Specialist
Former President & CEO at NatureWorks LLC
Agenda
- Evolution, advances and challenges in PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) plastics technology
- PHA vs PLA (polylactic acid) and ethylene derivatives – product comparison
- Manufacturing challenges and product development across Danimer (NYSE: DNMR) and the industry
- Market opportunities and timelines
Questions
1.
Could you give a general background on Danimer Scientific? What is it trying to do and where did it come from?
2.
Could you talk about PHA [polyhydroxyalkanoate] technology? What happened with Metabolix? What is Danimer trying to do similarly and differently?
3.
What makes PHA so expensive? Is it the feedstock or the process of making it?
4.
What do you think are the best applications for PHA? Do any types of product present unique challenges in making usable products that customers would want?
5.
How do we know that PHA does biodegrade? How quickly does it biodegrade? What have you observed around that?
6.
What organisation would set the standards for plastic globally, that governments would have to answer to if they were to enforce something that required marine biodegradability? The organisation testing the biodegradability is TÜV Austria.
7.
How many and what size of fermenters are necessary to manufacture PHA? What do fermenters cost?
8.
Danimer mentioned the turnaround late in Q2 2020. How long would these turnarounds take? Are they complicated? What utilisation would you expect out of a fermenter?
9.
Is a fermenter just made out of stainless steel?
10.
How much of the total cost do you think the fermenters represent?
11.
Danimer talked about its greenfield expansion costing USD 700m, plus or minus 30%. I understand that steel costs are up. What are your thoughts on that?
12.
How does Danimer develop customers and find the right ones? Everybody seems to be getting on board with ESG initiatives.
13.
Do you think making a plastic spirits bottle will be technically feasible by 2023?
14.
Danimer mentioned that for shorter-term deals it wasn’t putting in price escalators on the cost of canola, but it could hedge it. Do you think feedstock, whether sugar, canola or anything else, will impact the economics? Or is it more about the availability of feedstock?
15.
Do you expect more competitors to emerge in PHA? What would they have to do to compete?
16.
What was the Korean company that bought the Metabolix technology? What should we monitor in this industry through 2021?