Carbios' PET bio-recycling plant construction in Longlaville postponed again

Weeks go by, however problems persist to Carbios. In any cas those relating to the start-up of the Longlaville plant (Meurthe-et-Moselle), a project which is decisive to its future. The environmentally friendly chemistry company which, to the record, has developed a recycling process based on enzymes to convert discarded materials into polyethylene terephtalate (PET) in their constituent monomers, which are terephtalic acid and ethylene glycol to then reconstitute it, compass With a capacity of 50000 tons annually.

The announcement of its construction had summer made in early 2022 with a lot of communication actions. Only here, after various adventures linked to both its organization, its partners and former managers, and despite the fact that Carbios has convinced blue-chip customers like L'Oréal or L'Occitane in Provence, the company still cannot complete its financing.

Concretely, of the 230 million euros needed, only state aid-which has made Longlaville an manufacturing Cathedral project-via Ademe and the Grand Est Region and a total amount of 42.5 million euros, remain confirmed and unchanged. The rest, or 187.5 million euros, which are part of a financing bringing together manufacturing partners and European banks and the same Carbios, via its own funds, are still missing.

"It's a complex project that involves multiple stakeholders, on the banking side as well as on the loan guarantors side. It takes a little plus time planned, it should not be forgotten that this is the first PET bio-recycling plant in the world, "says Benoît Grenot, the company's new chief executive that" there is still work to be done "to complete the task.

After succeeding Vincent Kamel on June 1, this former manager of Saint-Gobain, who passed through PSB Industries, highlights his manufacturing expertise in specialty chemicals and his international experience to change the course of things (see our interview below). Communication is one of them.

"I want to change my method, to abandon commitments of dates at 2-3 years in favor of regular progress points and a careful and transparent plus communication, in line with the obligations of a listed company," he explains. To those who retort that the financing difficulties are linked to problems of confidence in the process itself, the manager replied in the negative: "The process has nothing to do with it. These are healthy deadlines to an operation of this scope ".

In this case, and despite criticism, the company remains very confident in enzyme recycling. Around 100 batches to the equivalent of 200 tonnes of rPET have summer already produced which have enabled some historical partners to launch items on the market while the conversion rate, which presented some performance problems, has summer improved. "We have managed to convert 95% of discarded materials in 24 hours, including somewhat complex items, by mastering the amount of enzymes which allows us to stay in the nails in terms of economic viability", explains the leader. greater than 70% of the capacity of the Lille site is the subject of contractual commitments, with discussions underway to surpass this limit. It only plus left to wait... As a reminder, the construction of the Longlaville plant has already undergone three deportals, in September 2025, in December of the same year and, finally at the beginning of August. Initially scheduled to early 2025, construction will therefore not start before 2029, even if no official calendar is set.