PEFerence announces the official opening of the world's first commercial FDCA flagship plant and highlights the PEF World Congress

PEF World Congress; 30. + 31. Oktober 2024 Düsseldorf, Germany.

After seven years runtime, the 12 partners of the Horizon 2020 project PEFerence are delighted to announce the official opening ceremony of the first commercial flagship plant for furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) at Chemie Park Delfzijl in the Netherlands. The official opening ceremony will take place on 22 October 2024.
Coinciding with this significant event, PEFerence will also co-organise the first PEF World Congress, to be held in Düsseldorf, Germany on 30-31 October 2024. Organised by Renewable Carbon Plastics the congress will serve as an international platform to discuss innovative FDCA and polyethylene furanoate (PEF) applications, market trends and the future of PEF.

The new FDCA flagship plant is a 5-kiloton facility that produces plant-based FDCA – a key building block for a wide range of chemicals and polymers such as polyamides, coatings plasticisers and, most importantly, PEF (PolyEthyleneFuranoate). PEF is a 100% plant-based polyester that can be used in many applications like bottles, (flexible) films and textile fibres. PEF is a polyester like PET, but 100% plant-based and with exceptional barrier and mechanical properties enabling the ability to light weight and ensuring a longer shelf life of packaged products while reducing the carbon footprint with 65% (or more) Furthermore, PEF is very well suited for recycling while maintaining its quality and value, enabling fully circular solutions.

Ed de Jong from Avantium, the coordinator of the PEFerence project, underscores the crucial role of the flagship plant in driving the transition towards a circular European bioeconomy: “The opening of this flagship plant is a pivotal moment for PEFerence and the bioplastics industry as a whole. PEF is a material of the future as it offers a sustainable alternative to traditional plastics with a unique performance profile.” With regard to the PEF World Congress, he continues: “The PEFerence project is delighted to contribute to the PEF World Congress, an event that will bring together researchers, developers and users of PEF and its building blocks FDCA and HMF to discuss market trends, innovations and applications. The congress will be an invaluable opportunity to showcase the project’s progress and offer excellent networking opportunities to accelerate the adoption of this innovative, renewable material.”

PEFerence supports Renewable Carbon Plastics in organising the First PEF World Congress. This global conference will showcase PEF, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and FDCA, as well as applications and end-of-life solutions in top-notch presentations from industry leaders across the entire value chain. Moreover, the accompanying table-top exhibition will provide excellent networking opportunities. The hybrid two full-day conference will be held on 30 to 31 October 2024 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Both the flagship plant and the PEF World Congress are milestones on the road to utilising sustainable renewable feedstocks and to defossilise the chemical and materials industry.

For more information about the FDCA flagship plant, please visit https://peference.eu/.

Details about the PEF World Congress, the venue and the registration link can be found here: https://www.pef-world-congress.com.

About PEFerence

The PEFerence project started in 2017 and will be completed in February 2025. With the opening ceremony in October, the project has reached its goal to establish the globally first-of-a-kind, industrial scale, cost-effective FDCA (diacid) biorefinery flagship plant producing bio-based chemicals and materials (bottles, films, cosmetic packaging, adhesives) using also existing facilities in industrial symbiosis. The consortium works on replacing a significant part of fossil-based materials, but also technologically superior packaging materials like glass and aluminium with 100 % plant-based polyesters (such as PEF).

About Renewable Carbon Plastics Magazine

Originally founded in 2006 as bioplastics MAGAZINE, Renewable Carbon Plastics is the leading source of information for plastics from renewable sources and/or biodegradable plastics. The well-established publication recently rebranded (in August 2023) to signify the broader look at sustainable plastic materials that has been part of the magazines content and philosophy for a couple of years. Renewable Carbon Plastics is a unique platform that showcases everything related to plastics based on the Renewable Carbon concept that include biobased and CO₂-based plastics, and advanced recycling of plastics.

Sponsors and media partners of the PEF World Congress

Renewable Carbon Plastics and PEFerence would like to thank Avantium (NL) as diamond and Zhongke Guosheng Technology (CN) as platinum sponsors, as well as the premium media partner PETplanet (DE) and the international media partners from Austria (Packaging Austria), Brasil (PI – Plastico Industrial), Germany (plasticker, k-profi, K-Zeitung, kunststoffland NRW, Flüssiges Obst, Fruit Processing, Kunststoff Information, Joining Plastics – Fügen von Kunststoffen, packAktuell and packReport), Korea (KOPA – Korea Packaging Association Ing., PK – Korea Plastics), Poland (Packaging Polska), Switzerland (Kunstoffxtra) and United Kingdom (Eco-Plastics in Packaging, sustainable Plastics).