks,
partnership with Technip Zimmer which will accelerate but Toray anticipates a widening of demand to include
the deployment of the PDO technology for the PTT instrument panels.
applications, with a market mainly located in Asia.
This partnership with a company as strong as Technip
is a real opportunity to open up this PTT market, which
is currently limited by the lack of PDO, by offering an
innovative and sustainable solution while creating value
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