Avantium and R&F Chemical Join Forces to Market High-Value PEF Applications in Korea

On 31 October 2019, Avantium Renewable Polymers announced its partnership with R&F Chemical to develop a high-value application for PEF (polyethylene furanoate) in electronics and smart packaging in Korea.

This marketing and development partnership, focusing on high-value applications for PEF, is a significant step taken by Avantium for its five kilotons flagship plant, which is expected to open by 2023.

Avantium (Euronext: AVTX), being a forerunner in renewable chemistry, serves as a leading technology development company. The company aims at reducing the human carbon footprint and promote sustainable plant-based resources for chemicals and materials. Avantium has successfully developed catalytic processes for biomass refinery for the production and application-development of novel plant-based plastic materials and plant-based building blocks. The company, along with developing and commercialising renewable chemistry technologies, also provides advanced catalysis R&D services and systems to customers for the refinery and chemical industries.

In 2018, Avantium’s Catalysis business unit joined forces with R&F Chemical to boost its Catalysis business segment in South Korea. With its highly-advanced performance materials and chemical sector, R&F Chemical has acquired a long-standing network in polymers and chemicals in South Korea. This collaboration is intended to fulfill Avantium’s vision of entering the market for high-value PEF applications such as electronics and smart packaging.

With this partnership, Avantium will be able to expand its footprint in the PEF market and further enhance its relationship with R&F Chemical into the area of PEF, which is a fully recyclable and 100% plant-based performance polymer-based on proprietary YXY plants-to-plastics technology developed by Avantium. Currently, the company has three technologies at the pilot and demonstration phases. The YXY® plant-to-plastics–technology, which catalytically transforms plant-based sugars into a wide range of chemicals and plastics, like the production of PEF (polyethylene furanoate), is the most advanced pilot technology introduced by the company till now. The company has successfully demonstrated this technology at its pilot plant in Geleen in the Netherlands.

Avantium’s technologies involve renewable carbon sources as an alternative over fossil-based chemicals and plastics. The second technology developed by the company is named as the Dawn Technology™ that can transform non-food biomass into industrial sugars and lignin, helping the chemicals and materials industries to shift towards non-fossil resources. In 2018, Avantium opened its pilot biorefinery, DAWN, in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The third technology, called Mekong, can catalytically convert industrial sugars to plant-based MEG (monoethylene glycol). With an opening expected in Delfzijl in November 2019, Avantium is currently building a new demonstration plant for the Mekong. Avantium aims at creating revolutionary renewable chemistry solutions, ranging from invention to commercial-scale production.

R & F Chemical is a Seoul-based polymer resin and film company in South Korea. Being a platform company in the chemical industry, R&F develops and supplies products according to the customers’ needs with differentiated technology. Based on its chemical and polymer expertise, the company manufactures products ranging from functional resin to composite film. The complementary know-how and expertise of both the companies will aid the customers by delivering value products and fulfilling the demand for plant-based performance polymer.

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