Life Cycle Assessment Shows Chloromethylfurfural (CMF) Produced Through Origin Process Carbon Negative

Origin Materials recently released a Life Cycle Assessment, performed by Deloitte, analyzing the environmental impact of sustainable coproducts 5-chloromethylfurfural, furfural, levulinic acid, and hydrothermal carbon.

[October 15, 2020] – The versatile chemical building block 5-chloromethylfurfural (CMF, CAS 1623‑88‑7), and coproducts produced by Origin Materials’ proprietary biomass-to-chemicals platform including furfural, levulinic acid, and hydrothermal carbon (HTC), are all expected to be highly carbon negative when produced at commercial scale, according to the newly released Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) authored by Deloitte.

The Life Cycle Assessment studies Origin Materials’ products across 4 environmental criteria: climate change, ecosystem quality, resource consumption, and human health. The study demonstrates significant climate change benefit at commercial production scale, showing expected climate change impact when using sustainably grown North American softwood as follows: -1.2 kg CO₂ eq/kg CMF; -1.7 kg CO₂ eq/kg HTC; -1.5 kg CO₂ eq/kg furfural; -1.4 kg CO₂ eq/kg levulinic acid.

5-chloromethylfurfural is a highly flexible raw material for many applications including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) through precursors para-xylene (pX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA), as well as numerous commodity and specialty chemicals including furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), monomers, surfactants, plasticizers and many more. Origin’s proprietary biomass-to-chemicals technology directly converts lignocellulosic plant-based carbon into chemical building blocks in a highly economical process, without the need for an independent saccharification step.

“Our mission is to enable the world’s transition to sustainable materials,” says Origin Materials CEO John Bissell. “Nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions come from manufacturing materials and products. Our carbon-negative building blocks play a critical role in shifting away from petroleum as the main input to the material economy, towards carbon-negative materials and a sustainable future.”

“We’re giving the chemical industry the tools it needs to lower the greenhouse gas emissions of countless products by embracing sustainable, carbon negative chemistries that are decoupled from petrochemical economics,” says Dr. Robin Gibson, Origin’s Director of Business Development. “Compared with petroleum, Origin’s furan chemistry platform offers lower costs, dramatically reduced climate change impact, and the ability to utilize vast and global resources like timber residues and waste biomass. This innovation means that Origin can offer sustainable and economical solutions to at least a third of the global chemical industry.”

The coproduct Life Cycle Analysis is available here.

About Origin Materials
Origin Materials is a chemical technology company enabling the world’s transition to sustainable materials. Origin is headquartered in California with a facility under construction in Ontario, Canada. Origin’s technology produces building-block furanic intermediates from biomass. Furanic intermediates can be used to make a variety of products including polymers, surfactants, plasticizers, carbon blacks, activated carbon and more. For more information visit www.originmaterials.com or contact elwinchester@originmaterials.com. Robin Gibson may be reached at rgibson@originmaterials.com. To view the Coproduct LCA visit www.originmaterials.com/coproduct-lca-2018.