Bio-on and Moore Capital to build first Brazil-based facility to produce PHAs from sugar cane co-products

18-Sep-15

Bio-on and Moore Capital signed a license agreement to build the first Brazil-based facility to produce PHAs bioplastic from sugar cane co-products. The two companies, operating in sustainable biochemistry and in the development of eco-sustainable industrial solutions, will work together to build a production site with a 10 thousand tons/year output, in the state of São Paulo and/or Acre State. Requiring an 80 million Euro investment, the facility will be the most advanced biopolymers production site in South America. The new production hub will create 60 new jobs plus allied industries, helping to meet the high demand for this revolutionary biopolymer already coming in from numerous companies that transform or produce conventional plastic in Brazil. PHAs (polyhydroxyalkanoates) are bioplastics that can replace a number of traditional polymers currently made with petrochemical processes using hydrocarbons. The PHAs developed by Bio-on guarantee the same thermo-mechanical properties with the advantage of being completely naturally biodegradable. "We have decided to use Bio-on technology," says Otávio Pacheco, Management Partner of Moore Capital, "because it represents an exceptional opportunity for industrial development in Brazil. This is why we have decided to invest €5,5 million in acquiring the production license and another 80 mln in constructing the first facility". Moore Capital also has an option to build a second plant in Brazil. "We will create Brazil's first PHAs production facility with a company attentive to ecology and sustainability - two key ingredients of the chemical industry of the future," explains Bio-On S.p.A. chairman Marco Astorri. "We will also work towards studying how to further develop the business of the high-performing biopolymers produced in Brazil with Bio-on technology" in south America. The agreement between Bio-on and Moore Capital today hits an important milestone and adds another building block in the construction of the world wide platform for bioplastic production in the future.