GLOBAL BIOENERGIES
New project to create value chain for bio-isobutene / Clariant and Ineos are partners
Global Bioenergies (Évry / France; www.global-bioenergies.com) is participating in a project with Clariant (Muttenz / Switzerland; www.clariant.com) and Ineos (Rolle / Switzerland; www.ineos.com) to realise and implement a new value chain for renewable bio-based isobutene. The work, for which a grant was recently agreed with Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU, Brussels / Belgium; www.bbi-europe.eu), involves combining the French company’s bio-isobutene process with technologies owned by the two Swiss-based chemical producers.
The purpose of the project, which kicks off on 1 June and is due to finish four years later, is to convert currently poorly valorised residual wheat straw into second-generation renewable isobutene that can be converted into oligomers to produce lubricants, rubbers, solvents, plastics or fuels. As part of the project, Global Bioenergies will ferment the straw hydrolysates produced in Clariant’s “Sunliquid” process, which converts straw into glucose- and xylose-rich hydrolysates, into bio-isobutene. Ineos will then convert the bio-isobutene to oligomers.
France’s TechnipFMC (Paris; www.technipfmc.com) and IPSB (Avon; www.ipsb.fr) are in charge of preliminary engineering work on an hydrolysate-to-isobutene plant and its overall integration with a straw-to-hydrolysate plant. Assessment of the sustainability and environmental benefits of the technology developed will be carried out by the Energy Institute at the University of Linz in Austria.
BBI-JU is a public-private partnership between the EU and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC; www.biconsortium.eu), which is dedicated to realising the European bio-economy potential. At its demonstration plant in Leuna / Germany, Global Bioenergies recently scaled up the production process for gaseous isobutene through fermentation (see Plasteurope.com of 04.05.2017). The demonstration plant’s purification unit has been approved by the TÜV, Germany’s principal technical certification authority. After final certification, delivery of the first batches of isobutene to partners for testing is expected to take place next month.
The purpose of the project, which kicks off on 1 June and is due to finish four years later, is to convert currently poorly valorised residual wheat straw into second-generation renewable isobutene that can be converted into oligomers to produce lubricants, rubbers, solvents, plastics or fuels. As part of the project, Global Bioenergies will ferment the straw hydrolysates produced in Clariant’s “Sunliquid” process, which converts straw into glucose- and xylose-rich hydrolysates, into bio-isobutene. Ineos will then convert the bio-isobutene to oligomers.
France’s TechnipFMC (Paris; www.technipfmc.com) and IPSB (Avon; www.ipsb.fr) are in charge of preliminary engineering work on an hydrolysate-to-isobutene plant and its overall integration with a straw-to-hydrolysate plant. Assessment of the sustainability and environmental benefits of the technology developed will be carried out by the Energy Institute at the University of Linz in Austria.
BBI-JU is a public-private partnership between the EU and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC; www.biconsortium.eu), which is dedicated to realising the European bio-economy potential. At its demonstration plant in Leuna / Germany, Global Bioenergies recently scaled up the production process for gaseous isobutene through fermentation (see Plasteurope.com of 04.05.2017). The demonstration plant’s purification unit has been approved by the TÜV, Germany’s principal technical certification authority. After final certification, delivery of the first batches of isobutene to partners for testing is expected to take place next month.
18.05.2017 Plasteurope.com [236926-0]
Published on 18.05.2017