Global Bioenergies demo plant in Leuna operates successfully its entire process
The demonstration plant of Global Bioenergies, located in
Leuna, has successfully operated its entire technical process: fermentation,
purification and filling station (see press
release). The facility is devoted to the production of isobutene from
renewable raw materials. As is well known, this molecule is used as an
intermediate in the manufacturing of a variety of products: fuels and fuels additives
(it reacts with methanol and ethanol to generate MTBE and ETBE, respectively; its
alkylation with butane produces isooctane), polymers (butyl rubber), paints, cosmetics
and so on.
Project datasheet:
Location
|
Facility
owned by the Fraunhofer CBP at the Leuna refinery platform.
The
Fraunhofer team is in charge of operating the facility in the most effective
way possible.
|
Feedstock
|
1G sugars:
beets and cane, glucose syrup from cereals.
2G
sugars: wheat straw, bagasse, wood chips…
|
Product
and production capacity
|
100 ton/year
of isobutene.
|
Investment
|
11 M€.
|
Figure 1. Fermentation unit of the Leuna demo
plant (extracted from the web page of Global Bionergies)
Timeline:
Mid-2015
|
Start of
the construction.
|
End of
2016
|
Completion
of the construction (see press
release).
|
First
months of 2017
|
Gradual
start-up of the unit.
|
April
2017
|
The
fermentation unit was the first section started-up.
Fermentation
performances previously obtained on the pilot plant located at
Pomacle-Bazancourt were replicated and even exceeded
(see press
release).
|
August
2017
|
Site
maintenance.
|
September
2017
|
Restarting of the plant.
Initial test involving the full technical
process.
First bottle was filled.
|
The words of Marc Delcourt, CEO of Global
Bioenergies, summarize well the next steps: “With this achieved, Global
Bioenergies is now looking to the future. This means gradually approaching the
process’ commercial performances, prior to building IBN-One, the first
commercial plant project that we have with Cristal Union, the second largest
French sugar producer. In a strongly improving macro-economic context (price of
sugar sharply down; price of oil sharply up; energy transition now at the heart
of global concerns, etc.), our ambition is to establish a large number of plant
projects in various geographic areas.”
More information of IBN-One can be found in these
posts: IBN-One
– A Joint Venture to build a bio-isobutene plant and IBN-One
awards FEED for the first bio-isobutene biorefinery to Technip and IPSB.
