By this October, Brazilian petrochemical firm Braskem S.A. (Sao Paulo) plans to have the first Green PE plant in the world in commercial scale. It is planned to have 200,000 tonnes/yr of production capacity for its sugar-cane based polyethylene (PE) online, with work on sugar-cane derived polypropylene (PP) and EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) rubber ongoing.
The Braskem's facility will convert ethanol from sugar cane in resin to be used in other plastic products. Considered a watershed in the polymer market, for it is made with 100% renewable raw materials, the material has the same appearance and properties of traditional plastics in the final product, the difference is that it can capture CO2 from the atmosphere, i.e. one ton of green resin captures 2.5 tons of CO2.
That is a great combination: Braskem has the Green PE technology and Brazil is a very big sugar cane producer.
The production of ethanol is expected to double in five years, and double again in 10 years.
Category:
Bio-Resins
| 1 Comment
Very promising! I'm sure there are caveats, and it's not clear how much energy is required to make the transformation, but it makes so much sense!