GFBiochemicals (Milan / Italy; www.gfbiochemicals.com) has started up a 10,000 t/y commercial production facility for levulinic acid at its main site in Caserta / Italy. The company said the new plant, which replaces a pilot facility, is the first to make the bioplastics feedstock directly from biomass. It is also claimed to be the world’s largest production facility for levulinic acid. Chief commercial officer Marcel van Berkel said GFBiochemicals’ “unique technology” allows a fundamentally lower price for the end-product and gives it access to previously undiscovered market segments.

Levulinic acid can be used as a starting material for various plastics and plastics additives, including unsaturated polyester resin, polyester polyols, non-phthalate plasticisers and diphenol A (DPA) as a substitute for bisphenol A (BPA).

Demand for biomass is ramping up in Italy, thanks not least to the transformation of many former petrochemical sites belonging to Eni subsidiary Versalis (Milan; www.versalis.eni.com) into “green” chemistry hubs – see Plasteurope.com of 11.02.2014. Another biotechnology company, Bio-on (Bologna / Italy; www.bio-on.it), recently announced plans to collaborate with Italian agro-industrial group Eridania Sadam on developing a process for producing levulinic acid from sugar industry by-products – see Plasteurope.com of 02.04.2015.