Intensive Landings! 2025 Global Bio-Based Polyolefin Demonstration Project Core Dynamics Overview

Project Update: In September 2025, Braskem announced an increase in the production capacity of its second-generation bio-based polyethylene (I'm Green™ PE) at the Triunfo plant in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from 200,000 tons per year to 300,000 tons per year.

Technology route: Using non-food bagasse (cellulosic ethanol) as raw material, dehydrated to produce ethylene and then polymerized. Compared to the first generation (sugarcane juice ethanol), the carbon footprint is reduced by an additional 15%, and it does not compete with humans for food.

Customer applications: Supplied to global brands such as Coca-Cola (plant bottles), IKEA (packaging film), and L'Oréal (cosmetic bottles).

Certification status: Obtained ISCC PLUS and TÜV OK Carbon certifications.

Project Update: In March 2025, UK chemical giant INEOS and Finnish renewable fuel leader Neste jointly announced the official commissioning of their 30,000-ton/year bio-based polyethylene demonstration plant in Cologne, Germany.

Technology Route: Utilizing waste edible oils, animal fats, and other waste greases, converting them into renewable naphtha through Neste's proprietary hydrogenation (HVO) technology, and then feeding them into INEOS's cracker furnace to produce ethylene.

Product Features: The chemical structure is completely identical to petroleum-based PE, 100% recyclable, suitable for food contact grade packaging.

Project Update: In July 2025, carbon capture biotechnology company LanzaTech and India Glycols announced the completion of the world's first kiloton-scale CO₂ + green hydrogen → ethanol → ethylene → polyethylene pilot line in Gujarat, India.

技术路线：利用钢厂尾气中的CO₂，通过基因工程菌发酵制乙醇，再脱水制乙烯。

Significance: Paving a new path for "negative carbon" polyolefins, each ton of PE can fix approximately 2 tons of CO₂.

Current status: Still in the pilot test stage, with the goal of constructing a 10,000-ton demonstration line by 2027.

Although China has not yet established a million-tonne-scale bio-based polyolefin project, several key milestones are expected to achieve substantial progress by 2025.

Although the α-olefin comprehensive utilization industrial park, with a total investment of 26.6 billion yuan, which is set to be put into operation in 2025, is primarily based on ethane cracking, the company has clearly stated in its communication with investors: "We are laying out technological reserves for bio-based α-olefins, which can be compatible with bioethanol or biomass syngas routes in the future." The 40,000-ton EAA (ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer) project, scheduled to start production in 2025, has reserved interfaces for blending bio-based ethylene.

In June 2025, Jinfat Technology launched a production line for 10,000 tons of bio-based polyolefin modified materials in Qingyuan, Guangdong.

Technical features: Blending sugarcane ethanol-based PE (sourced from overseas suppliers) with biodegradable materials such as PHA and PLA, used for automotive interiors and household appliance exteriors.

Advantages: Balancing processing performance, mechanical strength, and partial bio-based content (up to 30–50%).

Relying on the Longdu Chemical New Materials Laboratory established in 2024, Puyang will launch the "Bio-based Polyethylene Pilot Platform" in Q2 of 2025.

Raw material route: Starting from straw cellulose ethanol, the goal is to develop non-food, low-cost ethylene monomer.

Progress: Catalyst screening and small-scale trials have been completed, with plans to build a hundred-ton pilot plant by 2026.

Industrialization of Bio-based Polyolefins

It's not a sprint, but a marathon.

2025

The contestants have just stepped onto the starting line.