LG Chem’s logo (LG Chem)
LG Chem Ltd. said Tuesday it will build two production facilities in the US state of Illinois with a US food processing company to produce a biodegradable plastic widely used in food packaging.
Under the two joint ventures with Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), an agricultural food processor and biosolution company, they will build a facility to annually produce 75,000 tons of polylactic acid (PLA), in Decatur, the South Korean chemical company said in a release.
A separate facility will be built in the same city to produce up to 150,000 tons of high-purity corn-based lactic acid, a feedstock for PLA.
PLA is a bioplastic made from organic sources like corn starch and sugar cane, whose demand is increasing rapidly as an alternative to plastics produced using fossil fuels.
With 75,000 tons of PLA, a manufacturer can make some 2.5 billion 500-milliliter water bottles a year, LG Chem said.
LG Chem and ADM plan to start the construction of the two facilities in 2023 and complete them by 2025 once they gain all required regulatory approval. (Yonhap)
MOST POPULAR