Bioplastic specialist Bio-on has signed a licensing agreement with the Russian TAIF JSC group, which will acquire a license to build the Russian Federation's first plant producing 100% natural and biodegradable PHA bioplastic, in the Republic of Tatarstan.

The agreement was signed in the Kremlin in Moscow as part of bilateral meetings between Italy and Russia, in the presence of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. It marks a major milestone for the Italian company exactly 4 years since it was listed on the Milan stock exchange in 24 October 2014 with the ON symbol.
The agreement is worth a total of 17.6 million Euro (as anticipated in the presentation of the half-year results). In particular, 5.6 million goes on licensing Bio-on's exclusive technology to produce PHAs from sugar beet by-products; 12 million goes on the supply of plant components built according to Bio-on's proprietary technology. The industrial group TAIF JSC, operating in the traditional petrochemical sector, will invest a further 90 million Euro in building a 10 thousand tons/year production site expandable to 20 thousand tons/year in the future. The plant, the design of which will begin next month, will be operational in 2020.
With this project, the TAIF JSC group intends to open up new sectors of development for the revolutionary “green” plastic designed by Bio-on, both in segments traditionally served by oil-based plastics and in high added value advanced sectors.
"This agreement is of major importance to us," explains Bio-on S.p.A. Chairman and CEO Marco Astorri, "and it rewards the long and complex negotiations process launched in 2017. Signing the first contract with one of the main industrial groups in the Russian Federation, a leading plastics manufacturer," continues Astorri, "confirms the immense value of PHAs bioplastic, which is today the only alternative to the environmental issues created by conventional plastics."
"It is an important milestone," adds Vittorio Folla, Managing Director of Bio-on S.p.A. who led the negotiations, "in the process of consolidating our technology on international markets and, in tandem with our licensing activity launched in 2015, it helps in the construction of new production plants that can meet the growing demand for product in a number of sectors." All the PHAs bioplastics (polyhydroxyalkanoates) designed by Bio-on are made from renewable plant sources with no competition with food supply chains. They guarantee the same thermo-mechanical properties as conventional plastics with the advantage of being 100% eco-sustainable and naturally biodegradable. They also offer the possibility of new applications in sectors where conventional plastic is not used.

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