Kureha Plans U.S. Facility For Polyglycolic Acid

Japan's Kureha Corp. will spend more than $100 million on a plant producing polyglycolic acid (PGA), a new polyester resin targeted for use as a gas barrier layer in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Kureha will build the plant in Belle, W.Va., on the site of a DuPont facility that manufactures the resin's raw material, glycolic acid.

Kureha CEO Takao Iwasaki says construction will start early in 2008 and be completed early in 2010. The company says the plant will be the first in the world to make the polymer on a semicommercial scale. It anticipates initial annual sales of more than $100 million and says PGA could turn into a $1 billion business.

PGA is used today only in high-end applications such as surgical sutures. According to Elizabeth Gershon, executive vice president of Kureha America, company researchers have developed a cost-effective PGA manufacturing process that is backed by an extensive patent estate. Since 2002, the company has operated a 100-ton-per-year pilot plant in Iwaki, Japan.

Kureha says PGA serves as a barrier to both carbon dioxide and oxygen that is 100 times more effective than PET by itself. The resin is expected to allow soda and beer bottle makers to reduce the amount of PET they use by more than 20% without interfering with the PET recycling process. Gershon says PGA may also open up new markets that PET can't now serve because of its limited barrier properties.