Total Corbion starts up plant in Rayong

Total Corbion PLA, global technology leader in Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) and lactide monomers, has successfully started up its 1 kTpa PLA pilot plant in Rayong, Thailand. The pilot plant started up in December 2017 and over the past two months has produced a broad range of Luminy® PLA resins.

 

“Our customers have been looking forward to testing and validating our Luminy® PLA resins” says Senior Marketing Director, Francois de Bie. Mr. Bie added that with the successful start-up of the pilot plant, Luminy® PLA from the pilot plant is now available for customer sampling. Moreover, the pilot plant is being used to train operators and to get a head start on the required product certifications and regulatory needs. In future, Total Corbion PLA will also be able to use the pilot plant for product development.

 

 

With the start-up of the pilot plant, Total Corbion PLA is gearing up to become a world scale producer of PLA: on the same site, Total Corbion PLA’s Lactide plant is being expanded to 100 kTpa and a 75 kTpa PLA polymerisation plant is under construction. Since ground breaking in November 2016, the project has amassed more than 2.2 million safe working hours to date, explained Simon Goldney, Plant Director. The PLA polymerisation plant is on track to deliver its first commercial quantities of PLA during the second half of 2018.

 

Upon completion, Total Corbion PLA’s production facility in Thailand will produce a broad portfolio of Luminy® PLA neat resins: from standard PLA to innovative, high heat resistant PLA, to satisfy customer requirements for a wide range of markets from packaging to consumer goods, fibres and automotive.