BASF leaves Synvina

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Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Blog follows with interest all of the advances related to the commercialization of PEF, one of the most promising alternatives to PET. Some encouraging developments have been reported during the last few years. Unfortunately, in this occasion, there is bad news. BASF has notified Avantium of its exit from Synvina, effective 15 January 2019. Avantium disagrees with BASF’s interpretation of the joint venture agreement (details are not disclosed).
Press release: “BASF notifies Avantium of its exit from Synvina”, 18/10/2018.

Figure 1. Synvina logo

Synvina was formed in 2016 to commercialize the YXY technology developed by Avantium and it was the front-runner of the FDCA (the main building block for PEF) production technologies. The parties intended to build the first commercial-scale plant in Antwerp (Belgium). In fact, BBI JU granted 25 M€ to PEFerence, a flagship project which includes the construction of that 50 kton reference plant. Now, all these plans appear to vanish.
Related posts:
- “Synvina (Avantium and BASF JV) – The first FDCA biorefinery is coming”, 8/10/2016.
- “BBI JU awards PEFerence project with 25 M€ for establishing a complete FDCA value chain”, 9/6/2017.

To conclude on a note of hope, Avantium will acquire BASF’s equity interest and Synvina will continue its operations as a fully Avantium-owned company. In addition, the YXY technology, know-how and people will revert to Avantium. According to the words of Tom van Aken (CEO of Avantium), its company looks forward to building on the work undertaken within Synvina and being free to pursue further options to reach the full potential of PEF. 

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