Green news: Dow/Innventure collaborate on waste-to-feedstock tech; Carbios postpones French PET biorecycling plant due to lack of funds

US materials firm Dow and Innventure, a technology commercialisation platform, have announced plans to collaborate to develop and commercialise new waste-to-value technologies. The collaboration aims to enable globally scalable, cost-effective conversion of mixed wastes to petrochemical feedstocks.

Innventure has created a new subsidiary, Refinity, to commercialise cost-effective waste-to-value technologies. Refinity will work directly with Dow to scale and commercialise technologies aimed at converting mixed waste, including hard-to-recycle plastic waste, to petrochemical feedstocks.

The sustainable chemicals produced by Refinity will serve as direct replacements for existing fossil fuel-based feedstocks. Dow will provide technical resources to support the engineering development and deployment of new waste-to-value processes and work with Refinity to identify preferred sites for future commercial plant operations.

This collaboration with Innventure aligns with Dow’s strategy to work with partners to accelerate the development and deployment of advantaged technologies, it adds.

Via Refinity, Innventure licenses novel, high yield thermochemical processes; for example, gasification to convert mixed plastic waste to light olefins. Dow anticipates contributing other technologies as part of the collaboration in the future. Refinity and Dow may also collaborate to develop selected parts of the waste supply chain, including waste plastic feedstock aggregation and upgrading.

Bill Haskell, CEO of Innventure, added, "Partnering with industry-leading multinational corporations like Dow to accelerate the commercialisation of game-changing technologies is core to Innventure’s business model. Through the collaboration with Dow, our new subsidiary, Refinity, intends to accelerate the development and deployment of differentiated waste conversion processes globally."

Dow and Innventure adds they are committed to accelerating circularity on a global scale. Dow has a sustainability target to Transform the Waste and commercialise 3 million tonnes of circular and renewable solutions by 2030.

In other news, French company Carbios has announced a delay in the construction of its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) biorecycling plant in Longlaville, France, pushing back the timeline by six to nine months.

The postponement is attributed to the pending additional financing required to commence the project under favourable conditions.

Carbios adds it is actively working to secure this financing, particularly through non-dilutive means, with the goal of meeting market demands by 2027.

The delay in the construction of the Longlaville plant comes amidst ongoing negotiations for financing.

Specifically, Carbios is yet to finalise discussions with Indorama Ventures, a key player in the sector.

Concurrently, the company is engaging with other private and public financial institutions that could potentially offer financing under advantageous terms.

These discussions are currently under review, and Carbios adds it has received confirmation from the French state, including Bpifrance, of potential support for its request for debt coverage under the Strategic Projects Guarantee scheme.

Despite the postponement, it says it remains financially robust, with cash reserves of EUR92.8 million as of 30 November 2024.

The company anticipates signing several binding commercial contracts in the first half (H1) of 2025.

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