BioRefineries Blog

  Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF. Sekisui Chemical and Sekisui Bio Refinery (SBR) have completed construction of a demonstration plant in Kuji City (Iwate, Japan) with the aim of demonstrating the viability of a technology that converts municipal/industrial waste into ethanol on a commercial scale. This technology uses a microbial catalyst and gas fermentation process that was jointly developed by Sekisui Chemical and LanzaTech. Press release: " 1/10th Scale “Waste to Ethanol” Demonstration Plant Completed in Kuji City ", 11/04/2022. Figure 1. Sekisui Chemical completes construction of a waste-to-ethanol demo plant This first of its kind demonstration plant was constructed with investments from SBR, a joint venture between SEKISUI CHEMICAL and INJC, a private-public fund overseen by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). It has also received funding from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. The parties will use this facility to validate the technology ...

Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF. Veolia launches the world's largest biorefinery project producing CO2-neutral bio-methanol from a pulp mill, located in Finland. Press release: " Veolia launches an innovative industrial solution to produce CO2-neutral biofuel from pulp production ", 06/04/2022. The refinery, owned and operated by Veolia, will be adjacent and partly built into Metsä Fibre’s Äänekoski plant in Finland. With an annual production capacity of 12.000 tons, the plant, due to come on stream by 2024, will allow to avoid up to 30.000 tons of CO2 emissions per year2. The 50 M€ investment is supported by a grant from the Finnish ministry of economy and employment Developed in close cooperation with Metsä Fibre, the largest cooperative forestry association in Europe, the refinery will be based on Veolia’s industrial scale concept of commercial bioproduct-derived biomethanol production, which safely integrates the refining of crude sulphate methanol into the pulp productio...

Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF. Viridis Chemical has announced the first production of renewable ethyl acetate from its manufacturing plant in Columbus (Nebraska, USA).  Press release: " Viridis Chemical Announces First Production of Renewable Ethyl Acetate ", 24/03/2022. Figure 1. Viridis plant in Columbus (taken from the website of Viridis) HELM U.S. Corporation , Viridis Chemical’s exclusive marketing partner, is already in the process of sending samples and distributing material to ethyl acetate customers. The company will be increasing the production levels of ethyl acetate throughout 2022 and expect to be close to full production capacity by the end of the year. Ethyl acetate is widely used in the production of cosmetics, flexible packaging and coatings, paints and adhesives, as well as many other products.