Biorizon is looking for partners interested in the development of biobased phthalic anhydride
Type of post: NEWS.
Biorizon co-initiator TNO is looking for partners that are
interested in the development of biobased phthalic anhydride (PA).
News: “Call for Participation: Biobased
Phthalic Anhydride”,
28/8/2019.
Towards Biobased PA
PA is one of the main aromatic building blocks
that is used in plasticizers and resins. The estimated global market size for
PA is around 8,000 M€ (5,000 kton of PA), with an estimated 56.5% of this being
used for plasticizers and 18.1% ending up in unsaturated polyester resins. Only
a 10% replacement of the petrochemical variant by biobased PA could mean
reducing CO2 emissions by almost 1,000 kton globally.
The pathway that will be developed within the “Towards
Biobased PA” project has the potential to become the most cost-efficient route.
The Biorizon Diels-Alder platform technology will be used for the production of
biobased PA. The novel route starts from furfuryl alcohol made from residual
feedstock that does not compete with food or feed crops. The technology route
to PA is atom efficient and has been shown to work on lab scale (TRL 2/3). The
information required to improve the current process and make it suitable for
scalable continuous processing will be developed within this project,
facilitating a fast scale-up. This will make delivery of small scale samples
bio-PA possible within the project.
Figure 1. Schematic overview of the “Towards
Biobased PA” Project
Partners search
Partners of this project will have the
opportunity to be involved from an early stage of this promising research,
including the benefits of sharing knowledge and being at the forefront of
application and commercial developments.
Biorizon is looking for the following partners:
- Chemical intermediate manufacturers that are
preferably already active in the PA market and would like to collaborate on
technology development and the production of biobased PA;
- Resin, coating and paint manufacturers who
are committed to a sustainable chemical industry and want to contribute to the
pioneering development of biobased PA;
- Other relevant partners like RTOs and public
entities that want to contribute to this technology development.
Points of attention for partners:
- Participation is open to a diversified mix of
organizations (RTOs, public entities, private companies, NGOs).
- Depending on the type of involvement,
contribution per partner is expected to range from €25k-€50k in cash and
€25k-€50k in kind.
Timeline
The development of the pathway to biobased PA
has started and relevant partners are invited to join forces in the project.
The proposed start of the project is at the end of 2019.
Figure 2. Roadmap of technology development for
biobased PA
