Braskem is giving one more important step to reinforce its pioneering work in the development of green polymers with the investment of R$ 8,25 million, which should be soon formalized, in the expansion of researches on green propene for the production of polypropylene (PP) based on 100% renewable raw material. Braskem produced the first green polypropylene of the world in 2008, certified as from 100% renewable origin.

With such investment, planned for application in the next three years through Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp), which holds 50% of the project, Braskem is already working on the details required to reach commercial scale. Braskem partnership in this project is the biotechnology area of the University of Campinas (Unicamp).

"Our technology has already been tested in pilot experiments, and we are improving our polymers with more competitive technologies in commercial scale, based on raw material of renewable source", says Antonio Queiroz, director of Innovation and Technology at Braskem. "The market sizing will define the next steps and deadlines", he adds.

The pioneering work of Braskem in the development of green polymers is the result of investments, partnerships and the priority given to the Innovation and Technology area, which enables improved competitiveness to all production chain of the petrochemical company. With 219 patent registration applications, four of them of green polymers, the company offers its clients a team of 190 experts and R$ 330 million in research and development assets.

The development of renewable polymers is aligned with the company’s strategy for value creation through technology and innovation and for improved competitiveness. Confirming its commitment to investments in cleaner sources utilized in the petrochemical industry, Braskem launched in April 2009 the Cornerstone of the Green Polyethylene Project at the Petrochemical Complex of Triunfo, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The project investments will reach around R$ 500 million and should include the construction of an ethylene plant - the polyethylene raw material - based on ethanol.

According to Bernardo Gradin, president of Braskem, "the investment is part of the company’s strategy of growth with value creation and is aligned with the purpose of making it an international reference for the development of green polymers". The start-up of the green ethylene plant is planned to occur in the fourth quarter of 2010, and the commercial operations might start in early 2011. This Unit will have the production capacity of 200 thousand MT/year.

Besides the environmental aspects, the utilization of green polyethylene offers an additional advantage: its application characteristics and properties are identical to those of the traditional plastic, which allows transformation industries to use their current facilities to process the resin of renewable source. The concept of green polyethylene sustainability is linked with its ability to capture and fix CO2 from the atmosphere. Each produced kilo of Green PE captures around 2.5 kg of CO2.

For the Green PE, Braskem has established since last year a number of partnerships with large clients of national and international markets that wish to attribute the sustainability concept to their brands, mainly European, American and Japanese companies.

The partnership with Toyota Tsusho for the Green PE trading in the Asian market has produced the first market result with the renewable resin, the contract established in Japan with Shiseido, one of the largest cosmetic companies in the world. In both partnerships, the potential demand already identified for the Green PE reaches around 600 thousand MT/year, three times as much the capacity of the new plant under construction at the Petrochemical Complex of Triunfo.