Global Bioenergies lands $650K in funding for isobutene R&D

In France, Global Bioenergies has received €475K in funding from the French innovation agency OSEO following €760K in 2009 to support an earlier development phase of the isobutene process. Global Bioenergies has received the new €475K as a refundable advance (upon success of the program) which will contribute to finance the first step of the industrialization phase of the process.

The process developed by Global Bioenergies allows the conversion of plant resources such as cane or beet sugar, crop-derived starch or agricultural and forestry lignocellulosic waste (e.g. straw) into isobutene, one of the key building blocks of the petrochemical industry.

The process involves the spontaneous volatilization of gaseous isobutene from the fermentation broth, thereby avoiding two major drawbacks of other fermentation technologies – the accumulation of products in the medium up to concentrations toxic for the production microorganism, and the high energy requirement associated with downstream extraction processes (e.g. distillation). Those advantages will positively impact the economic and environmental balance as compared to existing processes leading to the production of liquid fermentation products.