Carbios receives permits for PET biorecycling plant

Carbios, an advanced recycling company based in France, has been granted the building permit and operating authorization for its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) “biorecycling” plant, allowing construction to start. Carbios uses an enzymatic process to depolymerize and recycle PET in various packaging and textiles.

The plant will be built in Longlaville, France, on a site of approximately 34 acres that is adjacent to the Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd.’s existing PET production plant. Indorama is Carbios’ strategic partner in the project. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding concerning the project in June of this year. That followed an initial announcement by Indorama in February of 2022 that it agreed to collaborate with Carbios to install a system deploying Carbios’ technology at its PET production site in Longlaville, France.

This facility, scheduled for commissioning in 2025, will provide industrial-scale enzymatic recycling for PET. Carbios says its technology enables PET circularity and offers an alternative raw material to virgin fossil-based monomers, allowing PET producers, chemical companies, waste management firms, public entities and brands to have an effective solution to meet regulatory requirements and fulfill their sustainability commitments.

The plant will be able to process 50,000 tons of postconsumer PET per year, mostly material that cannot be recycled mechanically, equivalent to 2 billion colored PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET food trays, and will generate 150 direct and indirect jobs in the region, according to the company.

“Everything is now in place so that construction of our plant can officially begin," Carbios CEO Emmanuel Ladent says. "We obtained the permits in line with the announced schedule, and we are eager to deliver a facility of great local and international significance for a circular economy of plastic. We would like to thank the French state and the municipality of Longlaville for their support throughout the administrative procedure and for their commitment in issuing the operating and building permits in 10 months.”

“I am very proud of the Carbios teams who have reached this critical milestone in this significant project,” adds Lionel Arras, director of Industrial Development at Carbios. “With more than 80 engineers involved, both internally and externally, it is a tremendous team effort with our goal of commissioning in 2025 on track.”

Françoise Souliman, prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle, issued the environmental operating permit Sept. 28, followed by the issuing of building permit Oct. 24 by Hamdi Toudma, mayor of Longlaville. These permits were obtained after an administrative procedure, including public consultation, which evaluated the site’s future impacts on water resources and aquatic environment protection, energy consumption, landscape integration, traffic, etc.

Carbios submitted the authorization requests to local authorities last December and construction can start before the end of this year for commissioning in 2025.

Carbios acquired the land on Indorama Ventures’ existing PET plant site without suspensive conditions other than the right of first refusal of the communes concerned and the absence of opposition to the division of land required for the sale. The site allows for the possibility of doubling the facility’s capacity.

Carbios says the plant is designed to maximize circularity by producing high-quality products and to minimize its environmental footprint, especially regarding energy consumption. Optimizations are underway to further increase the recycling of water required for the process, the company adds.

Located near France’s borders with Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, the plant’s location is strategic in terms of supplying material for processing, Carbios says. Moreover, Carbios’ biorecycling technology can process complex material streams that conventional technologies cannot recycle and produce food-grade products, enhancing the plant’s flexibility for postuse plastic supply. Carbios and Indorama Ventures will collaborate to ensure the feedstock supply of the Longlaville plant, located in a geographical area where the supply potential could reach 400,000 tons in 2023 and up to 500,000 tons in 2030, with improved selective collection.

Carbios has secured an initial supply source by winning part of the CITEO tender for the biorecycling of multilayer food trays. The consortium composed of Carbios, Wellman, a subsidiary of Indorama Ventures, and Valorplast has been selected to handle 30 percent of the tonnage proposed by CITEO. Carbios will handle the portion of the flow consisting of multilayer food trays at its Longlaville plant starting in 2025.

In July, Carbios completed its capital increase for approximately 141 million euros ($148.6 million), the largest capital increase on Euronext Growth since 2015, according to the company. This amount is mainly intended to finance the construction of this plant, for which the total investment is estimated 230 million euros, or $242.4 million. The portion of the investment not funded by the proceeds from the July capital increase is expected to be covered by Indorama Ventures, which plans to mobilize approximately 110 million euros ($115.9 million) for this project, French state subsidies of 30 million euros ($31.6 million) and 12.5 million euros ($13.2 million) from the Grand-Est Region (Implementation of this funding is conditional on approval by the European Commission of the corresponding state aid scheme, followed by the conclusion of national aid agreements.), as well as a portion of Carbios Group’s available cash, which amounted to 78 euros million ($82.2 million) as of June 30.