BASF and Avantium have established a joint venture for the production and marketing of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), which is produced from renewable resources, as well as for the marketing of the new polymer polyethylenefuranoate (PEF) based on the new chemical building block FDCA.
Named Synvina and headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the aim of the JV is to build up world-leading positions in FDCA and PEF. There are plans to invest a mid-three-digit million euro sum to build a reference plant with an annual capacity of up to 50,000 tons at BASF’s Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium, and to license the technology for industrial scale production. For the production of FDCA, Synvina will use the YXY process developed by Avantium, which is based on fructose as renewable raw materials.
Industry experts consider bio-based FDCA to be a promising platform chemical and a building block for various downstream products for a number of applications. Most significantly, FDCA is used for the production of PEF, a polyester suitable for food and beverage packaging as well as for fibers for carpets and textiles.
Alongside polyester PEF, FDCA can be processed to polyamides for engineering plastics and fibers, to polyurethanes for foams, coatings and adhesives and to esters for personal care products and lubricants.