CLERMONT-FERRAND, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
CARBIOS (Paris:ALCRB) (Euronext Growth Paris: ALCRB), pioneer company in the field of bioplasturgy, today announces the successful completion of the fifth and final key stage of the THANAPLAST™ project and the payment of €1,021,871 from Bpifrance for having achieved this new milestone.
The THANAPLAST™ project accounts for a budget of €22 million over 5 years, including €15 million directly raised by CARBIOS. Financing support from Bpifrance represents €9 million, of which €6.8 million were directly allocated to CARBIOS in successive installments at the completion of the five key stages of the project.
As lead of this program, CARBIOS has brought together key academic and industrial partners within THANAPLAST™ (INRA, TWB, INSA de Toulouse - LISBP/Critt-Bioindustries -, CNRS, Université de Poitiers, Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients, Group Barbier and Deinove). Right from the beginning in 2012, 60 scientists have been involved to ensure the development of CARBIOS’ bioprocesses. Carried out over 5 years, this collaborative project has just been successfully completed in accordance with the initial timing and objectives.
During the final key stage, CARBIOS published several announcements on successful developments of its technologies. In the field of biorecycling, CARBIOS demonstrated its ability to synthetize PET oligomers made out of terephthalic acid coming from its biorecycling process of PET plastic bottles, and then to produce virgin PET from post-consumer PET plastic bottles treated by enzymatic hydrolysis. Beyond these results comforting the technological value of the innovations developed with the THANAPLAST™ project partners, CARBIOS pursued the industrialization of its biodegradation process through the joint-venture CARBIOLICE, created in 2016 with Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients and the SPI funds run by Bpifrance.
Alain MARTY, Scientific Director of CARBIOS, is delighted of the success of the THANAPLAST™ project: “This 5-year research and development program has led to the emergence of two valorization routes for plastics end-of-life: the biodegradation of PLA-based plastics and the recycling of PET, the predominant plastic in our bottles and trays. Highly specific enzymes have been discovered and optimized to enable their introduction at a very high temperature within a plastic and to improve their catalytic properties. This work has led to the development of very innovative processes whose industrial implementation is already conducted within CARBIOLICE since 2016. Our next step will be to launch a PET biorecycling pilot plant. Thank you to everyone who contributed to these successes.”
“Through this major collaborative project, our ambition was to bring together the best academic and private scientists to introduce a real breakthrough technology in the world of plastics. The work of the teams involved in the THANAPLAST™ program has produced remarkable results and I particularly want to thank our partners for their implication. We are now in the industrial scale-up stage of our processes to make these innovations concrete and engage a major change in the way we handle plastics life-cycle”, concluded Jean-Claude LUMARET, CEO of CARBIOS.
About CARBIOS:
CARBIOS is a young, innovative green chemistry company, whose mission is to find biological solutions to the environmental and sustainable development issues faced by industrial businesses today. CARBIOS acquired the rights to research that was conducted over many years by various public and private sector laboratories. By leveraging the unique properties of biological catalysts (enzymes), it has used this research as the foundation for developing innovative industrial bioprocesses that optimize the technical, economic and environmental performance of polymers (thermoplastic materials and synthetic or food-based fibers). The company has focused its efforts on a strategic application sector: plastics. CARBIOS’ growth strategy is based on a clear business model of industrial value creation that targets attractive markets, develops innovative and competitive bioprocesses and licenses them to major industrial stakeholders for commercialization. CARBIOS benefits from the financial support of the leading European venture capital firm Truffle Capital. Founded in 2011, CARBIOS was granted the label “Young Innovative Company” by Bpifrance (former OSEO) and is eligible for investments by private equity mutual funds (FCPIs). For more information, please visit: www.carbios.fr
CARBIOS is eligible for the PEA-PME, a government program allowing French residents investing in SMEs to benefit from income tax rebates.
