The French company Arkema recently announced that it will build a carbon nanotube pilot plant with an annual production capacity of 400 tons in the Atlantic Pyrenees, France, and plans to put it into production in 2011.

The experimental plant adopts a brand-new process and is the only company in the world that produces carbon nanotubes entirely from biological raw materials. It is understood that the company's process of producing carbon nanotubes from biological raw materials generally includes the conversion of plants into alcohols through fermentation, the formation of olefins in the reactor after dehydration, and the catalysts in a fluidized bed at 450°C to 850°C. In contact with olefins, carbon nanotubes are formed on the surface of the catalyst.

The company started to study this technology for preparing carbon nanotubes from biological raw materials in 2003, and built the first laboratory device with a scale of 20 tons/year in 2006. At present, the company is in a leading position in the world in the field of new carbon nanomaterials.