Biorefining highlights 2019
As usual, the BioRefineries Blog finishes the
year with a brief tour through the main facts and announcements on biorefining.
In this occasion, it will be focused only on commercial facilities. I take the
opportunity to wish all the readers a prosperous and sustainable 2020. May the
circular bioeconomy continue to grow and transform the society in the incoming
decade.
The cellulosic ethanol sector managed to continue
taking tentative steps to compensate the upsets of previous years.
(1) Potential new projects were unveiled:
- Praj Industries announced that its Enfinity
technology will be deployed to produce ethanol and other co-products in what
would be USA’s first sugarcane bagasse based biorefinery [Post, September].
- Clariant announced the second license deal
for its Sunliquid® cellulosic ethanol technology. The agreement was signed with
ORLEN Południe, member of ORLEN Group which is the largest player in the fuels
and energy markets in Central and Eastern Europe [Post, September].
- The government of the Indian State of
Chhattisgarh has decided to set up at least six biofuel plants to produce
ethanol using paddy husk and rice straw [Post, November].
(2) Advancements of already known projects (in
different development status) were reported:
- The
construction of the Chempolis biorefinery (bamboo to ethanol) in Assan was
officially launched in February with a ceremony of the foundation stone laying [Post, February].
- SEKAB was selected by Kanteleen Voima as
process technology provider for the NordFuel biorefinery (wood to ethanol) [Post, April].
- Sainc entered into a definitive supply
contract for 180,000 tons per annum of local olive tree prunings for its
planned plant in Villaralto [Post, September].
- The construction of the Red River Biorefinery
(sugar beet and potato processing wastes to ethanol) in Grand Forks was nearing
completion [Post, November].
Also, we knew about two technology acquisitions:
- NewEnergyBlue announced that it has acquired
exclusive rights to Inbicon bioconversion technology throughout the Americas
and it will first employ it to turn wheat straw into ethanol in its biorefinery
under planning (Spirit Biomass Refinery) in Norh Dakota [Post, August].
- Sustainable Technology Corporation (STC) completed
the acquisition of DuPont’s 2G ethanol technology assets, capable of
commercially producing ethanol from cellulosic biomass [Post, October].
Finally, POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels announced that
it will pause production of cellulosic ethanol at its Project Liberty plant in
Emmetsburg and shift to R&D focused on improving operational efficiency [Post, November]. This is a clear illustration of
the serious difficulties that are facing the large facilities to ramp-up production.
HVO is booming. The list of announcements of new projects is
really long:
Location
|
Owner
|
Technology
|
Production capacity
(Mtons/year)
|
|
Gothenburg (Sweden)
|
Preem
|
-
|
0.84
|
|
Port Westward Industrial Park, Oregon (USA)
|
NEXT Renewable Fuels
|
Ecofining
|
1.5
|
[Post, February]
|
Banks of the Paraguay River (Paraguay)
|
ECB Group (Omega Green Project)
|
Ecofining
|
0.8
|
[Post,
February]
|
Caparroso (Navarre, Spain)
|
Extracte Lur
|
- (revamping of an existing unit)
|
0.04
|
[Post, February]
|
Refinery in the Valle de Escombreras (Murcia, Spain).
|
Repsol
|
-
|
0.25
|
[Post, May]
|
Delfzijl (Netherlands).
|
KLM, SkyNRG and SHV (DSL-01 project)
|
Hydroflex
|
0.1
|
[Post, May]
|
Gothenburg (Sweden)
|
St1
|
Ecofining
|
0.2
|
[Post,
September]
|
Norco, Louisiana (USA)
|
Diamond Green Diesel
|
Ecofining (expansion)
|
1.2
|
[Post,
October]
|
Moreover, two new biorefineries are operating
in Europe:
- After several delays, the plant of Total in
La Mède began production last summer [Post, June].
- Eni launched its second HVO biorefinery in
Italy in August 2019 [Post, September]. Its reconverted plant at Gela
joined to the Venice biorefinery started in June 2014.
Advanced
biofuels - Drop-in
biohydrocarbons - Pyrolysis
The commercialization of the fast pyrolysis technology
is taking off. BTG-BTL and TechnipFMC are designing and building
two facilities: one for Green Fuel Nordic Oy in Finland [Post, March] and another one for Pyrocell in Sweden
[Post, September].
Other news:
- Virgo Corp and Punjab Government signed an
agreement to set up a pyrolysis plant to produce biojet from rice husk [Post, February].
- Biozin Holding AS received Shell support for
biocrude production project in Norway [Post, December].
Biobased
chemicals and plastics
The demand for more sustainable final products
is leading to the launch and consolidation of new projects. There are also major
failures that are a warning for the adventurers. These are some of the
outstanding headlines of the year:
- Genomatica announced the first commercial
production of its Brontide™ butylene glycol [Post, January].
- Effective 1 April 2019, Reverdia (JV of DSM
and Roquette) dissolved and the partners transferred the rights and obligations
related to the Cassano biorefinery to Roquette [Post, February].
- Fazer started to build a plant to produce
xylitol from oat hulls in Finland [Post, February].
- Anellotech announced that it was planning the
construction of its first commercial plant for the production of bio-aromatics [Post, May].
- Genomatica acquired REG Life Sciences’ assets
to meet increasing demand for sustainable products [Post, June].
- LyondellBasell and Neste announced
commercial-scale production of biobased PP and LDPE [Post, June].
- Green Biologics Ltd (GBL) announced the shut-down
of its Little Falls biorefinery [Post, July].
- Borregaard announced increased production
capacity for wood-based vanillin in response to the growing demand of this
product [Post, September].
- Total Corbion PLA officially inaugurated its
75,000 tons per year bioplastics plant in Thailand [Post, September].
- Global Bioenergies and IBN-One received 3.1
M€ to move forward on its renewable isobutene plant project [Post, October].
- The investigation for false corporate
communications and manipulation of the market of the Bologna Public Prosecutor
endangered the business continuity of Bio-on, one of the leading companies of
the PHAs [Post, November].
- Royal DSM and METEX NØØVISTA signed an exclusive
global strategic collaboration to deliver the first made-in-Europe cosmetic
grade of PDO (1,3-propanediol), 100% biobased and sourced from non-GMO
feedstock [Post, December].
