Stora Enso is investing €9 million ($10m) to build a pilot facility for enabling the production of bio-based plastics as the barrier in transparent packaging.

The pilot plant will convert plant-based sugars into the renewable building block required to make polyethylene furanoate (PEF), a bio-based plastic, mainly targeting the food and beverage industry. It will be located at Stora Enso’s Langerbrugge Mill in Belgium.

The investment in bio-based chemistry further strengthens Stora Enso’s opportunities to replace fossil-based materials with renewable and recyclable materials. The pilot plant will focus on developing a cost-competitive process for manufacturing FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) from sugars. FDCA is a key component of PEF.

“Bio-based materials are of rapidly growing interest in the packaging world as companies look for sustainable packaging materials with high performance,” said Markus Mannström, executive vice president of Stora Enso’s Biomaterials division. “With this pilot, we continue to build on our long-term R&D work while targeting new markets with innovative, renewable materials that replace fossil-based materials. We believe that innovation does not happen in isolation. We are, therefore, looking forward to expanding our cooperation within the field of bio-based chemicals.”

Stora Enso’s pilot aims to validate the chemical process and provide sample material to gain further insight into market need and product demand. The facility will initially use industrially available fructose to produce high-value chemicals and materials for application testing. In the future, the intention is to run the process on sugars extracted from wood and other non-food biomasses.

The design and engineering of the pilot facility have started, and construction will begin in the second half of 2020. The plant is estimated to be ready in the first quarter of 2021.