Open access pilot plant for polymerisation opens
In the Netherlands, two new initiatives in the Netherlands are aimed at realising an open access pilot plant for polymerisation. The catalyst for both initiatives is the Biobased Performance Materials research programme, coordinated by Wageningen Food & Biobased Research. The programme facilitates fundamental and applied research into new biobased materials that can compete with their fossil counterparts and is sponsored by the Dutch government’s top sector Chemistry.
Both Chemport Europe region in the North of the Netherlands and the Biobased Delta region in the South West of the Netherlands have a good starting position in this regard for different reasons. This is why the regions have joined forces with BPM to establish world-class shared facilities.
The first pilot facility, planned in Etten-Leur, is focused on ring-opening polymerisation of biobased monomers. Jan Noordegraaf (general director at Synbra Technology): “The realisation of this pilot, adjacent to the Synbra premises, enables the development of new copolymers which can convert new biobased monomers into polymers in an infrastructure that we have always wanted to achieve with the parties in the Biobased Delta.” Five larger and ten smaller companies have already indicated a desire to make use of the pilot.
The second pilot facility is planned in Emmen, at the Sustainable Polymer Innovation Campus (SPIC). “The SPIC innovation cluster already has all the required hardware, and enables us to easily make the link to applications, such as multifilament yarns or monofilaments for 3D printing,” says Gerard Nijhoving (managing director of Senbis, a company that carries out applied research in the field of polymers).
“Emmen has already realised lots of research into polycondensation to improve the performance of polyester and polyamide yarns. We have received many questions over recent years regarding biopolymers, in particular, as they often have a polyester-like structure. As upscaling these can be difficult we are initiating a polycondensation pilot facility with a capacity of 50 to 100 kg a day.”
Category: Fuels
