Carbios teams up with Indorama Ventures for recycled PET plant

Carbios and Indorama Ventures jointly announced a collaboration to build a manufacturing plant operating Carbios’ PET bio-recycling technology at Indorama Ventures’ PET production site in France (Longlaville, Meurthe-et-Moselle).  

After having successfully started-up its demonstration plant in Clermont-Ferrand, Carbios is now moving one step further towards the industrialisation and commercialisation by partnering with Indorama Ventures. The goal is to build and operate in France the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET bio-recycling plant, with a processing capacity estimated at ca. 50.000 tonnes of post-consumer PET waste per year, equivalent to 2 billion PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET trays.

After the positive results of Indorama Ventures’ initial analysis on the technical soundness of Carbios’ technology over the past several months, both parties agreed to complete a due diligence process. A feasibility study will be conducted for the industrialization of Carbios’ technology on Indorama Ventures’ French production site. Subject to the successful completion of these technical and economical evaluations, Indorama Ventures would co-invest in the project.

The capital investment required for the project is expected to be around €150 million for Carbios core technology, including in particular an additional purification step, which has been integrated into the process. In addition, an estimated €50 million investment will be allocated for the infrastructure preparation of the site. The project is expected to create approximatively 150 direct and indirect full-time jobs.  

This collaboration reflects both parties’ ambition to address the growing concern of plastics pollution through the development of Carbios’ enzymatic bio-recycling process. This disruptive technology could accelerate the transition to a plastics Circular Economy.

With its world-first enzyme-based biological process, Carbios’ technology, named C-ZYME™, converts PET (the dominant polymer in bottles, trays and textiles made of polyester) into its core monomers, which can then be used to manufacture 100% recycled and infinitely recyclable PET. This first-of-a-kind manufacturing plant combines Carbios’ science and technology with Indorama Ventures’ world-class manufacturing capabilities. This collaboration will meet the growing needs of both demanding consumers and large consumer goods companies including Carbios’ partners and shareholders (L’Oréal, Michelin, L’Occitane, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo, Suntory Beverage & Food Europe) for more sustainable packaging.