Green technology company Anellotech (Pearl River, New York / USA; www.anellotech.com) said it has made several breakthroughs at its “TCat-8” pilot plant in Silsbee, Texas / USA, advancing its work to commercialise 100% bio-based plastics used in drinks bottles – see Plasteurope.com of 22.01.2016. The project is being carried out in partnership with beverage company Suntory Holdings (Tokyo / Japan; www.suntory.com).

The TCat-8 pilot plant converts non-food biomass into the aromatics benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX). The first shipment of BTX has been sent to development partners IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN, Rueil-Malmaison / France; www.ifpenergiesnouvelles.com) and Axens (Rueil-Malmaison; www.axens.net) for purification studies to make bio-paraxylene feedstock for the PET bottles.

Since a two-week continuous trial at the plant in March, Anellotech said the pilot plant has achieved more than 1,200 hours of cumulative on-stream time, generating BTX for product testing and evaluation. This includes process development data collected for the design of a future commercial plant.

David Sudolsky, Anellotech’s president and CEO, commented, “Having collaborated with Suntory since 2012 to advance development of cost-competitive bio-aromatics, we hope bio-based plastics made from our “Bio-TCat” process and a 100% bio-based bottle soon become a reality.”

The company added that the benzene and toluene output from the process can be used to make a range of bio-based polymers such as polyamide, PC, ABS and chemicals such as linear alkyl benzene (LAB), which is used in laundry detergents.