Despite its recent decision to exit biopolymer production (see Plasteurope.com of 27.02.2015), Roquette Frères (Lestrem / France; www.roquette.com) in April announced the start-up of a new 20,000 t/y isosorbide facility at group headquarters. The company said the plant is the world’s largest manufacturing unit for the material that serves as a feedstock for polyesters, PC, PU as well as curable resins. It can also be used as a substitute for BPA as well as in plasticisers.

Roquette markets its isosorbide under the “Polysorb” brand name. The company has developed a unique patented process for the grades that is based on sorbitol and says that following several purification steps, it can achieve grades with over 99.5% isosorbide content.