Braskem
Braskem is the world’s largest producer of bio-polymers, producing material made from Brazilian sugarcane at sites in Brazil and Germany.
S&P Global Platts spoke to Henri Colens, external affairs lead at Braskem Netherlands, about the company’s approach to biopolymer production and the challenges involved.
Do all of Braskem’s bio-plastics derive from sugarcane?
In a word, yes. Braskem only produces what we call drop-in polymers. Drop-in polymers are simply bio-based versions [that] entail no substantial change in specification versus their fossil counterparts. Almost all of our drop-in bio-plastic products are derived from sugarcane.
There are four product families where the transition to bio-based feedstock is more challenging, including PP where we are assessing the use of the mass-balance approach, which would see us diversify our renewable feedstock portfolio.
How is bio-based material costed? At a premium to virgin grade fossil material or related to the sugarcane ethanol market?
The price of bio-based PE is completely decoupled from fossil-based PE. I believe Braskem is unique in its approach to move away so completely from petrochemical indexing, but this has led to several benefits for us.
Throughout our 10 years’ experience marketing this material, cost has always been the biggest challenge. For our drop-in biopolymers, such as I’m green™, we have always had higher sourcing and production costs compared to conventional petrochemical production.
Which particular sectors do you see demand for biomaterial coming from?
There is demand for sustainable solutions in literally all segments, but each for different reasons. Let’s take packaging as an example. When it comes to circular and sustainable alternatives, most food contact packaging will be more suited to chemically recycled or bio-based options due largely to regulatory issues and barriers to the use of mechanically recycled polyolefins. We will need, and companies will need, an arsenal of different sustainable solutions depending on segments.
In the very near future, bio-based plastic will play a crucial role in bringing circular solutions to the market. Given the loss of quality that can occur during the mechanical recycling process, virgin bio-based material can be used to restore any loss in functionality. For example, you have bio-based plastic that you can blend with potentially recycled plastic, which will bring a really circular solution. Demand for polyolefins in general is very steady as the market is very interested in mono-material solutions and bio-based polyolefins with excellent barrier and functional properties seem really well placed to deliver that.
Demand for biopolymers exists in all segments where traditional plastics play a role. Durable applications that lock in biogenic carbon for many years, applications that are hard to recycle and, in many cases, end up going to energy recovery or incineration, they are the ones demanding a lower carbon footprint, like bio-based PE. So, durables are potentially an interesting sector, alongside sectors like toys, building and construction, automotive — these sectors where there is potentially a suitable bio-based alternative could be really high-growth areas for biomaterial.
Do you see challenges to bio-polyolefins from biodegradable bio-plastics like PLA [polylactic acid]?
There has been a real uptick in PLA supply, and it is a material that can do a lot of interesting things. But there are very few applications where PE and PLA compete – as materials they just do different things. They are even quite complementary in some applications. There are some where there are real synergies such as laminated films for flexible packaging or a bio-component of non-wovens for the hygiene segment. It’s interesting – PLA is often classified as a biodegradable, but in reality, for the majority of applications the end-of-life is not composting.
Potentially there may be some challenge quite far into the future in terms of competition for feedstock, but at the moment that is not a challenge we are concerned about.
Some bio-polymer producers have noted customer pressure to move from first-generation bio-production (such as sugarcane or palm oil), to second-generation production methods (such as cooking fats or animal waste). Do you notice this pressure from customers?
There has been interest in second-generation solutions for a while. In a sense, it has always been there. However, whilst second-generation may seem to be an attractive and resource-efficient concept, the energy input you need to put into the process is often considerably higher and there are also some technical challenges. It means the shift to second-gen is still some way away, because of these sustainability issues and its economic viability. Yet, we continue to look for ways to develop this concept.
Do you think first-generation production such as sugar cane or palm oil have an image problem?
Palm oil certainly has an image problem, but I’m not so sure about sugarcane. We need to ensure people understand that sugarcane is grown sustainably, and we do a lot of analysis of our feedstock situation in order to reassure customers and consumers that this is the case. The Brazilian situation is clouded by the Amazon and biodiversity loss etc. but sugarcane is grown in a different part of the country, and under conditions which have been put in place to protect natural habitats. Alongside the environmental concerns we have also put in place a code of conduct for our farmers to ensure worker welfare processes are in place – cultivation and harvesting of sugarcane employs many people, but has become highly mechanized as well.
There is not a great deal of understanding among the public of biomass and of this kind of sourcing but locally grown plastics is a great concept and one we’d like to move towards. NGOs have a role to play in highlighting the risks of unsustainable use of agricultural feedstock, but we need to show people that we have the checks and balances in place to demonstrate this kind of sourcing can contribute to the fight against climate change.