Aside from caps and closures, I believe the only use of current PET would be in the production of PET/F, a novel Origin hybrid of PET and biobased FDCA. It's a "tunable" polymer with superior properties particularly for advanced packaging. Ultimately, Origin wants to use FDCA (derived from CMF) to produce its next-generation PEF, a 100% biobased polymer superior to even its own, as well as existing, PET. It is stronger, has better thermal and barrier properties, and is fully recyclable. Origin partnered with Avantium to accelerate the mass production of FDCA and PEF, but that seems to be on hold for now.
So PET/F would be a quicker entry to market and is also "drop in ready" for existing manufacturing and recycling processes, same as Origin's biobased PET and PEF. In the BoA interview Bissell says that the FDCA would actually improve and strengthen the current recycling stream.
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"Issue seems their ability to scale and do so at cost competitive price to existing plastics."
Exactly. They built one plant (OM1), but then realized the start-up costs on a second full-scale plant were too much after a spike in inflation, interest rates, and labor and materials costs. Also, the SPAC was supposed to yield closer to $1B, but the redemptions were over $400M. That had a major impact. Bissell also admits they were too ambitious early on in trying to compete against a commodity. In fact, in 2023 based on customer demand the company announced a shift in focus from paraxylene/PET to FDCA and biofuels. (Besides CMF and HTC, oils and extracts are a third intermediate of its biomass conversion.)
More recently, the near term focus of the core technology seems to be (1) HTC and (2) specialty applications with high margins that, along with caps & closures, can be a stepping stone in financing new plants. I think Bissell even said that OM1 might actually have enough capacity to produce feedstock for some these smaller niche products. However, most would agree that licensing of the technology is probably the best alternative at this juncture. Whereas the company was initially focused on CMF and all its derivatives, it sure seems that Origin's HTC, considered before to be a by-product in the production of CMF, is currently in highest demand. HTC can be used to make carbon black which is currently experiencing a severe shortage.
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