Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EGgPLANT (Sustainable and carbon-efficient mono-Ethylene Glycol generation in demonstration PLANT)

Teaser

The EGgPLANT project will scale up in a demonstration plant a novel method to produce monoethylene glycol (MEG) from renewable carbohydrates using a highly carbon efficient catalytic process. The global MEG market demand is growing from a current base of 30 Mton/year to over...

Summary

The EGgPLANT project will scale up in a demonstration plant a novel method to produce monoethylene glycol (MEG) from renewable carbohydrates using a highly carbon efficient catalytic process.
The global MEG market demand is growing from a current base of 30 Mton/year to over 50 Mton by 2035, requiring more than a million tons of additional supply every year for the next twenty years.
Today, almost all of the MEG produced globally is from fossil sources despite a stated need from forward-looking brand owners, packaging and textile companies to source MEG from renewable sources.
There is one provider of bio-based MEG on the market which is using an inefficient and expensive process compared to lower cost oil, shale gas, and coal-based alternatives. This high cost position is hampering the widespread use of bio-based MEG.

To address this issue, Avantium has developed a one-step ‘Mekong’ process for producing bio-MEG from renewable sources which can compete with the incumbent fossil-based product on both cost and quality, making the product competitive in the global marketplace and poised to be a sustainable supply solution to address the increasing demand.

The demonstration plant (11 ton/year) built and operated in this project allows for technoeconomic scale-up and evaluation of the process, in addition to producing relevant sample quantities of product to support downstream validation in at least three applications, collecting of data to conduct a third-party environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and preparation for scale-up to industrial size plants.

The next phase after this project is to deploy a Mekong commercial flagship plant with a strategic partner in Europe. Target customers of this flagship plant will primarily be European polyethylene terephthalate (PET) producers. Avantium and the strategic partner will deploy subsequent industrial scale plants in Europe, and will license out the technology to parties in geographies other than Europe.

Work performed

The EGgPLANT project has made significant progress in its first year. Most notable work performed and main results achieved so far are the building of the unit operations of the demonstration plant at the selected engineering companies’ sites. The unit operations have undergone so called ‘factory acceptance testing’ in which each unit operation is thoroughly tested against the design parameters. Avantium announced Chemie Park Delfzijl in the Netherlands as the final location of the demonstration plant and site preparation has been completed. Final preparations are underway and relocation and installation of all unit operations to the final site will commence shortly, after which the commissioning of the demonstration plant can start with ‘site acceptance testing’ and subsequent start-up.

Preparations for the commercial strategic partnership are well underway, and discussions with a large number of potential partners were conducted. Further engagement with a shortlist of potential partners is underway and on track to meet the deliverable timelines for partnership and investment plan by the end of the project. Successfully starting up the demonstration plant will be a key milestone in many of these partnership discussions.

Supporting the successful deployment of Avantium’s ‘Mekong’ bio-MEG technology is the commissioning of an external environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA), which will assess the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of bio-MEG production compared to incumbent fossil-based production processes. An ISO 14040/44 certified comparative LCA report will be prepared by a reputable independent third party that has been selected after a thorough tendering process.

Final results

The main objective of the EGgPLANT project is to scale up the ‘Mekong’ process, which is producing plant-based mono-ethylene glycol and can compete with fossil-based incumbent product on quality and cost effectiveness. The resultant environmental benefits will be quantified in the external life-cycle assessment (LCA) which has been commissioned as mentioned in section 1.2.

By selecting Chemie Park Delfzijl as the location of the demonstration plant, Avantium is contributing to a rural area, designated by the European Union as a less developed area. The investment in the demonstration plant generates high quality jobs and development opportunities for plant personnel.
After successful completion of the EGgPLANT project, the ‘Mekong’ technology will be ready for scale-up to a commercial flagship, with the intention to be located in the European Union. This flagship will be much larger scale and lead to additional job creation, as well as job security and increased stability throughout the value chain, as it will require larger volumes of feedstock (for example wheat glucose or beet sucrose) from nearby farming and agricultural processing facilities.

All in all, significant progress has been made and the EGgPLANT project is on track to meet the stated objectives.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.avantium.com/eggplant/.