India's Balrampur Chini Builds 100-Ton PLA R&D Facility

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 24, India's Balrampur Chini Mills Limited (BCML) received 750 million rupees in funding from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) to build a 100-ton/year PLA and copolymer pilot R&D facility at its integrated manufacturing base in Kumbhi, Uttar Pradesh. The project is included in the Indian government's BioE3 program, focusing on developing next-generation polylactic acid (PLA) grades and copolymers, and establishing a complete technology pathway from laboratory R&D and pilot validation to commercial scale-up.

The new facility will focus on PLA material formulation development, copolymer modification, process optimization, customer validation, and scale-up. The company plans to use the pilot plant to develop specialized PLA materials suitable for higher value-added applications, including copolymer products with higher requirements for heat resistance, toughness, processing performance, and functionalization, while accumulating the process parameters and engineering data needed for continuous commercial production.

The R&D facility will be built within BCML's integrated manufacturing park in Kumbhi, Uttar Pradesh. The site is currently also building an 80,000-ton/year commercial PLA production facility. The R&D pilot plant will form a supporting relationship with the commercial production line, providing support for new product development, technology localization, and subsequent industrial scale-up.

PLA uses renewable biomass as a raw material and is an important category of bio-based biodegradable materials, applicable to packaging, single-use items, fibers, agricultural materials, and certain high-performance bio-based products. BCML has long been based on the sugar and ethanol businesses. This extension into the PLA industry will further channel biomass resources such as sugarcane into the bio-based materials production chain. India's Ministry of Science and Technology has also included the project as a biomanufacturing industrialization demonstration project under the BioE3 framework.