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Carbios recently held the official opening and launch of an industrial demonstration plant operating with its enzymatic recycling technology, C-ZYME, which was installed on the Cataroux site in Clermont-Ferrand.

The demonstration plant marks the culmination of the development of the C-ZYME technology. It will allow the validation of the enzymatic PET recycling process' technical, environmental, and economic performance, as well as the design of future industrial units. The demonstration plant includes a 20m³ depolymerization reactor capable of processing 2 tonnes of PET per cycle, which is the equivalent of 100,000 bottles.

The new plant will support the company’s objective to set up the construction of a 40,000-ton capacity PET plastic industrial facility by 2025, and drive the company toward commercialization. That site will most likely be in Europe or the U.S.

“We are having discussions with large players for the facility to be built on a site where PET production is,” Deputy CEO Martin Stephan said. “They realize disrupting the way PET is manufactured is a big change but they don’t have a choice. It’s driven by demand, regulation and the consumers.” 

The C-ZYME recycling process uses an enzyme capable of depolymerizing PET. The depolymerized monomers are purified before being repolymerized into PET of reported comparable quality to virgin PET derived from petrochemicals. Carbios' technology enables the recycling of all sorts of PET waste (clear, colored, opaque, complex plastics, polyester textiles) as well as the production of 100% recycled and 100% recyclable PET goods that maintain their virgin quality throughout the process.