Green Biologics inks Iowa demo plant deal with Easy Energy Systems

Scaling in China

At the same time, scale-up work at Emmetsburg complements commercial scale demonstration work already achieved in China. In 2011, Green Biologics partnered with Laihe Rockley Biochemical Ltd. in Songyuan, China and in 2012 produced the world’s first commercial scale cellulosic n-butanol from residual corn waste (corn shells, corn cobs and stover). The Chinese commercial trial run was completed in June 2012 at 3.2 million liter fermentation scale in one of three 50,000 tonne/year production units. In Nov 2012, Green Biologics imported 55 tonnes of cellulosic n-butanol to the U.S. and is now marketing the material for chemical applications.

Site of Green Biologics’ China project

“We’ve been demonstrating in China using corn waste,” Sutcliffe explained to the Digest. “We’ve been working towards this for a year, running a C5 only stream for four weeks recently that was robust, and delivered the quality we were all looking for. On the back of that, the Chinese are investing in the capabilities to run C5 and C6 fermentation, and we are looking to run that at full scale this year.”

US is focus for first commercial

If the samples and drums all came to the US from that China production run, it was because the US is the target for the company’s first commercial plant, and samples were distributed to undisclosed potential customers. The timeline for the first commercial plant is, as yet, unclear.

“We’re focused now on getting the China and Iowa demonstrations up and running,” said Sutcliffe, “then we’ll focus on the first commercial. But we are talking to major strategic investors about that,” Sutcliffe added. Green Biologics has engaged with Morgan Joseph TriArtisan, to perform the capital raise that in part will fund the build out of the demo unit. They project to have the demo fully operational by mid 2014.

In today’s Digest, we look at the global markets for n-butanol – plus the bottom line, by following the page links below.