Carbios Longlaville chemical recycling plant faces further delay

Carbios will not meet its target of achieving financial close for its planned chemical recycling plant in France by 30 September despite reaching significant milestones in securing financing for the project.

Earlier this year, the biotech firm confirmed it had set a new production start date of the first half of 2028 for its PET chemical recycling plant in Longlaville, which had originally been expected to open in 2025.

At the time, Carbios described its cash position as ‘solid’ with around €60 million ($69m) available at the end of December 2025, which it said would allow it to meet its operating expenses beyond the next 12 months.

In its latest update, the company confirmed that several banking partners had already obtained approval from their respective credit committees, marking a major step forward in its financing process.

Enzymatic degradation

However, the ‘highly innovative and first-of-its-kind nature’ of the Longlaville project, which has been touted as the world’s first biorecycling (enzymatic degradation) facility, involves multiple stakeholders, meaning that some parties were continuing ‘to conduct their due diligence work’.

‘As a result, the ongoing review process will not allow the company to meet its previously announced target of achieving financial close by 30 September 2026,’ Carbios said in a statement.

‘This consequently postpones the expected timeline for the start of production at the plant.

‘Carbios remains fully committed and confident in its ability to secure the conditions necessary to finalise the financing of the Longlaville plant and will provide the market with a further update when it reports its half-year results on 24 September 2026.’

In March, Carbios appointed Benoît Grenot as deputy chief executive officer to support the successful execution of its development projects.