On August 11, 2021, NatureWorks, the largest foreign manufacturer of polylactic acid (PLA) plastics, is planning to open a new polylactic acid plant in Thailand. NatureWorks has obtained the final authorization from the parent company and plans to invest more than $600 million in the construction of the factory. After completion, it will be the first fully integrated PLA plant to produce lactic acid and PLA plastics.
It is reported that the construction of the new plant will begin in the second quarter of 2022, and it plans to produce 75,000 tons of materials per year.The factory will be built in Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Sawan Province, Thailand
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The complex (NBC) is expected to open in 2024.
This will be the second PLA plant of NatureWorks. They opened their first plant in Blair, Nebraska, USA. As the world’s largest PLA production plant, it produces 150,000 tons of Ingeo brand PLA annually. In addition to the new Thai factory, the US factory will also be expanded.
NatureWorks began to provide a method for3D printingOf biopolymers. To produce this material, it uses waste materials from plants such as corn and sugarcane to grind to extract starch. Next, microorganisms break it down into lactic acid, which is converted into cyclic lactic acid, which is opened and connected into Ingeo polymers. All of this production will now be carried out in the new factory in Thailand.
Although polylactic acid seems to be a more environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuel-derived polymers, it also has its own problems. One of the biggest problems is that the growth of corn raw materials used for polylactic acid usually relies on fertilizers, and fertilizers themselves generate greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, which is 310 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. A bioplastics manufacturer calculated, “If NatureWorks produces at full capacity, it will create 56[terra
grams]The carbon dioxide equivalent is more than all the landfills in the United States combined…”
Compiled from: 3dprint
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