GF Biochemicals Starts Worldscale Levulinic Acid Unit

At Caserta, Italy, GFBiochemicals has brought a 10,000 t/y worldscale plant for levulinic acid, claimed to be world’s largest and the first to produce the bioplastics feedstock directly from biomass. 
 

The acid goes into a number of plastics and plastics additives, including unsaturated polyester resin, polyester polyols, non-phthalate plasticisers or diphenol A (DPA, an alternative to the controversial bisphenol A.

 

Chief commercial officer Marcel van Berkel said the company’s “unique technology” allows a fundamentally lower price for the end-product and allows it access to previously undiscovered market segments.

 

One of the drivers of Italian demand for levulinic acid and other bioplastics feedstocks is the reinvention of energy group Eni’s subsidiary Versalis as a producer of  “green” plastics. Many of Versalis’ former petrochemical tes are currently being transformed into “green” chemistry hubs.