Toray plans biobased PBT on commercial scale

摘要

Toray says that it has successfully moulded components made from the partially biobased PBT (polybutylene terephtha-late) using Genomatica's biobased 1,4-butanediol (BDO). Tests by Toray have confirmed that PBT made using this BDO has physical properties and formability equivalent to PBT made from petroleum-derived BDO. Toray plans to build a commercial-scale production unit once biobased BDO availability allows. Genomatica has developed a process to produce BDO from renewable feedstocks rather than petroleum. This process includes an engineered microorganism, fermentation techniques and downstream processing. Genomatica's process was used for the successful commercial-scale production of 5 million pounds (2.27 billion kg) of BDO in November 2012.