America: Braskem receives license to run "100% renewable" plastics plant

Chemical News: America: Braskem receives license to run "100% renewable" plastics plant

https://www.chemnet.com Jul 23,2010
Braskem, the largest thermoplastic resin producer in the Americas, said
Wednesday it received a license to begin operating a Brazilian plastics plant
that will use ethylene produced 100% from ethanol.

The plant is scheduled to begin operations in August and produce 200,000
metric tons of "green plastics" from 470 million liters of ethanol a year, or
about 1.5% of Brazil's expected output of the fuel in 2010, Braskem said in a
statement on their Web site.

The real 500 million ($290 million) operation in Triunfo, Brazil, would
be the first to produce plastics on an industrial scale using a 100% a
renewable feedstock, the company said. About 80% of its planned output has
already been pre-sold to companies in the US, Europe and Asia who will use the
resins to make products such as soda bottles.

Initially, the plant will have to buy ethanol from other Brazilian
states, though the government of Rio Grande do Sul was preparing to increase
sugarcane production to create farm jobs, Braskem said.

Ethylene is made from ethanol by removing water, the only major
bi-product from its production using catalysts and distilling processes. The
ethanol made in Brazil is made from sugarcane.

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