Avantium tries for an encore

Can Avantium do it again? In 2016, the Dutch renewable chemical developer snagged a deal worth up to $700 million with the big chemical maker BASF. The two firms formed a joint venture to bring a sugar-derived polymer, polyethylene furanoate (PEF), to market. On the strengths of that deal, Avantium raised more than $100 million last year in an initial public offering of stock. The joint venture, called Synvina, will use a large chunk of that cash to commercialize PEF as a renewable alternative to the ubiquitous petroleum-derived polymer polyethylene terephthalate. But Avantium also has three other renewable chemical projects under way: making sugars from nonfood biomass, converting sugar to ethylene glycol, and electrochemically converting carbon dioxide to chemical building blocks. It now seeks a repeat performance in biobased chemicals despite heightened competition from traditional chemicals because of low oil prices. Gert-Jan Gruter, Avantium’s chief technology officer, says the firm