BASF and Avantium have announced the formation of a joint venture (JV) for the production and marketing of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), which is produced from renewable resources, as well as the marketing of the new polymer polyethylenefuranoate (PEF) based on the new chemical building block FDCA.

The aim of the JV named Synvina with headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is to build up world-leading positions in FDCA and PEF. It is planned to invest a mid-three-digit million euro sum to build a reference plant with an annual capacity of up to 50,000 metric tons per year at BASF's Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium, and to license the technology for industrial scale production.

For the production of FDCA, Synvina will use the YXY process® developed by Avantium which is based on fructose as renewable raw material.

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