Novamont has inaugurated the revamped Mater–Biopolymer facility, located south of Rome, Italy, boosting production capacity from 120,000 tons per year to 150,000 tons.
Image: Mater-Biopolymer: the Novamont Group’s site for the production of Origo-Bi. Photo: courtesy of Novamont S.p.A.
Mater–Biopolymer is the company controlling the industrial site in Lazio, Patrica (FR). It produces Origo-Bi biopolyesters via a line completely modified over the years using a Novamont technology.
The renovation included regeneration, modification and in various cases entire renewal of several sections to implement new technologies developed by Novamont in the form of a continuous process.
Novamont said the technologies are able to use the raw materials of its system – biobutandiol and azelaic acid, bio-based monomers – to manufacture Origo-Bi biololyesters through a sustainable process.
Mater–Biopolymer features a waste recovery system to meet the requirements of the circular economy and sustainability.
The plant has a complex system of utilities that minimizes costs and wastes. Novamont said reuse of waste products has resulted in the perfection of the wastewater purification process that would obtain tetrahydrofuran (THF), a chemical intermediate for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
The plant has a production capacity of 100 thousand metric tons of ORIGO-BI per annum and will occupy a total surface area of 140,000m².
It will work in cooperation with Novamont Research and Development for testing new polyesters and variants of the process to use renewable raw materials.
Novamont managing director Catia Bastioli said: “Novamont’s industrialisation efforts over the last few years have been enormous and have few equals anywhere in Europe.
“All in all, we must work together towards a regenerative approach to natural resources, which should not be seen as a limitation but as a great opportunity to redesign our society on a sustainable basis with its roots in the land, more inclusively and contributively, where there is equal space for the big and the small.”
The Novamont Group develops and produces bioplastics and biochemicals by combining chemistry, the environment and agriculture.
The group, which employs 600 people, posted sales of €195m in 2017 and invested in research and development activities. It has a portfolio of about 1,000 patents.