Neol Bio in the spotlight – Advanced bioprocesses for the oleochemical industry
One of the New Year resolutions of
the BR Blog is introducing and disseminating the work of Spanish companies and initiatives
related to the biorefineries sector. Whenever possible, I will try to visit the
facilities to gain first-hand knowledge about their activities and resources.
The first post of this series will be dedicated to Neol
Bio that is one of the most prominent companies of the biotechnology industry in
Spain and it has the aim of becoming a European reference in the field of the
development of bioprocesses for the oleochemical industry.
Figure 1. Scaling stage - Bioreactor in the Neol Bio lab (courtesy of Neol Bio)
I would firstly like to thank Javier
Velasco (General Manager of Neol Bio) for kindly taking the time to show me the
facilities at the Parque Tecnológico de la
Salud in Granada. During the visit, I could confirm the great expectations
raised after tracking its news and announcements in the last few months. It is
quite clear to me that the management team is well aware of the biorefinery
concept. In fact, I was surprised to hear that the tool used for developing its
bioprocesses was created in the frame of a R&D project that it was called “Microbiotools:
development and integration of biotechnology processes for biorefineries” in
the year 2007, when this term was rarely used in Spain. Their bioprocesses
pretend to be an interface between the producers of agriculture feedstocks or
waste and the interested in the manufacture of bioproducts.
Below, I will describe its activities
focusing the attention on two points: the facilities visited and the technological
platforms that the company is exploiting. And finally, I will draw a few brief
conclusions.
Facilities
The visit started
with the zone where the staff of the Microbial Biotechnology Area carry out the
tasks related to the selection of the
strains. A screening to obtain the first candidate strains from an exclusive collection of over 9,000
microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, yeasts and microalgae) is performed by
means of robotized technologies.
These techniques, which are well stablished in the pharmaceutical sector, have
been successfully transferred to the white biotechnology field by the team of
Neol Bio. The candidates are deeply studied with manual methods to determine
which of them will enter in the scaling stage from the lab environment to the
industrial one.
Such scaling stage involves two phases. The
next stop along the way took place in the lab where the first phase is carried
out. This zone is equipped with totally automated bioreactors of 7 and 30 liters,
centrifuges, microfiltration equipment, gas extraction cabins, rotary
evaporators, Soxhelts and vacuum concentrators, among others. Here,
bioconversion and fermentation processes (upstream) are tested and recuperation
and purification processes (downstream) are studied for the first time.
Before visiting
the second phase of the scaling, we went to the analysis lab where the components of the feedstocks and the final
bioproducts are identified and quantified, through liquid chromatography
equipment coupled with different detectors, gas chromatography equipment and
other basic equipment for chemical analysis.
Finally, I can look
at the pilot plant where the work of
scaling carries on in a pre-industrial environment. It is equipped with a
fermentation unit that is composed of a train of bioreactors of 5, 50 and 400
liters. Also, it has auxiliary tanks of 400 liters, a microfiltration pilot
unit, a drying oven, a hydrolysis reactor and extraction-distillation unit with
75 liters of working volume. External facilities are rented when it is necessary
to carry out a higher level scaling.
Figure 2. Scaling
stage - Extraction-distillation unit in the Neol Bio pilot plant (courtesy of Neol Bio)
Platforms
Currently, the
strategy of Neol Bio is based on the use of three technological platforms:
1. Microbioil® (focused on bioenergy and oleochemical sectors)
Microbioil-1: Production of oils for biofuels (biodiesel and HVO) from glycerin and sugars.
Microbioil-2: Production of oils for biofuels (biodiesel and HVO) from lignocellulosic biomass.
Microbioil-3: Production of oils for oleochemical
sector (fatty alcohols, oils with high content of oleic acid
and oils with high content of very long chain fatty acids) from lignocellulosic biomass.
This platform will
be exploited by means of sales of licenses or the use of the technology in
future joint ventures with industrial companies. In the current situation of low
petroleum prices and relative weakness of biofuels market, Neol Bio can focused
on the process of production of high value oils for the oleochemical sector
with applications, for instance, in detergents, cosmetic and pharmaceutical
products, and lubricants. The generation of this microbial oils from waste (wheat
straw or cane bagasse), it seems to be a very attractive alternative to the
conventional chemical technologies from vegetable oils. It would not be
surprising if companies show their interest in obtaining these licenses soon.
2. Tribioplast® (focused on bioplastic sector)
This platform can generate
biodegradable and biocompatible bioplastics from industrial subproducts. The
technology includes microorganisms producing polyhydroxyalcanoates (PHAs), a
wide family of biopolyesters with diverse structures. The use of these
biopolymers for biomedical applications and as enhanced additives of other polymers.
The strategy of exploitation is the same as in the previous case.
3. Omega 3 (focused on food industry)
Neol Bio has decided
to start during this year, the production
on an Omega-3 oil rich in docosahexanoic acid (DHA) by cultivation of microalgae
selected in ecosystems from the Iberian Peninsula. In this case, the
strategy is the direct commercialization
of products manufactured with its own technology. DHA is a fatty acid essential
for the growth and functional development of the nervous system. Its production
and commercialization will be carried out in collaboration with Antibióticos de León. Both companies
signed an agreement for these purposes in October 2015.
Conclusions
Neol Bio owns the staff, technological platforms
and facilities in order to be the European reference in the development of
bioprocesses for oleochemical industry in five years from now, the vision
already highlighted at the beginning of the post. It can also reach a good
position in the fields of the bioenergy, the biopolymers and the food industry.
Besides, the versatility of Microbiotools® provides to Neol Bio with the
possibility of developing new business lines. The blog will follow with
interest its evolutions and the biorefinery projects that can derive from
future licenses and joint ventures.
