Mass balanced bio

Aug 22, 2023

A trio of Japanese companies - Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), Suntory Holdings Limited and Eneos Corporation are collaborating on the development of a new, sustainable supply chain for PET bottles that have been derived from biomass, the companies have announced. The initiative will be based on the use of a bio-based feedstock called Neste Re, supplied by Finland-based Neste Cooperation. Neste Re is made from 100% bio-based raw waste and residues, including used cooking oil - and this project marks the first time it is being used for production of PET on a commercial scale.

The feedstock will be supplied to Eneos, that will use the mass-balanced bio-intermediates based on Neste RE to produce bio-PX at its Mizushima Refinery in Okayama, Japan. The bio-PX will then be converted to PTA (Purified Terephthalic Acid) and subsequently to PET resin for Suntory to use to manufacture their PET bottles. By the end of 2023, a volume of bio-PX which will be sufficient to produce some 35 million PET bottles will have been produced. This will serve as a raw material for the production of Suntory's sustainable PET bottles in 2024.

Mitsubishi Corporation will be coordinating the collaboration between the value chain partners. The company believes that using biomass for PET bottles, together with the further development of the recycling system, will play an important role in the realisation of a low-carbon and decarbonised society, as well as in reducing dependency on fossil resources.

PET is produced from two different monomers. Mono ethylene glycol (MEG), for which a bio-based version has long been available, accounts for about 30% of the main raw material of PET resin used for PET bottles. The remaining approximately 70% is made up of high-purity terephthalic acid, which is conventionally manufactured from petroleum-derived naphtha. PET bottle resin is produced by reacting PTA with MEG.

A mass balance approach will be applied to allocate the bio-based materials to the PET bottles.

Supply chain diagram

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