Resource Chemical Emerges from Stealth with Big Answers to the What Do We Do about Plastic Bottles Question

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) ... changing the way we make plastics, instead of trying to live in a world without plastic’s wonderful barrier properties and in particular the clarity that see-through plastics give to consumers, able to see the product under the packaging.

The solutions are coming — on the PET side, Anellotech is making its final strides towards a first commercial. For FDCA, Avantium is even closer to its first commercial. Both offer a REnaissance, a REnewable approach to REsourcing plastics. In the case of Anellotech, everything you liked about PET and fossil-free. In the case of Avantium, some very attractive barrier properties that, especially for small bottles, offer new options.

Not long ago, a new upstart appeared on the FDCA side of the equation, with a process that’s even more energy efficient that, at first glance, Avantium, and that means a carbon advantage. It’s pretty brand spanking new, and the world needs all the technology and REsourced plastic it can find — so, Avantium investors, quaketh not in thy boots.

It’s ReSource Chemical, which has spun out of a Stanford Lab and, via a Cyclotron Road residency, which is the Berkeley Lab home of the the Activate program, is starting to make some waves. They just picked up the first Khosla Ventures new investment in renewable biomaterials, I believe, in more than a decade.

Here’s what you need to know

Enter, the Villain

The villain is not plastics, or rather, plasticity. The villain is the fossil-base. Let’s give some props for the incredible performance that plastics have.

The PEF backstory

PEF is a clear plastic, it’s biobased, recyclable, compostable and biodegradable. So far, so good.

What makes it great is that not only does it form a great see-through barrier, it works very well with small-scale liquids. Ever notice that there are lots of 16 ounce plastic bottles, but no 4 ounce ones? That’s because the clear plastic bottle incumbent, PET, doesn’t perform so well at small scale. PEF does. Bottom line, ten times as good against oxygen and 3X better as a moisture barrier. Translating into less waste, more shelf life, less plastic.

The problem to solve: making the FDCA ingredient

So, PEF is great, and where does ReSource fit in. Well, to make PEF, you need FDCA, which is combined with the widely-available ethylene glycol or MEG to make PEF. Bottom line: ReSource makes low-cost FDCA.

The ReSource edge

In a word, you can make FDCA from sugar in a couple of steps, or you can make it from furfural with high yield in fewer steps. ReSource is the latter — a striking furfural-to-FDCA technology. Lot of companies already make furfural from biomass, Quaker Oats has been making it for nearly a century now, it’s one of the original Monster Molecules of the bioeconomy.

Better than anything, Resource Chemical avers that it’s carbon-negative. That would be in the “and now for something completely different” department. Overall, say the founder, they’ve reduced the number of steps by 70 percent and the CAPEX by 80 percent, compared to making FDCA from sugar. Reasons? The absence of co-products, high yields and the use of abundant and cheap water as a solvent. READ MORE