Anellotech Partners With Suntory

Anellotech, a start-up developing biobased aromatic chemicals, is advancing a partnership with Suntory. The Japanese beverage maker wants to launch an entirely biobased polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle. To do this, it plans to use p-xylene from Anellotech to make purified terephthalic acid, a PET raw material. It already uses biobased ethylene glycol in some PET bottles. Suntory has provided Anellotech with more than $15 million in funding. The companies hope to prove the technology in a pilot plant that Anellotech is now installing in Pearl River, N.Y.