The Longlaville plant is to have a processing capacity of 50,000 tonnes of post-consumer PET waste per year. Are you still looking at the same number, especially given that the legislative backdrop in EU has been developing fast, and therefore the need to handle waste is also gathering momentum? Plus, how does the partnership with Novozymes work? Novozymes is itself a world leader in enzyme production, while Carbios has its LCCICCG enzyme.
Emmanuel Ladent: Carbios’ first commercial plant, and the world’s first biorecycling plant, will have a processing capacity of 50,000 tonnes of post-consumer PET waste per year. However, plastic pollution is a global issue that requires innovative solutions implemented at local level. Carbios is therefore ready to sell its technology and process through licenses around the world.
Carbios has extended its international reach to boost its commercial deployment worldwide. Teams are in place in key markets and are dedicated to identifying business opportunities and establishing commercial partnerships for our PET biorecycling technology, with first agreements expected in 2024. To date, Carbios is represented in 3 key regions: Europe, North America (including Canada) and Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and soon India).
Carbios’ licensing documentation is ready for industrial and commercial deployment, and we have an exclusive, long-term strategic partnership with Novonesis (previously known as Novozymes), the world leader in enzyme production, which ensures the supply of PET-degrading enzymes at an industrial scale for our first commercial plant and all future licensed plants.
PET producers and chemical companies are natural potential customers for a technology that allows a true circularity for PET with feedstock issued from plastic waste (rather than petro-sourced), and that is fully compatible with existing polymerization plants. Indeed, Carbios’ process is compatible with over 95% of existing PET plants around the world.
By providing value to all possible sources of PET feedstock including complex plastic packaging and textile waste, Carbios also aims to reach out to other players in the value chain such as waste management companies and public entities. The Carbios technology also provides a solution to brand owners to meet growing regulatory requirements as well as their own ambitious sustainability objectives for the inclusion of r-PET in their products and packaging.
Carbios has been working on the LCCICCG enzyme since it was announced in 2020. What have been the improvements since then, and how more can it get better?
Emmanuel Ladent: In October 2023, Carbios published an article in ACS Catalysis, one of the world's most influential scientific journals, comparing the four best performing enzymes for PET degradation under industrial conditions and confirmed the superior performance of Carbios’ enzyme. Since the publication of the LCCICCG enzyme in the journal Nature in 2020, three years of R&D has optimised its performance to produce a new, more efficient generation of enzyme that will be used in the world's first PET biorecycling plant.
Can you please explain for the ordinary person how the enzymatic process works? How is it better or different from other similar applications?
Emmanuel Ladent: Carbios has developed an enzymatic recycling process that uses an enzyme capable of specifically depolymerizing PET (polyethylene terephthalate) found in various plastic and textiles. Unlike current recycling methods, which have limitations and result in quality loss with each cycle, Carbios' innovation enables the recycling of all types of PET waste, including complex and soiled plastic, while producing recycled and recyclable PET products without compromising quality. Plastic and textile waste is now a precious raw material enabling the circular economy to become an industrial reality.
The process involves purifying the resulting monomers from depolymerization, which can then be re-polymerized into high-quality PET equivalent to virgin PET obtained from the petrochemical industry. This innovation meets strong demand from consumers, public authorities and manufacturers who have made ambitious commitments in terms of sustainable development and eco-design of their packaging and products. This revolutionary technology makes it possible to recover all PET waste, including waste that cannot be recovered using current recycling technologies, such as food trays or textiles.