LG Chem to build bioplastic plants in Illinois with US food processor

LG Chem Ltd. said Tuesday it will build two production facilities in the US state of Illinois with a US food processing company to produce a biodegradable plastic widely used in food packaging.

Under the two joint ventures with Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), an agricultural food processor and biosolution company, they will build a facility to annually produce 75,000 tons of polylactic acid (PLA), in Decatur, the South Korean chemical company said in a release.

A separate facility will be built in the same city to produce up to 150,000 tons of high-purity corn-based lactic acid, a feedstock for PLA.

PLA is a bioplastic made from organic sources like corn starch and sugar cane, whose demand is increasing rapidly as an alternative to plastics produced using fossil fuels.

With 75,000 tons of PLA, a manufacturer can make some 2.5 billion 500-milliliter water bottles a year, LG Chem said.

LG Chem and ADM plan to start the construction of the two facilities in 2023 and complete them by 2025 once they gain all required regulatory approval. (Yonhap)