Global Bioenergies receives official permit to start operations at Leuna demo plant

Global Bioenergies, a French renewable fuels company, has received an official permit to commence operations at its Leuna demo plant from TÜV, the main state certification agency in Germany.

The company converts renewable resources into high-purity isobutene for use in a number of industries, including the fuel sector.

The clearance from the TÜV was obtained for the fermentation area after a complete audit, specially focused towards safety and environmental issues.

Ales Bulc, CEO of Global Bioenergies’ German subsidiary, said: “Obtaining clearance to commence the plant start-up is a great milestone for the company. We recently transferred the technology from the pilot plant in Pomacle, France, and a first fermentation run is starting this week.”

A team of twelve operators was recently recruited and trained by the Fraunhofer Institute, who is in charge of operating the demo plant on a twenty-four seven basis.

Rick Bockrath, Global Bioenergies’ VP for Chemical Engineering, added: “The demo plant will now start its activities sequentially: we should be able to produce fermentative isobutene, which will be flared, in the next weeks.

“We expect to start the purification unit and the filling station in Q1 2017.Tonne-scale shipments of isobutene batches should then start shortly,” said Marc Delcourt, CEO of Global Bioenergies.

He added: “We expect the process to approach commercial performances by the end of 2017. It will then be ready for industrial deployment.”