GLOBAL BIOENERGIES: First production of isobutene from wheat straw at demo scale
February 06 2019 - 11:37AM
First production
of isobutene from wheat straw at demo scale
New phase for the
H2020 Optisochem project after 18 months of activity
Sugars from wheat
straw produced at Clariant's Sunliquid®
pre-commercial plant have been shipped to Global Bioenergies' Leuna
demo plant
Successful test
runs for production of straw-based isobutene, batches delivered to
INEOS for evaluation
Evry (France), 06
February 2019 - Global
Bioenergies today announces that runs using wheat straw hydrolysate
provided by its partner Clariant were successfully performed in its
Leuna demo plant, leading to the production of cellulosic isobutene
for the first time at this scale. These runs were part of
OPTISOCHEM, a project which started in June 2017 and was granted
€9.8 million by the Bio Based Industry- Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU)
as part of the H2020 program. The aim of the project is to
demonstrate a new value chain combining Global Bioenergies
bio-Isobutene process with technologies developed by Clariant and
INEOS, two of Europe's leading chemical companies: currently
underutilized residual wheat straw has been converted at demo scale
into second generation renewable bio-isobutene, and will eventually
be transformed into oligomers and polymers usable in lubricants,
rubbers, cosmetics, solvents, plastics, or fuels applications. The
intense R&D cooperation will continue until May 2021.
OPTISOCHEM focuses on the
demonstration of a new value chain, based on the combination of the
technologies and know-how of the participants from four EU member
states:
-
Conversion of straw into glucose- and
xylose-rich hydrolysates by Clariant sunliquid®
technology (Germany),
-
Fermentation of the straw hydrolysates into
bio-isobutene by Global Bioenergies (France and Germany),
-
Conversion of bio-isobutene into oligomers and
polymers by INEOS (Germany and France),
-
Preliminary engineering of an
hydrolysate-to-isobutene plant and overall integration with a
straw-to-hydrolysate plant, by TechnipFMC and IPSB (France),
and
-
The BBI-JU, a public-private
partnership between the European Union and the Bio-Industries
Consortium (BIC), is dedicated to realizing the European
bio-economy potential, turning biological residues and wastes into
greener everyday products through innovative technologies and
bio-refineries expected to become the heart of the bio-economy.
The BBI-JU selected this project
under the name OPTISOCHEM (N°744330), in the frame of the European
HORIZON 2020 programme for research and innovation, following a
very selective and competitive process led by independent
experts.
Markus Rarbach, Head of Biofuels
& Derivatives of Clariant comments: "OPTISOCHEM is
demonstrating a key value chain within the bio-economy: advanced
bio-refineries based on agricultural residues. From our
pre-commercial plant in Straubing (Germany) we have supplied
cellulosic sugars in tons scale to Global Bioenergies'
facilities for conversion to bio-isobutene during the first period
of the project. We are very pleased with the excellent results from
all partners and will continue to provide additional quantities in
the next phases so as to prepare for eventual commercial production
in the future."
Frederic Pâques, COO of Global
Bioenergies declares: "During this first period, we successfully
increased the performances of our micro-organism on traditional
substrate such as sucrose and adapted our best microbial chassis to
straw hydrolysates. We successfully run our pilot facility in
Pomacle (France) and our Demo facility in Leuna (Germany) both with
straw hydrolysate and sucrose as a benchmark. We expect to produce
several tons of bio-isobutene on this new non-conventional
feedstock in the remaining periods of the project"
Jean-François Boideau, EMEA
Commercial General Manager at INEOS Oligomers, said: "Our sites
have over fifty years of experience in the production of oligomers
and polymers of isobutene which are used in lubricants, rubbers,
cosmetics, plastics, solvents, and fuels. To date, we received
several batches of bio-isobutene from Global Bioenergies for
qualification purpose, and the quality is promising. During the
next phase of the project, INEOS is ready to evaluate conversion of
additional quantities of bio-isobutene into downstream products in
order to assess the potential of this bio-based feedstock as a
building block for end consumer applications."
This project has
received funding from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking
under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 744330
Disclaimer: this
press release reflect only the author's view and the BBI-JU is not
responsible for any use that may be made of the information it
contains
http://www.optisochem.eu
About GLOBAL
BIOENERGIES
Global Bioenergies is one of the
few companies worldwide, and the only one in Europe, that is
developing a process to convert renewable resources into
hydrocarbons. The Company initially focused its efforts on the
production of isobutene, one of the most important petrochemical
building blocks that can be converted into gasoline, jet fuel,
cosmetic ingredients, plastics and elastomers. Global Bioenergies
continues to improve the performance of its process, to operate its
demo plant in Germany, and to prepare the first full-scale plant
through a joint venture with Cristal Union, named IBN-One. Global
Bioenergies is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (FR0011052257 -
ALGBE)
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Contact
GLOBAL
BIOENERGIES
Bernard Chaud
Director of Industrial Strategy
Phone:
+33 (0)1 64 98 20 50
Email: invest@global-bioenergies.com
GLOBAL BIOENERGIES PRESS
RELEASE
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Source: GLOBAL BIOENERGIES via Globenewswire
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