Origin Materials, a world-leading carbon-negative materials company with a mission to enable the world’s transition to sustainable materials and Terphane, part of Tredegar Corporation, the global leader in specialty PET polyester films (BOPET), have announced their strategic partnership.
This partnership aims to produce sustainable, high-performance biopolymer films.
As part of the partnership, Terphane signed a multi-year capacity reservation agreement to purchase the advanced bio-polymer PEF for film applications, including food and beverage packaging and high-value industrial applications. BOPEF is biaxially oriented PEF, and BOPET is biaxially oriented PET. These stretched polymer films are valued for their strength, transparency, barrier properties, and electrical insulation.
“We are pleased to partner with Terphane, a trusted global leader in films with expansive customer and partner relationships,” said Rich Riley, Co-CEO of Origin Materials.
“We are thrilled to work together to develop advanced, performance-enhanced products that help to enable a net zero material economy. This partnership represents further progress in Origin’s mission to enable the world’s transition to sustainable materials.”
Marcos Vieira, global director of research and development for Terphane, said the development of this film would be critical to Terphane’s efforts to meet this new global demand for sustainable, flexible packaging solutions.
The film is partially made from PEF and has all the traditional properties of a regular PET film, including post-consumption recycling. He continued that PEF provided excellent thermal resistance and superior barrier performance, extending the shelf life of the packaged products.
Initial tests in the USA proved the material works perfectly in extrusion lines.
Origin Materials’ patented technology platform represents a potential breakthrough in commercialising cost-competitive and low-carbon PEF. Made from furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA), the primary precursor to PEF, Origin PEF is a polymer with an attractive combination of sustainability and performance characteristics for packaging, including enhanced barrier properties.
Origin’s PEF is expected to be 100 percent plant-based, fully recyclable, have attractive unit economics, and offer a significantly reduced carbon footprint, superior strength, thermal properties, and barrier properties compared to today’s widely used petroleum-based materials.
