Bio­méthodes begins con­struc­tion of its pilot plant in Vir­gin­ia (USA)

Evry (France, Essonne), Norton (USA, Vir­gin­ia)
Bio­méthodes, a French bio­tech­no­logy com­pany ded­ic­ated to the devel­op­ment of a bio-refinery pro­cess from non-food bio­mass, and its US sub­si­di­ary Opt­aFuel, announced on 9^th Septem­ber that con­struc­tion has begun on its pilot plant in Norton, VA. ​“Con­struc­tion of our first pilot plant rep­res­ents a sig­ni­fic­ant invest­ment of $24 mil­lion and is the cul­min­a­tion of sig­ni­fic­ant efforts at the lab scale and pre-oper­a­tion­al scale, an import­ant step in the path towards com­mer­cial­iz­a­tion as well as a sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress for bioeconomy based on non-food bio­mass,” stated Gilles Amsallem, CEO of Bio­méthodes. ​“We are also very excited that shortly our US team, com­posed of more than two dozen Vir­gin­ia based sci­ent­ists and engin­eers, will be able to move to this brand new facil­ity.“

The pilot plant will scale-up and demon­strate the com­pany’s pro­cess for trans­form­ing non-food feed­stocks and enabling non-pet­ro­chem­ic­al fuels, mater­i­als, and chem­ic­als. It will include a chem­ic­al pre­treat­ment of ligno­cel­lu­losic mater­i­al and the action of enzymes developed through Bio­méthodes’ pro­pri­et­ary platform.The facil­ity will be focused on hard­wood from the sur­round­ing area, but will also be cap­able of con­duct­ing tri­als with a vari­ety of oth­er types of feed­stock.

It will serve as a step­ping stone to a full-scale com­mer­cial facil­ity as well as a source of mater­i­al for sub­sequent devel­op­mentactiv­it­ies and part­ner needs. Oper­a­tion of the pilot plant is anti­cip­ated to begin in 2014. Source: Biométhodes