Synvina (Avantium and BASF JV) – The first FDCA biorefinery is coming

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Furanics have been named the sleeping giants due to its unexploited potential as biobased chemical building blocks for a vast range of downstream products and applications. However, it seems that the giants are awakening. Specifically, the furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is focus of growing attention. Avantium is leading this revolution and companies like AVA Biochem and Mercurius Biorefining are moving pieces to occupy a good place in the chessboard. I want to prepare a monographic post on FDCA biorefining progresses in the short term. In the meantime, there is very good recent news to report.

BASF and Avantium announced yesterday the formation of a new joint venture for the production and marketing of FDCA produced from renewable resources. The name of the JV is Synvina® and it will be headquartered in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). It is planned to invest a medium three-digit million Euro sum to build a reference plant with an annual capacity of up to 50,000 metric tons at BASF’s Verbund site in Antwerp (Belgium) and to license the technology for industrial scale production. Synvina will use the YXY process® developed by Avantium for the production of FDCA.

Figure 1. BASF’s Verbund site in Antwerp (Belgium). The first FDCA biorefinery will be built there

The best known application of FDCA is PolyEthyleneFuranoate (PEF), a polyester suitable for food and beverage packaging as well as for fibers for carpets and textiles. It is claimed to be a substitute for PET as it offers better characteristics. For instance, improved barrier properties for gases like carbon dioxide and oxygen and higher mechanical strength. Synvina will also market PEF based on FDCA and continue Avantium’s established partnering activities with leading brands (Toyobo, Mitsui, The Coca-Cola Company, Danone and ALPLA).

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