Latest News:LG Chem (Seoul, South Korea) and Archer-Daniels-Midland
Co. (ADM; Chicago) held a signing ceremony to establish two joint ventures to produce lactic acid and polylactic acid in the United States to meet growing demand for a variety of plant-based products, including bioplastics. The two joint ventures have selected Decatur, Illinois, USA, as the location for their future production facilities, pending a final investment decision.
The first joint venture, GreenWise Lactic, will produce up to 150,000 tons of corn-based high-purity lactic acid per year. ADM will become GreenWise
and contributes the fermentation capacity of its Decatur Bioproducts facility to the joint venture. The second joint venture, LG Chem Illinois Biochem, will be majority-owned by LG Chem.
It will leverage LG Chem’s expertise in bioplastics to build a facility that will produce approximately 75,000 tons of PLA per year using products from GreenWise Lactic
(PLA).
ADM CEO Juan R.
“Sustainability is one of the enduring global trends driving ADM’s strategy and growth,” said Luciano. “Our BioSolutions platform is helping us meet this need, redeploying our carbohydrate solutions capacity to fast-growing, higher-margin High areas – including pharmaceuticals and personal care, textiles and paper products.
BioSolutions is already growing rapidly, with revenue up 1.36% YoY in the first half of 2022
With these two new joint ventures, we plan to take the next step of growth and significantly expand our capabilities to meet the growing demand for botanical solutions. We are happy to expand with LG
Chemical collaboration, we are excited about the opportunity to bring this new anticipated production and resulting economic benefits to our North American headquarters in Decatur. ”
Hak Cheol Shin, CEO of LG Chem
“The establishment of this joint venture is a sustainable development strategy that can directly contribute to addressing environmental issues such as climate change and waste plastics,” the comments said, adding, “LG Chem is the first company in Korea to build a PLA plant with integrated production capacity to the final product. With the establishment of this joint venture, LG Chem will not only obtain commercial scale production
PLA
The required production capacity of high-purity lactic acid will also enable the use of biomaterials in the development of various high-value-added products. Based on environmentally friendly materials and as the axis of a new growth engine, we will respond to changing markets and customers while becoming a market leader. ”
In 2021, the global demand for lactic acid, which is widely used in industries such as food, feed and cosmetics, and bioplastics, is expected to grow at an annual rate of
8%. Global demand for bioplastics and biopolymers is expected to grow from USD 10.7 billion in 2021 to USD 29.7 billion in 2026, an annual growth rate of 22.7%.
