CHINA – Technology specialist in polylactic acid (PLA) and lactide monomers, TotalEnergies Corbion has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bluepha to accelerate the market adoption of PLA/PHA-based solutions in China.
The collaboration aims to bring together the expertise and resources of both companies to further advance the development of high-performance biopolymer solutions, combining Bluepha® Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) with Luminy® Polylactic Acid (PLA) technology.
TotalEnergies Corbion CEO Thomas Philipon said: “By combining the complementary properties of these materials, we will significantly expand the application possibilities for brand owners seeking fully biobased material solutions.”
As per the terms of this MoU, TotalEnergies and Bluepha will collaboratively promote the market applications of their PLA and PHA technology in China.
Bluepha president and co-founder Teng Li added: “We are very excited about this collaboration with TotalEnergies Corbion.
“TotalEnergies Corbion is a trustworthy partner and Bluepha PHA mixed with Luminy PLA would be as a Chinese saying, ‘Adding wings to the tiger’.
“Together, the two companies can give more opportunities to our downstream partners and contribute to a more sustainable future.”
Bluepha specializes in synthetic biotechnology-based molecular and material innovation.
The latest MoU signing comes a few days after TotalEnergies signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Xiamen Changsu Industrial to advance the adoption of biobased biaxial-oriented polyamide film across China.
The companies will focus on product development, market promotion, and research and development of new BOPLA technologies and applications.
The agreement will further allow Changsu Industrial and TotalEnergies Corbion to introduce sustainable solutions to the Chinese market.
One such sustainable alternative is the BOPLA adhesive tapes which can be developed using Changsu’s BiONLY product.
This adhesive material can replace traditional fossil-based material used by the national postal service in China.
The country has already announced new regulations to promote the use of biodegradable materials in its postal service by 2025 with some of its cities working to achieve this by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, TotalEnergies Corbion also partnered with Posco International and ESOL to recycle PLA in South Korea.
Under the partnership, TotalEnergies Corbion would contribute its knowledge and experience of advanced PLA recycling, while ESOL sourcing the PLA waste from post-consumer recycling and working towards advancing the necessary technology to collect, sort, clean, purify, and reuse the PLA.
The latter is already producing PLA-based products in Korea and aims to establish recycling infrastructure throughout its supply chain for more sustainable use of plastics in the country’s growing PLA market.
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