Danimer Scientific, Inc. (Bainbridge, Ga.) announced it has successfully completed the expansion of its Rochester, NY demonstration plant in order to better serve partners for the testing of Rinnovo polymers.
Rinnovo is a type of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthesized using a thermocatalytic process, which the company believes can be produced at a lower cost than PHA produced via fermentation processes. The Rinnovo product platform boasts unique properties relative to currently marketed PHA materials, including enhanced barrier properties, increased elongation and a lower melting temperature. Danimer expects the capital cost to build out future commercial capacity of Rinnovo will be significantly less than commercial plants using fermentation processes to produce other types of PHAs.
When operated continuously, the expanded demonstration plant can produce 20 tons annually, which marks an approximate 20x scale up from the previous production capacity. Key features of the expansion project include a larger carbonylation reactor, installation of three additional fractional distillation towers, a larger polymerization reactor and a polymer drying unit. The demonstration plant also features enhanced controls and data collection that will support additional process condition testing and optimization of the commercial plant design.
Stephen E. Croskrey, Chief Executive Officer of Danimer, said, “We are thrilled to have the Rinnovo demonstration plant expansion completed, allowing us to accelerate our efforts to gain offtake commitments for this exciting polymer platform. Further, I would like to commend the entire Danimer team in Rochester for their efforts to bring the facility on line safely and within budget.”