Recently, Carbios, a French green chemical company, officially announced that the world's PET biorecycling plant will be located in Longraville, France. Construction of the plant is expected to begin before the end of 2023 and commissioning is expected to begin in 2025, with a total investment estimated at around 230 million euros (about 1.8 billion yuan).

Carbios is a pioneer in the field of biotechnology development and industrialization, focusing on the development of enzymatic bioprocesses for plastics and textile polymers, and is the company that has obtained the construction permit and operating license for PET biorecycling plants in the world.

Handling 50,000 tons of post-consumer PET per year

The plant will provide an industrial-scale enzyme recovery solution for PET waste and will be located on 13.7 hectares of land adjacent to the PET production plant of Indorama Ventures, Carbios's strategic partner.

This more advanced facility will have a PET disposal capacity of 50,000 tons of post-consumer waste per year. This number is equivalent to processing 2 billion colored PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET food trays.

A model of Carbios's PET biorecycling plant in France

The patented enzyme produces food-grade transparent PET

Carbios is a company specializing in the development of enzymatic bioprocesses for plastics and textile polymers. Carbios's patented enzymes can break down colored PET plastic and create food-grade transparent PET bottles that perform exactly the same as PET made by conventional methods.

This highly efficient PET hydrolase can decompose nearly 90% of 1 ton of waste plastic bottles within 10 hours at 72 ° C. It is understood that Carbios has won the bidding project for multi-layer food trays and obtained initial supply sources.

The Carbios plant in Longraville, France, will be among the first of its kind and is expected to start production in 2025. The plant aims to improve circularity, produce high quality products, and minimize the impact on the environment, especially in terms of energy consumption.

About the Carbios bio-recycling plant

As part of the French 2030 Investment Plan to support the development of decarbonized energy, transport and industry, announced in 2021, Carbios has also received €54 million from the French government and Region Grand Est for the industrialization process of the company's PET recycling.

In addition, Carbios announced the signing of an agreement with Indorama Ventures, a PET resin producer. Indorama plans to invest €110 million in equity and financing into the joint venture, subject to engineering documentation and economic viability