Avantium's new facility to demonstrate scaled production of MEG from plants has opened

While some plant-based alternatives to fossil MEG already exist, they generally cost more and are harder to integrate into existing industrial processes. Avantium's Ray Technology, which the new plant will demonstrate at scale, will show how plant-based MEG can be produced at scale, and at comparative cost, to oil-based alternatives.

MEG is used in huge quantities in a huge variety of products, from textiles to packaging and plastics -- and virtually all of it is currently sourced from oil. Global market demand for MEG is currently around 28 million t, a figure which will reach 50 million t by 2040. Avantium hopes the new plant will show brands and OEMs that sustainably-sourced materials can easily replace oil-based compounds in a wide variety of products. Avantium's also using the new plant to conduct an environmental Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) which quantifies the sustainability benefits of Ray Technology.

The new plant will be Avantium's third facility -- the company already operates plants which produce PEF, a plant-based alternative to PET plastic, and industrial sugars.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/other-renewables/08112019/avantiums-new-demonstration-facility-has-opened/