Purac starts construction Lactide plant in Thailand
31 March 2010. Back
to overview
CSM and its subsidiary Purac announce today the official start
of construction for its new Lactide plant in Thailand. The
groundbreaking ceremony was held at the existing Purac site in
Rayong, Thailand. The plant will produce monomers for bioplastics.
The investment is driven by CSM's commitment to play a leading role
in the development of the market for lactic acid based bioplastics
i.e Poly lactic Acid (PLA). This market is highly attractive
as PLA contributes, with commercially viable products, to a
significantly lower carbon dioxide (CO) footprint than the traditional oil based
plastics. The investment for this new 75,000 tons Lactide plant
will be EUR 45 million (Baht 2 billion). The new plant will be
ready for start up in the second half of 2011 to meet our current
level of demand and to accelerate market development.
Gerard Hoetmer, CEO of CSM comments: "This investment will
take us to the next step in our bio-plastics program, where our
proprietary technology gives us a considerable opportunity together
with our partners, to grow the PLA market. Even a 1% share of the
250 million ton plastics market represents a huge opportunity for
our products and our company."
The products are aimed for a broad segment of today's plastics
market and enables Purac's partners to produce bioplastic products
with a high heat resistance up to 180 degrees Celsius/ 356 degrees
Fahrenheit.
Gerard Hoetmer continues: "We have made good progress in
co-developing commercial applications for this next generation of
PLA, such as in the packaging, foam and fiber industries. This is
supported by the drive to reduce CO2 with commercially
attractive products. Both from a market and technology perspective,
PLA will continue to gain attractiveness compared to traditional
oil-based plastics through further investments in future
generations of products."
The new plant will be located at the existing Purac site in
Thailand. The capacity of the Lactides plant will be 75,000
tons. It is designed to produce both L-Lactides and D-Lactides,
made out of lactic acid sourced from the existing Purac
plants.
