Gevo, along with Toray Industries, has produced fully renewable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) samples. Gevo plans to feature the PET samples at BioPlastek 2011 Forum, scheduled on June 27 to 29, 2011 in New York.
Every year, approximately 50 million tons of PET are manufactured and transformed into resins for automotive applications; fibers for textile uses; and bottle and films for packaging applications.
Both companies have entered an agreement in April 2010 to distribute renewable para-xylene sourced from Gevo’s isobutanol in 2012 or later. Gevo produced renewable para-xylene from isobutanol using commercial prototype operations from the refining and petrochemical industries. The para-xylene was delivered to Toray Industries, who utilized its existing and new technologies as well as renewable mono ethylene glycol to convert para-xylene into biobased PET articles.
Toray Industries and Gevo are focusing to build a market for biobased PET at the earliest. Both companies will continue the partnership and work together to move forward from lab-scale development to commercial-scale operations. Gevo is now working with partners to advance the process technology for commercial production of para-xylene.