Technip and Metabolic Explorer plan to combine polymer technologies

Technip and Metabolic Explorer have signed an agreement to assess the feasibility of offering a combined technology package consisting of the companies’ respective PDO and PTT technologies. The evaluation will include a technical and commercial review with a goal of bringing the bundled technology package to the market for licensing.

PDO (1,3-propanediol) is a bulk chemical produced by oil-based or bio-based feedstocks. Polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) is a polymer produced from PDO and terephthalic acid as feedstock. In turn, PTT is used for the production of high quality textile fibres, packaging films and engineered plastics. The growth potential of the PTT market is currently hampered by limited quantities of PDO, a feedstock used to produce PTT.

Metabolic Explorer has developed a patented, efficient technology to produce PDO through the fermentation of crude glycerins from either vegetable oils (first generation) or recycled oils (second generation).

Technip’ s operating centre in Frankfurt, Germany, which operates as Technip Zimmer Process Technology, licenses the PTT technology, which was developed in the 1990s in their research centre in Frankfurt, Germany, and commercialised in the early 2000. Technip’s centre in Lyon, France, which has provided engineering services for Metex’s PDO technology, will support this new evaluation effort.

By combining these complementary technologies, Metabolic Explorer and Technip Zimmer seek to offer a complete industrial solution for the production of biosourced PTT to the market. 

Benjamin Gonzalez, founder and CEO of Metabolic Explorer, commented, "This partnership with Technip Zimmer will accelerate the deployment of the PDO technology for the PTT applications, with a market mainly located in Asia. This partnership with a company as strong as Technip is a real opportunity to open up this PTT market, which is currently limited by the lack of PDO, by offering an innovative and sustainable solution while creating value for our shareholders. It is also one more confirmation of the competitiveness and the maturity of our bioprocess as well as a confirmation of the growth potential of the PTT textile fibre.”

Andreas Bormann, managing director of Technip Zimmer Process Technology, added, “By bundling PDO and PTT technologies, our goal is to offer a competitive product to a market that is in constant search for diversified, high quality polymers with a solid growth potential. By combining Technip’s strong technology and engineering capabilities with Metabolic Explorer’s technical expertise, we look forward to providing our customers with a complete technology and engineering package, a single point of interface and the highest quality standards.”