Dutch SME Photanol BV has developed an innovative platform technology for the production of bioplastic
(precursors) from CO2 and sunlight. Since its foundation in 2008, it has secured >€10M in private and public funding,
grown a strong team of 21 FTE, and scaled-up its technology to TRL7. Because of its global potential impact, Photanol
has been selected as technology pioneer 2019 by the World Economic Forum.
Need – The demand for plastic packaging is predicted to triple by 2050, bringing about well-recognized problems
around limited fossil feedstocks, global warming, environmental pollution, and a lack of material recycling.
Biodegradable bioplastics offer a promising solution to decouple from fossil feedstocks. Especially the most common
bioplastic polylactic acid (PLA), made from lactic acid, will play a prominent role in replacing the conventional
packaging market. PLA production currently depends mainly on food crops as key feedstock. Moreover, it requires
significant amounts of water and land. Hence, if the need for bioplastic continues to grow, there will be competition
for food and fresh water, price volatility and environmental consequences. New bioplastic production technologies
that rely on raw materials, which are abundantly available, are urgently needed to meet the demand for >285 million
tons of packaging by 2050.
Photanol leverages a proprietary technology to produce lactic acid, the key ingredient for PLA, directly out
of CO2 and sunlight. Its revolutionary platform technology is based on the combination genetically optimized bacterial
strains and tailor-made photo-bioreactors, enabling a production efficacy that is 7x higher than crop plants. By
directly converting its limitless available CO2 feedstock into lactic acid, Photanol can price-compete with
petrochemicals and decouple from food feedstock. In the process 1.6 tonnes CO2 are captured per ton lactic acid
and 24x less land and 25x water are used compared to current methods. Photanol has reached important upscaling
milestones obtaining permits and successful construction and operation of a first-of-a-kind outside pilot plant.
In order to de-risk the scale-up to a commercial plant, Photanol has initiated the
construction of a ‘demonstration plant’ which represents a scaled-down version of the commercial plant. This project
aims to address all barriers before scale-up to commercial size. With the operation of the demo plant, technical and
economic parameters will be validated, and a first batch of end product will be produced. All financial and technical
preparations will be made for the construction of the commercial plant. Finally, Photanol will actively pursue
commercial partners to establish a joint venture and obtain first off-take agreements.
