New PLA polymerization technology to be developed to efficiently produce a wide range

12-Sep-08

World's largest producer of natural lactic acid, lactates, lactitol, lactides and polylactides - PURAC and a Swiss-based engineering company - Sulzer Chemtech signed a joint cooperation agreement for the development and sharing of polymerization and devolatilization technology to efficiently produce a range of polylactic acid (PLA) products from the specialty Lactides supplied by PURAC. This will enable a cost-effective process for development of high quality PLA, a bioplastic made from biorenewable raw materials like carbo-hydrates. Since the process requires low investment process and has a high scale-up capability, it is expected to curtail the process and product development time thereby enabling accelerating time to market and more reliable market penetration for PLA producers. The new process requires less investment and has potential for economic scale-up to high volumes. In this agreement, PURAC will supply the raw material (lactide monomer) for polymerization and Swiss company providing the PLA polymerization technology.