Avantium YXY Pilot Plant, Netherlands

In October 2010, Avantium began construction of a pilot project for the production of furanics in Geleen, in the Netherlands. Furanics are a class of chemical building blocks used to produce innovative green fuels, chemicals and renewable materials.

The furanics produced by Avantium are branded as YXY. The project includes construction of a polyester pilot plant and a monomer pilot plant.

The YXY polyester plant was inaugurated in April 2011, while the monomer pilot plant will be opened by the end of 2011.

The pilot plants will be used for the commercialisation of YXY, which has similar properties as PET.

It will be used to develop other chemicals such as polyurethanes, polyamides and advanced bio-fuels in collaboration with other companies. It will also support the development of chemical materials and advanced bio-fuels.

The company will produce polyesters and bio-fuels from YXY. It is also planning to produce carpets, textiles, coatings, fibres, soft drinks and water bottles and coatings.

Background of the furanics production plant

The economic production of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) through the conversion of cellulose has been a challenge for decades because of its inherent instable property.

Avantium formulated a stable HMF ether derivative (RMF) under acidic conditions through its proprietary catalyst. The patented catalytic chemical process converts carbohydrates into furanic compounds.

Chemelot was chosen as the location for the YXY pilot plant due to the availability of good infrastructure and supporting services for chemical factories.

Design and construction of Avantium's plant

The plant will have a nameplate capacity of 20-40t/y.

The scale-up will include a semi-works plant with a name plate capacity of 200t/y to 400t/y to come on-stream by 2013.

The first industrial-scale YXY plant is expected to be operational in 2015 and will have a capacity of 30-50kt/y.

Process technology incorporated

The catalytic chemical process uses C6 and C5 sugars from non-food biomass as feedstock. Carbohydrates of the biomass are dehydrated to produce 5-HMF derivatives, called RMF. Catalytic oxidation of RMF produces the 2,5-Furan-dicarboxylic-acid (FDCA).

The FDCA and its derivatives can be used as monomers for producing polymers or as building blocks for coatings and plasticisers.

Polymerisation of FDCA by polycondensation and transesterification with diol components produces polyesters.

The RMF can be hydrogenated or converted into furanics ethers by etherification. The ethers can be blended with gasoline, diesel or kerosene.

Avantium's catalytic process has several benefits such as cost efficiency, processing time and environmentally friendly production over the biological production. The technology can also be equipped into the existing refineries and chemical plants.

The company plans to license the technology for commercialisation on an industrial scale.

Companies involved

The YXY polyester was developed by Avantium in collaboration with NatureWorks, a subsidiary of Cargill. Avantium partnered with Teijin Aramid for the development of the novel materials from the furanics building blocks.

It has also partnered with DAF Trucks, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PACCAR for developing and testing the YXY fuels. In June 2011, Solvay and Avantium partnered to develop and commercialise high-performance green polyamides based on the YXY building blocks.

Financing the construction project

The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture granted €1m for the construction of the pilot plant.

The Dutch Ministry of Economy, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I) also provided innovation credit and subsidy of €5m. By July 2011, Avantium had secured funding of €30m to further develop the YXY technology and operate the pilot plants.

Around €25m of funds were obtained from investors De Hoge Dennen, Sofinnova Partners, Capricorn Cleantech Fund, ING Corporate Investments, Aescap Venture, Aster Capital and Navitas Capital.

Market growth

The thermoset, plastic, coating and plasticiser materials represent a multibillion euro market. The European fuel market has a huge opportunity for bio-fuel blends due to high demand for diesel. Many countries also have a target of increasing the usage of bio-fuels to about 30% by 2030.

The YXY advanced bio-fuels can be used in heavy-duty diesel engines as blends of about 30% concentration.

They have advantages over the first-generation bio-fuels such as biodiesel and bio-ethanol which have issues related to sustainability and other economic and technical drawbacks.

Avantium is planning to distribute the bio-fuels to the existing channels.