To fulfil its goal of replacing its entire virgin PET supply with its proprietary “PlantBottle” packaging by 2020 (see Plasteurope.com of 10.02.2011), beverage giant Coca-Cola Company (Atlanta, Georgia / USA; www.thecoca-colacompany.com) has entered into three multi-million dollar partnerships with leading biotechnology companies Virent (Madison, Wisconsin / USA; www.virent.com), Gevo (Englewood, Colorado / USA; www.gevo.com) and Avantium (Amsterdam / The Netherlands; www.avantium.com). The agreements were signed after the global drinks producer completed an in-depth two year study of the different technologies available to produce renewable PET.

“While the technology to make bio-based materials in a lab has been available for years, we believe Virent, Gevo and Avantium are companies that possess technologies that have high potential for creating them on a global commercial scale within the next few years,” said Coca-Cola’s vice president Commercial Product Supply Rick Frazier. Under the terms of the agreements, each company is to further develop its own route to bio-based materials in line with Coca-Cola’s standards and recycling requirements.

Specifically, Virent will work on its trademark “BioForm PX” plant-based paraxylene, which will be used by Coca-Cola to make 100% bio-based PTA, which in turn will be mixed with bio-based MEG to produce “PlantBottle” PET. Welcoming the agreement, Virent CEO Lee Edwards said both companies would progress development and engineering together. Virent plans to launch commercial-scale production of “BioForm PX” in early 2015 – see also Plasteurope.com of 13.06.2011. Once its plant is up and running, most of the PX produced there will be allocated to Coca-Cola.

As for Gevo, it has said it will work with Coca-Cola to develop and commercialise an integrated system to produce renewable paraxylene from plant-based isobutanol. Earlier this year, the US group had supplied its bio-based PX to Japan’s Toray Industries (Tokyo; www.toray.com) and the two companies announced plans to start commercial production – see Plasteurope.com of 05.07.2011.

Aside from these two US-based companies, Coca-Cola has also enlisted the help of Amsterdam-based Avantium to further develop its “YXY” technology for polyethylenefuranoate (PEF), a bio-based alternative to PET – see Plasteurope.com of 22.06.2011. On 8 December 2011, Avantium successfully commissioned its first pilot PEF plant in Geleen / The Netherlands and plans to launch commercial production within the next three to four years.

Coca-Cola first launched its “PlantBottle” packaging, made of 30% renewable PET, in 2009 – see Plasteurope.com of 27.11.2009 – and then rolled it out across several countries and continents. Since 2009, the company has reportedly distributed more than 10 bn “PlantBottles” across 20 different countries. The revolutionary packaging is made up of 30% MEG, which is already made from plant materials, as well as 70% PTA, currently still sourced from petroleum-based materials. Coca-Cola believes the agreements with Gevo, Virent and Avantium will help it speed up development of a 100% renewable “PlantBottle”, replacing petroleum-based PTA with plant-based materials.

Far from using the technology solely for its own uses, Coca-Cola is also looking for opportunities to advance it in the industry and in fact entered into a collaboration with manufacturer H.J. Heinz Company (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania / USA; www.heinz.com) earlier this year, allowing the later to produce its ketchup bottles using Coke’s proprietary technology – see Plasteurope.com of 02.03.2011.