Technological watch

• The simultaneous acquisition of the building permit and operating authorization allows construction work to start as planned for the plant’s commissioning in 2025
• The building permit was obtained in 10 months (the average duration in France is 17 months)
• In September, Carbios and Indorama Ventures signed the sales agreement for the land to be purchased by Carbios and on which the plant will be built

Carbios announces that it has been granted the building permit and operating authorization for the world’s first PET[1]biorecycling plant, allowing construction to start. The plant will be built in Longlaville (54) in the Grand-Est Region on a 13.7-hectare site adjacent to the existing PET production plant of Indorama Ventures, its strategic partner. This state-of-the-art facility, scheduled for commissioning in 2025, will play a crucial role in the fight against plastic pollution by providing an industrial-scale enzymatic recycling solution for PET waste.

Carbios’ technology enables PET circularity and offers an alternative raw material to virgin fossil-based monomers, allowing PET producers, chemical companies, waste management firms, public entities, and brands to have an effective solution to meet regulatory requirements and fulfill their sustainability commitments. The plant will have a processing capacity of 50,000 tons of post-consumer PET waste per year (mostly waste that is non-recyclable mechanically, equivalent to 2 billion colored PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET food trays) and will generate 150 direct and indirect jobs in the region.

Emmanuel Ladent, CEO of Carbios: “Everything is now in place so that construction of our plant can officially begin! We obtained the permits in line with the announced schedule, and we are eager to deliver a facility of great local and international significance for a circular economy of plastic. We would like to thank the French State and the Municipality of Longlaville for their support throughout the administrative procedure and for their commitment in issuing the operating and building permits in 10 months.”

Lionel Arras, Director of Industrial Development: “I am very proud of the Carbios teams who have reached this critical milestone in this significant project. With more than 80 engineers involved, both internally and externally, it is a tremendous team effort with our goal of commissioning in 2025 on track.”

Construction progress according to scheduleOn 28 September 2023, Françoise Souliman, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle, issued the environmental operating permit, followed by the building permit on 24 October 2023 by Mr. Hamdi Toudma, Mayor of Longlaville. These permits were obtained after an administrative procedure, including public consultation, which evaluated the site’s future impacts on water resources and aquatic environment protection, energy consumption, landscape integration, traffic, etc.

Carbios submitted the authorization requests to local authorities last December.  Construction of the plant can start before the end of this year for commissioning in 2025.

Carbios acquires Indorama Ventures’ landThe plant will be built on a 13.7-hectare site acquired by Carbios on Indorama Ventures’ existing PET plant site without suspensive conditions[2]. The land area gives the possibility to double the facility’s capacity.

A plant designed to minimize its carbon footprintThe plant is designed to maximize circularity, with high-quality output products, and minimize its environmental footprint, especially with regards to energy consumption. Optimizations are underway to further increase the recycling of water required for the process.

Located near the borders with Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg, the plant’s location is strategic for nearby waste supply. Moreover, Carbios’ biorecycling technology can process complex waste that conventional technologies cannot recycle and produce food-grade products, enhancing the plant’s flexibility for waste supply. Carbios and Indorama Ventures will collaborate to ensure the feedstock supply of the Longlaville plant, located in a geographical area where the supply potential could reach 400,000 tons in 2023, and up to 500,000 tons in 2030 with improved selective collection.

Carbios has already secured an initial supply source by winning part of the CITEO tender for the biorecycling of multilayer food trays. The consortium composed of Carbios, Wellman (a subsidiary of Indorama Ventures), and Valorplast has been selected to handle 30% of the tonnage proposed by CITEO. Carbios will handle the portion of the flow consisting of multilayer food trays at its Longlaville plant starting in 2025.

Plant funding securedIn July 2023, Carbios successfully completed its capital increase for approximately €141 million, the largest capital increase on Euronext Growth since 2015. This amount is mainly intended to finance the construction of this plant, for which the total investment is estimated at around €230 million. The portion of the investment not funded by the proceeds from the July 2023 capital increase is expected to be covered by Indorama Ventures, which plans to mobilize approximately €110 million for this project, French state subsidies of €30 million, and €12.5 million[3] from the Grand-Est Region, as well as a portion of Carbios Group’s available cash, which amounted to €78 million as of 30 June 2023.

[1] PET = polyethylene terephthalate

[2] other than the right of first refusal of the communes concerned and the absence of opposition to the division of land required for the sale

[3] Implementation of this funding is conditional on approval by the European Commission of the corresponding state aid scheme, followed by the conclusion of national aid agreements.