About 50 metric tons per year of PET is produced globally and most of it is made with petroleum-based chemicals.

Japanese textile company Toray Industries and American renewable chemicals company Gevo, Inc. signed an offtake agreement with a pilot-scale production plant for bio-based polyethylene terephthalate or PET.

Under the terms of the deal, Toray will use Gevo's bio-paraxylene to be produced by the plant to make bioPET. With the offtake agreement, Toray has the priority right to purchase the bio-paraxylene produced at the pilot plant.

Paraxylene is primarily used as a raw material in manufacturing terephthalic acid, purified terephthalic acid and dimethyl-terephthalate, which are components used in manufacturing PET saturated polyester polymers. The latter are used as beverage and food containers, among that for other liquids.

About 50 metric tons per year of PET is produced globally and most of it is made with petroleum-based chemicals.

Toray is developing a cheaper and greener alternative using bio-based and renewable polymers while expanding the businesses related to bio-based materials like poly-lactic acid. The company hopes to gain a head-start in securing scale-up technology for bioPET polymerization, fibers and films.

The company's management policy is based on business strategies that can contribute to achieving a sustainable low-carbon society.

When the pilot-scale production is finished, Toray will offer samples to end-users in 2013 for market assessment.

Likewise, due to the great interest from end-users, Gevo is planning to build a plant to manufacture renewable and bioPET. – EcoSeed Staff