One of the three largest producers of PET resin in the world, M&G Chemicals, is constructing a second-generation bio-refinery in the region of Fuyang, Anhui Province of China, for the conversion of 1 million tonnes of biomass into bio-ethanol and bio-glycols, through a joint-venture with Chinese company Guozhen. The latter will make available 1 million tonnes of straw biomass and use the lignin resulting as a by-product from the bio-refinery to feed a 45 MW cogeneration plant that will be constructed at the same time as the bio-refinery in the same site. M&G Chemicals will be majority partner of the bio-refinery and minority partner of the power plant.

The bio-refinery will employ PROESA technology licensed from Beta Renewables, a joint venture between Biochemtex (a company belonging to the Mossi Ghisolfi Group), US private equity fund TPG and Danish enzyme producer Novozymes.

The second-generation bio-refinery will be approximately four times the size (measured by volume of biomass processed) of that built by Beta Renewables in Crescentino, Italy, which was recently inaugurated.

The plant, which is expected to require an investment of US$500 million is expected to be brought on stream in mid 2015.

Necessary enzymes will be supplied by Novozymes, one of the world's largest enzymes producers and one of the partners in the Beta Renewables joint venture, which owns the rights of the PROESA technology.

"This is the first act of a green revolution that M&G Chemicals is bringing to the polyester chain to provide environmental sustainability to both PET beverage packaging and polyester textile," said Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G Chemicals. "The timing and scope of our green polyester revolution and our manufacturing entry in China from the green PET raw materials avenue is even more relevant considering The Coca-Cola Company has announced plans to use PlantBottle packaging, which is partially made from plants, for all of their PET plastic bottles across the globe by 2020," Ghisolfi added.

"M&G Chemicals is today taking a big step towards a bio-based society where biomass is used for products like fuel, chemicals and plastics. We are incredibly excited to enable M&G Chemicals' vision of producing bio-plastics on a commercial scale and are looking forward to the long-term collaboration," says Thomas Videbaek, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Development in Novozymes.

"The second-generation bio-refinery and power cogeneration project is the core part of the Biomass Utilization Park that Guozhen plans to build in Fuyang City. Fuyang is rich in biomass resources; Guozhen is experienced in biomass collections and logistics; and M&G Chemicals owns the proven cutting-edge technology. Our cooperation will open a new era of biomass utilization and provide an effective solution for the full exploitation of biomass to tackle Chinese energy demand and environmental issues," said Li Wei, Chairman of Guozhen Group.

Fuyang City is a large agricultural region in northwest Anhui Province. The crop planting area is up to 1.2 million ha with 6 million tonnes/year of straw biomass available.

M&G has nominal capacity of 1,600 kilotonnes/year, with almost 1.4 million tonnes/year of installed prime capacity, and employs approximately 936 people in more than 14 locations in six countries around the world. In 2012 M&G Chemicals posted an annual revenue of EUR1,854 million. It has manufacturing locations in Brazil, Mexico and the US. Its plants in Suape (Brazil) and Altamira (Mexico) are the two largest single lines and said to be the most efficient (measured in terms of operating costs per tonne) in the world and are based on proprietary technology. Through its engineering division Chemtex, M&G Chemicals provides technological development, research and engineering services for the construction of plants for customers in the polyester chain (including PET, polyester fibre and PTA production) and LNG industries. These activities are also aimed at enabling the production of PET resin 100% made from renewable sources. M&G Chemicals is an affiliated entity with the Mossi Ghisolfi Group.