Research - Total Petrochemicals Research Feluy

The Feluy Research Centre, Total Petrochemicals’ largest R&D Centre with personnel in excess of 400 people, pools catalyst expertise for petrochemicals, base chemicals, and refining.

Its main mission is to improve and develop new technologies and new polyolefins jointly with the Mont/Lacq (France) and La Porte (United States) research centres. To carry this through, Total Petrochemicals Research Feluy prospects and develops technology based on the Group’s objectives, cooperates with the factories, and assists customers both in making optimum use of the products and in developing new applications. The proximity of the research centre, the polymer production plant and the sales teams within the same site makes for better and more frequent contacts between people, promotes synergies, and, through greater efficiency, helps reduce the product development cycle. Over half the grades marketed today have been developed, improved or renewed in the last five years, which proves the success of the organisation in place.

Sustainable development is also at the heart of the concerns of Total Petrochemicals Research Feluy. The bimodal polyethylene technology, developed in Feluy and which the Group owns exclusively, as well as the metallocene catalyst technology, in the development of which Total is a major player, help produce plastics which boast improved properties and are less heavy and less bulky than those produced from traditional resins. Other ambitious projects are also underway in particular in the field of management of end-of-life plastics.

As regards innovation, Total Petrochemicals boasts a number of major technological developments in the field of catalysts and bimodal processes, innovations that have made the company a world leader in a number of market segments. In 2007, in partnership with the biotechnology firm Galactic (the world’s 2nd-largest producer of lactic acid and lactates), Total Petrochemicals launched a research and development programme on polylactic acid (PLA)-based second-generation polymers. PLA is a biodegradable bioplastic produced from sugar or starch. This research program, materialized through a joint venture called Futerro based in Escanaffles (Tournai), necessitated the construction of a pilot unit of 1 500 tonnes per year of PLA, which was inaugurated in April 2010. Total Petrochemicals also started a MTO (Methanol-To-Olefins) / OCP (Olefin-Craking-Process) demonstration unit at its Feluy site (Belgium) in autumn 2008. As methanol can be produced from natural gas, from coal or even one day from biomass, this cutting-edge technology will allow to open new ways of producing polymers from raw materials other than those traditionally used in petrochemicals (naphtha, ethane…).