The new plant will be equipped to demonstrate the process of depolymerisation of waste PET plastics to monomers
The new plant will demonstrate the enzymatic recycling process. (Credit: Carbios)
French green chemistry firm Carbios and TechnipFMC have collaborated to jointly build a new facility in France, to demonstrate Carbios’s enzymatic recycling process for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics.
TechnipFMC’s operating center in Lyon, France will help Carbios to build the new plant, which will demonstrate the depolymerisation of PET plastics to monomers.
Using proprietary enzymes, the technology will have the ability to recycle waste PET plastics into monomers ready for re-polymerisation into PET while retaining the same technical and physical properties of virgin PET.
Carbios CEO Jean-Claude Lumaret said: “Carbios’ collaboration with TechnipFMC has been very successful over the past few years and we are delighted to extend this valuable partnership to the construction of our demonstration plant.
“This agreement, which will leverage both parties’ expertise, supports our common vision to enhance the sustainability of the plastic industry. Carbios’ technology has proven to be a superior process that efficiently recycles all PET-based plastics.
“To ensure its implementation at large-scale, it is key for operators to gain insights into operational conditions. Our collaboration with TechnipFMC aims to address this need through a demonstration plant.”
TechnipFMC will be responsible for providing advisory, engineering, procurement and construction supervision services for the plant.
Demonstration plant to enter service in 2021
Construction on the demonstration plant is scheduled to commence later this year with commissioning planned to start in 2021.
Carbios said that the collaboration marks an important step in the demonstration of the technology and its potential for commercialisation.
TechnipFMC Lyon office managing director Alain Francois said “This collaboration recognizes our technological know-how and leading-edge approach to commercializing new processes, as well as underlining our ambition to provide services in the field of sustainability and the circular economy.”
In 2017, Carbios and TechnipFMC have signed an agreement with to move the enzymatic recycling process from the laboratory to the pilot scale.