On 23 September, a collaboration agreement was signed for the construction and operation of a pilot plant for the production of PHBV in Dordrecht. The consortium, which consists of five Water Authorities, research centre STOWA, technology company Paques, and sustainable waste- and energy company HVC, sees many opportunities for this uniquely degradable bioplastic. Since the installation starts operating at the end of 2021, new market applications are being developed for the PHBV and fatty acid product. This is being done with existing and new partners. The full press release is available here.
It is not only PHBV itself that is unique: the production process certainly is too. The bacteria that normally clean wastewater are now, with the right nutrition, transformed into small PHBV factories. Thanks to the creation of the consortium, large-scale production and sale are one step closer. This represents a milestone for the water sector, and is something we are proud and privileged to be contributing to.
Market development
There is already a collaboration involving several application partners. Together with the partners in the PHA2USE consortium, and our client the Energy and Raw Materials Factory, AquaMinerals is contacting Dutch and international companies interested in testing the PHBV biopolymer in applications, and willing and able to scale them up. PHBV is a high-quality natural polyester. It is both bio-based and completely degradable under natural conditions, in either soil or composting plants, and in fresh- and saltwater. We are also going to initiate discussions with companies that would like to produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from organic residual streams, or that generate fatty acids from their residual/waste(water) streams.
We would be pleased to discuss the possibilities and the framework conditions with you. If you’re interested, please feel free to contact us (mr Bovee).
