GLOB­AL BIOEN­ER­GIES secures a 5.7 mil­lion euro grant to pro­ceed with its second indus­tri­al pilot in Germany

Glob­al Bioen­er­gies is a pion­eer in the devel­op­ment of one-step fer­ment­a­tion pro­cesses for the dir­ect and cost-effi­cient trans­form­a­tion of renew­able resources into light olefins, the key build­ing blocks of the pet­ro­chem­ic­al industry. The Company’s Ger­man sub­si­di­ary, Glob­al Bioen­er­gies GmbH, loc­ated in the BIO-CITY build­ing in Leipzig, has just been awar­ded a EUR 5.7 mil­lion grant from the BMBF with­in the ​“BioEconomy Cluster” frame­work. The pilot plant in Leuna will com­bine two 5,000 liter fer­menters and a com­plete puri­fic­a­tion sys­tem, mim­ick­ing all aspects of a com­mer­cial scale plant. Designed for a pro­duc­tion capa­city of up to 100 tons per year, the isob­utene pro­duced in Leuna can be used for the fab­ric­a­tion of plastics, elast­omers and fuels. Such scale will enable the deliv­ery of samples to indus­tri­al­ists. This second pilot is the final step in Glob­al Bioen­er­gies’ devel­op­ment pro­gram before the full scale exploit­a­tion of the isob­utene pro­cess. In June 2013, Glob­al Bioen­er­gies had announced the launch of its first indus­tri­al pilot in the heart of the Bazan­court-Pomacle biore­finery, close to Reims. This first pilot, to be run through a col­lab­or­a­tion with Arkema and the CNRS, is sup­por­ted by a EUR 5.2 mil­lion state fin­an­cing through the French ​“Inves­t­isse­ments d’Avenir” pro­gram. This first indus­tri­al pilot will set the bases for large scale exploit­a­tion of the isob­utene pro­cess in its applic­a­tion to methac­rylics. ​“After con­duct­ing a sys­tem­at­ic assess­ment of avail­able pilot facil­it­ies in North Amer­ica and Europe, we have con­cluded that the Fraunhofer CBP plat­form in Leuna offers the unique com­bin­a­tion of fer­ment­a­tion cap­ab­il­it­ies and olefin-ori­ented chem­ic­al engin­eer­ing. Artic­u­lat­ing our pro­cess with the recog­nized Ger­man know­ledge in chem­ic­al engin­eer­ing will be a key suc­cess factor”, com­men­ted Marc Del­court, CEO of Glob­al Bioen­er­gies SA. Gerd Unkel­bach, Head of the Fraunhofer CBP, added: ​“His­tor­ic­ally focused on petro-chem­istry, the area around Leuna will bene­fit from new pro­cesses based on renew­able resources, such as the one from Glob­al Bioen­er­gies. The CBP, inaug­ur­ated in Octo­ber 2012 by Chan­cel­lor Angela Merkel, is the right place to explore the tech­nic­al and eco­nom­ic poten­tial of this innov­at­ive isob­utene pro­cess.” ​“With the sup­port from the BMBF and the BioEconomy Cluster we can now focus on build­ing a European suc­cess story and tak­ing part in the glob­al trans­ition from fossil to renew­able resources”, added Thomas Buhl, Man­aging Dir­ect­or of Glob­al Bioen­er­gies GmbH.

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 through fer­ment­a­tion. The Com­pany ini­tially focused its efforts on the pro­duc­tion of isob­utene, one of the most import­ant pet­ro­chem­ic­al build­ing blocks that can be con­ver­ted into fuels, plastics, organ­ic glass and elast­omers. Glob­al Bioen­er­gies con­tin­ues to improve the yield of its pro­cess and is act­ively enter­ing the indus­tri­al pilot test­ing phase. The com­pany recently rep­lic­ated this suc­cess to pro­pyl­ene and butadiene and is also look­ing to con­tin­ue with oth­er mem­bers of the gaseous olefins fam­ily, key molecules at the heart of pet­ro­chem­ic­al industry. Glob­al Bioen­er­gies is lis­ted on NYSE Altern­ext Par­is (FR0011052257 – ALGBE). Source: Glob­al Bioenergies