Green tie-ups: Carbios/Wankai to build PET biorecycling plant in China; Renaissance BioScience/Biome to work on C$1.5 mn bioplastics project

French biotech firm Carbios and China’s Wankai New Materials, a listed subsidiary of Zhink Group, the 3^rd largest PET producer in China and 4^th worldwide, are partnering to build and run a EUR115 million PET biorecycling plant in China. It will have a processing capacity of 50,000 tonnes of PET waste.

Wankai will be the majority shareholder of this company with a 70% stake, while Carbios will hold the remaining 30%. The financing of the plant’s construction will be covered 30% by equity and 70% by debt, with all debt guaranteed by Wankai.

The plant will be located in Haining (Zhejiang province) on site provided by Wankai, which is already equipped with infrastructure (equipment, waste treatment, etc.), thus reducing the investment cost. Construction is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2026, with commissioning targeted by the first quarter of 2027.

Carbios and Wankai have also approved on 2 December 2025 the license agreement, which will be granted by Carbios to the joint venture upon its incorporation.

The companies say they have committed to a long-term partnership with the ambition to build and operate several PET biorecycling plants in Asia.

Carbios agrees to exclusively license its PET depolymerization technology in Asia to Wankai for a period of three years, subject to signing licenses with the latter for at least 100 kilotonnes/year of additional capacity. This term will be extended in five-year increments if additional licenses for at least 200 kilotonnes/year of extra capacity are signed.

To strengthen the strategic partnership between the two companies, Wankai has committed to subscribe, before 2 June 2026, to a dedicated capital increase of EUR5 million in the share capital of Carbios, paid on the basis of an issue price per share of EUR8.0947, corresponding to the volume-weighted average of the last five trading days preceding the 1^st of December 2025, reduced by a 10% discount. 

 In other news, Canada’s Renaissance BioScience Corp., which specialises in bioengineered yeast for the agriculture, food, environmental and energy industries, has entered into a collaboration with UK-based Biome Bioplastics Limited on a two-year, initiative valued at up to C$1.5 million to for renewable bioplastic building block production using advanced fermentation processes. The project will target applications in packaging, personal care, health, and consumer goods, offering sustainable, high-performance alternatives to conventional oil-based plastics. 

The partnership is supported by advisory services and funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) and UK Research and Innovation’s Innovate UK. This bilateral support will provide resources to advance the project and deliver meaningful environmental benefits for both countries.

Over the course of the project, the partners will develop a sustainable system to produce a bio-based, renewable building block for bioplastics replacing the need for petroleum-derived materials. The work will include strain engineering and fermentation trials in Canada and in the UK, resulting in process optimisations, and production of test samples for in packaging and personal care applications by global partners.

The goal is to establish a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective pathway for producing renewable plastics.

The global sustainable chemicals market is projected to exceed US$39 billion by 2034. This exciting joint project between Renaissance and Biome will strengthen Canada and the UK’s leadership positions in this fast-growing sector, they say.

John Husnik, Renaissance’s CSO/Office of the CEO, commented on the bioplastic project announcement: “Biome Bioplastics is a recognised leader in sustainable materials, and together our expertise can deliver impactful renewable solutions that address plastic pollution while meeting the growing demand for high-performance alternatives. Our team is eager to begin this exciting collaboration.”

Paul Mines, CEO at Biome Bioplastics, commented: “This is an exciting trans-Atlantic collaboration combining Renaissance’s world-class capability in microbial engineering with Biome’s engineering biology capability and experience in sustainable materials development and scale-up. This collaboration bridges biology and materials science to accelerate the transition to bioplastics made from renewable sources.”

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