Asian, Finnish firms start Sony bioplastic supply chain

Asian and Finnish companies in chemicals, refining and trading have created a bioplastic supply chain for Japanese electronics maker Sony to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in electronics production.

In the supply chain, Finnish biofuels producer Neste will supply bionaphtha to four petrochemical companies, the companies said on 6 February.

The supply chain of multiple companies works like this: Japanese refiner Eneos and South Korean chemicals firm SK Geo Centric will process the bionaphtha supplied by Neste at their crackers to produce bio-paraxylene (bio-PX); this bio-PX will be used by South Korea's Hanwha Impact to make renewable terephthalic acid; that is then converted to renewable polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) resin and films by Japanese firm Toray's South Korean subsidiary Toray Advanced Materials Korea.

Eneos has already started supplying the bio-paraxylene produced at its Mizushima refinery in western Japan, the company said.

Other companies involved in the supply chain are Japanese refiner Idemitsu which uses bionaphtha at its cracker to produce renewable styrene monomer, which Taiwan's Formosa Chemicals and Fibre (FCFC) converts to renewable polystyrene resin.

Another Japanese chemicals firm, Mitsui Chemicals, also uses Neste's bionaphtha to produce bisphenol-A. Japan's Adeka also uses a bio-derived feedstock to make flame retardants, while Chinese firm Qingdao Haier New Material Development produces polycarbonate or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin. Taiwan-based Chimei also supplies renewable polycarbonate resin.

All these biochemical materials will be processed by plastics molding companies for Sony's new products. Using a mass balance approach, biomass-based attributes will be allocated to the products across the supply chain. Japanese trading house Mitsubishi will coordinate the entire chain and manage the delivery of environmental credits.

The total volume of bio-naphtha needed for the chain was not disclosed. Using Neste's bionaphtha typically reduces GHG emissions by around 85pc compared with using only conventional fossil-derived naphtha, Mitsubishi said.

Sony plans to roll out new audio-visual products made with these renewable plastics globally as it aims to achieve net-zero GHG emissions by 2040.

Argus last assessed bionaphtha delivered to northeast Asia at $1,875/t cfr on 6 February, $1,270/t over Japanese fossil naphtha. The range of downstream bio-based products in development continues to expand, but high prices for bionaphtha and downstream biochemicals continue to inhibit wider adoption and commercialisation, according to chemical producers in the region.

By Kohei Yamamoto and Lauren Moffitt