The EGgPLANT project has succeeded in achieving the intended upscaling of the Ray Technology֭™ to a demonstration plant and validating the Ray TechnologyTM by producing mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) and mono-propylene glycol (MPG) from renewable carbohydrates using a highly carbon efficient catalytic process.
The global MEG market demand is growing from a current base of 33 Mton/year to over 50 Mton by 2035, requiring more than a million tons of additional supply every year for the next twenty years.
Today, almost all of the MEG produced globally is from fossil sources despite a stated need from forward-looking brand owners, packaging and textile companies to source MEG from renewable sources.
There is one provider of bio-based MEG on the market which is using an inefficient and expensive process compared to lower cost oil, shale gas, and coal-based alternatives. This high cost position is hampering the widespread use of bio-based MEG.
To address this issue, Avantium has developed a one-step ‘Ray Technology™ process (formerly known as Mekong) for producing bio-MEG and bio-MPG from renewable sources which can compete with the incumbent fossil-based product on both cost and quality, making the product competitive in the global marketplace and poised to be a sustainable supply solution to address the increasing demand.
The demonstration plant (11 ton/year) built and operated in this project allows for techno-economic scale-up and evaluation of the process, in addition to producing relevant sample quantities of product to support downstream validation in at least three applications, collecting of data to conduct a third-party environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and preparation for scale-up to industrial size plants.
The next phase after this project is to deploy a Ray commercial flagship plant with a strategic partner in Europe. Target customers of this flagship plant will primarily be European polyethylene terephthalate (PET) producers. Avantium and/or its strategic partner will deploy subsequent industrial scale plants in Europe, and will license out the technology to parties in geographies other than Europe.
