Avantium and Coca-Cola sign agreement

Avantium and The Coca-Cola Company have signed a partnership agreement to develop next generation 100% plant based plastic: PEF. This was announced on 15 December 2011. Exceptional functional properties make biobased plastic PEF a suitable alternative for future beverage packaging following technology break-through by Avantium.

Watch the Nieuwsuur item (in Dutch) of 15 December 2011:


Currently PET is the most widely used oil-based polyester. Based on the performance of the new PEF material, Avantium believes PEF will become the next-generation biobased polyester.
The partners will further co-develop Avantium's YXY technology for producing PEF bottles. First milestones include the start-up of an Avantium PEF pilot plant, officially opened on December 8th in Geleen, the Netherlands. It is expected that other large co-development partners will join from early 2012.

"Avantium is very proud to partner with The Coca-Cola Company to demonstrate that our patented "YXY" technology produces bio-based PEF bottles with exceptional functional properties at a competitive price", says Tom van Aken, CEO of Avantium. "YXY is a very exciting solution for today's packaging challenges, using plant-based materials as feedstock to enable the manufacture of more sustainable packaging materials, such as PEF bottles. We have produced PEF bottles with promising barrier and thermal properties and look forward to our work with Coca-Cola to further develop and commercialize PEF bottles. Our production process fits with existing supply and manufacturing chains and we are targeting commercial production in the next few years."
The Coca-Cola Company's first generation PlantBottle™ packaging is the only fully recyclable PET bottle made with up to 30% plant-based material available today.

Read the full article on the Avantium website