​CARBIOS and KEM ONE to implement PET biorecycling demonstration plant in the French Chemical Valley

French company CARBIOS has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with KEM ONE for an implementation project, in the French Chemical Valley, of an industrial demonstration plant to secure the value of its breakthrough technology to use recovered plastics instead of petrochemicals to produce virgin material.

 PET plastics and fibers are used to make everyday consumer goods such as bottles, packaging and textile. Today, most of PET is produced from fossil resources, used and discarded according a wasteful linear. By creating a circular economy from used plastics and fibers, CARBIOS biorecycling technology is bringing a sustainable and eco-friendly proprietary solution which enables the use of waste plastics and fibers instead of petrochemicals to produce new virgin material, with no loss of quality.
 
Under the terms of this Letter of Intent, CARBIOS and KEM ONE have defined the principles that will guide their collaboration over the next six months in the prospect of the implementation of a PET biorecycling demonstration plant on KEM ONE's industrial site in Saint-Fons. CARBIOS undertakes to study the construction of its demonstration plant on Saint-Fons site. KEM ONE undertakes to make its best efforts to mobilize all stakeholders and assist CARBIOS in defining the conditions for the provision of land, main utilities and required services, and in its procedures involving public authorities.
 
Upstream the construction of the demonstration plant, expected to start mid-2019, CARBIOS will be assisted and advised for the engineering study by its partner TechnipFMC, a world leading company in engineering and technologies.
 
According to Alain CONSONNI, Site Manager at KEM ONE: "We are delighted to enter in such discussions with CARBIOS. Our industrial site, embedded in France's birthplace of chemistry, is ideally placed to host innovative clean technologies. As a major player in the vinyl industry in Europe, we are deeply committed to promoting and developing solutions that addresses key environmental and societal challenges of our time."  
 
"With this ambitious project, we'll reinforce our anchorage in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region," said Jean-Claude LUMARET, CEO of CARBIOS. "The economic vitality of the Chemical Valley and KEM ONE's site at Saint-Fons seem perfectly suited for the scale-up and subsequent industrial demonstration of our innovative technology. Its organization offers many industrial synergies with the pooling of services, equipment and resources. We are confident that our strategy will lead to a successful industrial roll-out of our biological solution for infinite recycling of PET plastics and fibers."