Purac joins 'feedstocks from waste' consortium

Aside from Purac, the consortium also includes Dutch paper producer Crown Van Gelder and the Bumaga paper and board industry development centre. It is funded by the Dutch Ministries of Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries.

Purac CEO Farbrizio Rampinelli said the company has joined the project as part of its programme to develop routes to bio-based chemicals from non-food feedstocks.

“The participation of Purac in this project fits the programme of Purac in the area of sustainable chemistry,” said CEO Fabrizio Rampinelli.

“This program gives us a considerable opportunity, together with our partners, to grow the market for bio-based chemicals and contribute to a sustainable economy,” he said.

Purac, which is part of the Netherlands-based food ingredients and derivatives company CSM, is currently building a lactides manufacturing unit in Thailand to produce monomers for production of polylactic acid-based bioplastics.

The company is investing €45m in the new facility, which will have the capacity to produce 75,000 tonnes of lactides a year.