Pilot plant to produce PHA from byproducts dairy industry near out Caleyda Extraction Facility
Following the opening of the Caleyda Extraction Facility at GETEC Park at the end of May, a pilot facility for producing PHA is also being established at GETEC Park in Emmen. In this pilot, PHA will be produced from by-products of the dairy industry in close collaboration with our partner Looop. This is now the third organic sidestream from which we will produce PHA. The process of PHA production from sewage sludge from water boards and from process water from the paper industry has already been validated.
‘This facility will not be located next to the Caleyda Extraction Facility, but inside one of the GETEC halls,’ says Jan Peter Borger, project director at Paques Biomaterials. ‘We are very pleased that GETEC is now facilitating us for the second time in terms of space and utilities. We will soon be running both a pilot for the production of PHA-rich biomass and for the extraction of PHA polymers here at GETEC Park. This will give us a good idea of how to scale this up to a full-scale plant. This is very important to us, to produce material for application development as well as to lay the foundation for the engineering of the full-scale PHA plant that is planned for the south side of Emmen.”
Martijn van der Zande (CEO GETEC Benelux): ‘GETEC is delighted with the establishment of Paques Biomaterials’ second pilot plant at our GETEC.PARK in Emmen, as this fits perfectly with the development of a new industrial cluster at our park, where Food & Biotech will come together.’
If everything goes according to plan, the production facility is expected to be operational in Q1 2026.
Photo caption: Joost Paques (CEO Paques Biomaterials) and Martijn van der Zande (CEO GETEC Benelux) sign the agreement for the second pilot installation at GETEC PARK.EMMEN.