Global bioplastics production seen rising 50 percent by 2022
\nPetrochemicals to be oil demand\u2019s biggest growth driver: IEA<\/p>\n
Companies that make packaging from plants instead of fossil fuels are starting to challenge the oil industry\u2019s ambition to increase the supply of raw materials for plastics.<\/p>\n
Use of bioplastics made from sugar cane, wood and corn will grow at least 50 percent in the next five years, according to the European Bioplastics Association in Berlin, whose members include Cargill Inc. and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. German chemical giant BASF SE and the Finnish paper maker Stora Enso Oyj have stepped into the business to meet demand from the likes of Coca-Cola Co. to Lego A\/S.<\/p>\n
\u201cBiochemicals and bioplastics could erode a portion of oil demand, much like recycling can erode overall virgin plastics demand,\u201d said\u00a0Pieterjan Van Uytvanck, a senior consultant at Wood Mackenzie, a research group focused on the oil industry. \u201cProvided the challenges facing biomass today are overcome, it will become a larger portion of the supply.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moviegoers famously learned in the 1967 film \u201cThe Graduate\u201d that \u201cthere\u2019s a great future in plastics.\u201d Oil companies make ethylene and other basic building blocks for plastic. They\u2019ve been eyeing that market for growth as electric cars threaten to trim demand for gasoline.<\/p>\n
Plastic material\u2019s ubiquity in packaging has left the world literally swimming in disused bottles, bags and wraps. That\u2019s starting to worry both environmentalists and the companies that use it the most. There\u2019ll be more plastic than fish in the world\u2019s oceans by 2050, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and those materials are finding their way into the food chain.<\/p>\n
Bioplastics currently make up about 1 percent of the plastics market, according the industry\u2019s organization in Europe.\u00a0They are made by processing sugars from plants and tend to have a smaller carbon footprint than their conventional counterparts. Some are also designed to naturally degrade after use. Top producers include Sao Paulo-based Braskem SA, NatureWorks LLC in the U.S. and Novamont SpA of Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttitudes are evolving,\u201d said David Eyton, the head of technology at BP Plc. \u201cThe question that faces the petrochemicals industry that has yet to really be answered is, \u2018How are people going to deal with some of the environmental impacts of petrochemicals? Particularly plastics, which are a growing concern.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The International Energy Agency forecasts that growth in the plastics market should boost petroleum demand. It takes about 8.5 barrels of oil-derived naphtha to produce the a ton of ethylene needed to manufacture 160,000 plastic bags, according to Bloomberg Intelligence calculations.
\n\u201cPetrochemicals will take center stage in driving oil demand,\u201d said IEA analyst Tae-Yoon Kim. \u201cThis is why oil majors are very much focusing on petrochemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA are expanding their plastic footprints, according to the IEA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re expecting petrochemicals to grow 4 percent per year,\u201d said Ahmad Al Khowaiter, chief technology officer at Saudi Aramco.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s an opportunity we\u2019re really trying to leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alternatives to traditional plastics are appearing:<\/p>\n
Company
\nActivity<\/p>\n
BASF
\nSet up a JV with Avantium Holding BV\u00a0last year and is making bottles from cornstarch at a pilot plant. The partners are planning a plant with a capacity of 50,000 tons per year in Belgium.
\nCoca-Cola
\nFocusing on sustainability of plastic in packaging. Has sold more than 50 billion so-called PlantBottles. Packaging contains 30 percent bioplastic.
\nStora Enso
\nWants to reinvent itself as a renewable materials company.\u00a0It sold close to 10 billion euros of paper and cardboard products last year and has a research center in southern Sweden where it\u2019s testing plastic that\u2019s 50 percent wood fiber. A mill in eastern Finland makes yarn from wood pulp.
\nLego
\nAllocated\u00a01 billion kroner ($160 million) to research more sustainable materials for its building blocks.
\nThe new technology will have to compete against massive refineries that convert hundreds of thousands of barrels of every day into plastics.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlternative raw materials must be competitive,\u201d Stora Enso\u2019s Chief Financial Officer Seppo Parvi said in an interview in London, anticipating eventual price parity with crude plastics. \u201cI\u2019m confident we\u2019ll be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demand for bioplastics also needs to grow among retailers and consumers, according to Coke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt won\u2019t ever work if there\u2019s just one big consumer company like a Coca-Cola trying to drive suppliers,\u201d said Ben Jordan, head of environmental policy at Coca-Cola. \u201cYou need more demand out there in industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Global bioplastics production seen rising 50 percent by 2022 Petrochemicals to be oil demand\u2019s biggest growth driver: IEA Companies that make packaging from plants instead of fossil fuels are starting to challenge the oil industry\u2019s ambition to increase the supply of raw materials for plastics. Use of bioplastics made from sugar cane, wood and corn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,5847],"supplier":[75,1245,435,3643,551],"class_list":["post-49090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-bioplastics","supplier-basf-se","supplier-coca-cola-co","supplier-european-bioplastics-ev","supplier-lego-group","supplier-stora-enso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49090"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=49090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}