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(PlastEurope) -- To fulfil its goal
of replacing its entire virgin PET supply with its proprietary PlantBottle
packaging by 2020, beverage giant Coca-Cola Company (Atlanta/USA) has entered
into three multi-million dollar partnerships with leading biotechnology
companies Virent (Madison, Wisconsin/USA), Gevo (Englewood, Colorado/USA) and
Avantium (Amsterdam/The Netherlands). The agreements were signed after the
global drinks producer completed an in-depth two year study of the different
technologies available to produce renewable PET.
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“While the technology to make bio-based materials in a lab has been
available for years, we believe Virent, Gevo and Avantium are companies that
possess technologies that have high potential for creating them on a global
commercial scale within the next few years,” said Coca-Cola’s vice president
Commercial Product Supply Rick Frazier. Under the terms of the agreements, each
company is to further develop its own route to bio-based materials in line with
Coca-Cola’s standards and recycling requirements.
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Specifically, Virent will work on its trademark BioForm PX plant-based
paraxylene, which will be used by Coca-Cola to make 100% bio-based PTA, which in
turn will be mixed with bio-based MEG to produce PlantBottle PET. Welcoming the
agreement, Virent CEO Lee Edwards said both companies would progress development
and engineering together. Virent plans to launch commercial-scale production of
BioForm PX in early 2015. Once its plant is up and running, most of the PX
produced there will be allocated to Coca-Cola.
mrcplast.com
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