FEATURES CEO INTERVIEW

PTTGC partners with Myriant on bio-succinic platform

The nations strategic goals are driving agship chemical company, PTT Global Chemical, to invest in renewables
DORIS DE GUZMAN NEW YORK

Green chems for Thailand

hrough a series of recent investments, Thailands largest petrochemical company, PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC), has established itself as a global player in bioplastics and renewable chemicals while spearheading the countrys ambitious program to become a regional green technology hub. PTTGC announced in October its 50% acquisition of US polylactic acid (PLA) plastic producer NatureWorks for $150m (110m) from US agribusiness firm Cargill. NatureWorks plans to build a 300m lb/year PLA plant in Thailand that is expected to start operating in late 2015. In January, PTTGC invested $60m in US-based biosuccinic acid producer Myriant Technologies. A key business plan of PTTGC is to become a major player in bio-based chemicals, says CEO Veerasak Kositpaisal. Our core business is petrochemicals, but we also want to grow within the green chemicals space, as it promises to have a very good future, especially in Thailand, where we have abundant supply of agricultural feedstock at very competitive prices, he says. Since 2006, the Thai government has pursued the development of a bioplastic industry because of its great potential for consumption of agriculture raw materials, particularly cassava and sugarcane. Thailand has annual production of more than 30m short tons of cassava and 80m tons of sugarcane. When we look at the bioplastic volume required, the production capacity of the agricul-

bioplastic industry, according to PTTGC. Thailand is already one of the top three plastic exporters in Asia and one of the largest resin producers in the world, according to Thailands National Innovation Agency (NIA), which is part of the Ministry of Science and Technology. In 2008, NIA was provided funding of Thai baht (Bt) 1.8bn ($58.5m, 42.6m) to pursue bioplastics innovation projects and research and development under the governments National Roadmap for the Development of the Bioplastics Industry. Thailand offers various incentives to create an investment-friendly atmosphere for the bioplastics industry. One tax incentive features corporate-income-tax exemption for up to eight years and an additional 50% reduction of corporate income tax for ve years. Both PTTGC and NatureWorks are in discussions with the Thai government concerning incentive packages as well as government promotion for the use of bioplastics. The government of Thailand has been very supportive in value-added initiatives and tax incentives for the new PLA production site here in Thailand, Kositpaisal says. Tax incentive is one thing but the supporting policies in bioplastic promotion that will also come into the future.

Thailand has been very supportive in value-added initiatives and tax incentives
VEERASAK KOSITPAISAL CEO, PTT Global Chemical

tural products needed and the feedstock costs, sugar and cassava are the leading feedstock candidates given their domestic abundancy, Kositpaisal says. Today, we export these commodity products and we plan to use about 1020% of the export volume to convert them into PLA plastic. We have done the evaluation and found that the project looks good. Plentiful biomass resources translate to stability and competitive raw materials for the

RENEWABLE CHEMICALS GOALS PTTGC, the chemical agship of Thailands industrial conglomerate PTT Group, has been entrusted with leading the development of a broader biobased chemicals business not just bioplastics, Kositpaisal said. Kositpaisal says that PTTGCs investment in Myriant is a strategic entry point not only for the Thai company to accelerate the commercialization of biobased products in Southeast Asia but also to strengthen its competitive advantage in biobased chemicals manufacture. Myriant is building its rst commercial biosuccinic acid facility in Louisiana, US, funded with partial support from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Louisiana state government. The plant has a capacity of 30m lbs/ year (14,000 tonnes/year) and is scheduled to start at the end of 2012. With Myriant, PTTGC says it is looking to be able to manufacture a variety of drop-in biobased chemicals such as succinic acid and derivatives such as butanediol, lactic acid and derivatives, acrylic acid and fumaric acid. We believe in the competitiveness of Myriants technology, Kositpaisal says. Right now, we are sending our people to work at the Myriant site, including sales, marketing and researchers, to reect our plan and our commitment in Myriant.
For the latest sustainability initiatives read Doris de Guzmans Green Chemicals blog icis.com/blogs/green-chemicals

34 | ICIS Chemical Business | November 21-December 4, 2011

www.icis.com