TotalEnergies Corbion cancels PLA plant in France

Dutch materials firm Corbion has announced that it will not pursue a new PLA bioplastics plant in Grandpuits, France, through its TotalEnergies Corbion PLA joint venture. The announcement “follows a review of the investment case of the project and is in line with the announcements of the company’s shareholders,” TotalEnergies Corbion said in a statement.

In 2020, TotalEnergies Corbion PLA, a 50/50 joint venture between French oil and gas major Total S.A. and Netherlands-based Corbion, had announced its intention to build a 100,000 tonnes/year biobased PLA plant at a Total site in Grandpuits, France. This would have been its second PLA plant after its first 75,000-tonne/year plant that was successfully launched in 2018 in Thailand. It offers PLA under the brand Luminy.

TotalEnergies had said it would invest more than EUR500 million to convert its Grandpuits refinery into a zero-crude platform. The project would comprise the development of facilities for biofuels, bioplastics and plastic waste recycling as part of TotalEnergies strategy to get to net-zero emissions by 2050.

TotalEnergies also issued statement saying that it ‘noted the decision taken by its partner Corbion not to pursue the bioplastic production project, which will now be discontinued.’

The company also added that its shareholders nonetheless “remain committed to the growth of Luminy PLA bioplastics,” and the project cancellation will not impact the global sales and marketing network nor the company’s operations in Thailand, where it will continue to operate the PLA plant.

“Our destination remains unchanged and as a leader in the bioplastics market we will continue to provide innovative and differentiated solutions to the market, collaborating with our customers throughout the value chain to enable the circular economy together,” the company added.

TotalEnergies also added that ’in the light of the new investments announced today and others to come, TotalEnergies confirms the maintenance of 250 jobs at the site, in line with the commitments it made in September 2020’.

These investments included the doubling of the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and the development of low carbon energies at the Grandpuits site. The doubling of SAF production will bring the site’s production capacity to 285,000 tonnes/year.

Meanwhile, the jv TotalEnergies Corbion recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese synthetic biology company Bluepha. Under this agreement, the two companies will work together to expedite the growth and adoption of PLA and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) based solutions in China’s market.

(PRA)

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