The One-stop Shop for PLA Bioplastics

Driven by ecological awareness, more and more companies are seeking to replace their oil-based polymers with sustainable bioplastics. Among the bioplastics, PLA is one of the fastest-growing polymers because of its versatility and broad raw material base.

For customers, the most comfortable and calculable solution is to get all the machines for PLA production from one source. Until now, this option has not been available on the market. Thus, the idea of a one-stop shop was born. 

The combined expertise and experience of the three players offers proven solutions for customers. The risk in installing new plants is minimized thanks to the expertise brought by the parties of this industrial network, who have already realized several successful plants in the past few years.

PLAnet supports the construction of plants of any size, including PLA facilities with a throughput of up to 100'000 tons per year — that permits manufacturers to save both capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX) by providing for integrated and optimized plant section design.


 

The one-stop shop for PLA production installations offers investment security for newcomers who want to go green and join the bioplastic movement now. Sulzer, a technology pioneer, has been active for over 25 years in the bioplastic movement. With its cooperation partners (Fig. 1), PLAnet can offer customers:

 

• Proven technology from Futerro and Sulzer merged with a tailor-made optimized process integration from TechnipFMC
• A single guarantee for the entire process instead of multiple contact points
• Engineering and process design of the whole plant
• Site service activities
• Consulting and support services for new entrants to the market
• Reliable after-sales service and long-term cooperation with customers

Fig. 1 Three Companies are Part of the PLAnet™ Cooperation

The demand for PLA is growing rapidly. PLA effectively reduces the carbon footprint thusminimizing the impact on global warming. Why? Because PLA is not only biodegradable, it canalso be produced from bio-based materials and can replace petroleum-based plastics in a widerange of applications. The plants involve different process steps (or sections) to convert sugarsfrom crops into lactic acid, lactide and subsequently PLA.

Up to now, all process plants have produced PLA from first-generation raw material such as foodsugars or starch. However, research in universities and private companies has started to showreliable results using second-generation raw material from lignocellulosic fibers, such as wheatstraw, corn stover, etc.


 

Futerro, a well-established technology provider for lactic acid and lactide production, and Sulzer Chemtech, a leading specialist in separation and mixing technologies, have further shown their commitment to facilitating the production of bioplastics by establishing a partnership with TechnipFMC. The company has rapidly growing activities in bioplastics and green chemicals. Besides that, TechnipFMC is a global leader in subsea, onshore/offshore and surface projects with experience in technology development and licensing.


 

Within the PLAnet partnership, Futerro's proprietary technology focuses on the production of lactic acid and raw lactide from sugar or from any other raw material which can be converted into sugar (Fig. 2). Futerro, founded in 2007, is a 100% subsidiary of Galactic SA, a Belgian lactic acid producer. Futerro has extensive industrial experience in lactic acid fermentation on different substrates in the USA, Europe and Asia, and is continuously upgrading its bacteria and processes to produce cheaper and better lactic acid.

 

Lactic Acid Process Installation from Futerro

Sulzer contributes the technology and equipment for the purification of crude lactide andpolymerization to obtain PLA. Most industrial plants in the world that produce the biopolymerPLA use Sulzer technology and/or Sulzer equipment (Fig. 3).

Some of the key equipment developed by Sulzer as part of its PLA production offering includes:

 

• Lactide crystallizers (falling film or static crystallizers)
• Loop and plug-flow reactors (SMRTM), and Sulzer Mixers (SMXTM), as well as
• Distillation and devolatilization technologies

With the Sulzer technology, the monomer ratio and the molecular weight of the PLA can be set preciselyaccording to the market applications. The flexibility of the plant allows operators to set relativeamounts of D (–) and L (+) lactides and, thus, meet the specific requirements of the market.Playing with the D and L lactides content, customers can influence the biodegradability, respectively the speed at which PLA-based products will biodegrade. 

 

Sulzer Equipment for the Processing of PLA

TechnipFMC acts as technology integrator to deliver seamless and optimized front-endengineering design (FEED) packages. TechnipFMC is a leading engineering, procurement andconstruction (EPC) contractor with in-depth experience in process technology developmentand licensing. It actively pursues renewable and green chemical opportunities as a part of itsstrategy to expand its technology portfolio in this field. TechnipFMC Process Technology hasa global network and a wide portfolio of onshore process technologies in petrochemicals,refining, hydrogen and syngas, polymers (Fig. 4), gas monetization and renewables. Throughinnovative technologies and improved efficiencies, clients benefit from new possibilities whendeveloping new projects.

 

PLA Polymerization Section of the Plant

The promotion of greener alternatives to traditional plastics needs to be backed by suitable technologies that enable the industry to produce high-quality bioplastics efficiently. The PLAnet partnership between Futerro, Sulzer and TechnipFMC offers leading technologies, expertise and skills that you can rely on for the entire PLA value chain.