Michelin’s bio-butadiene technology moving to validation phase

In France, Michelin announced the BioButterfly project has just reached a new milestone. After developing this new technology to produce bio-sourced butadiene from ethanol on a pilot scale, the project is now moving into a validation phase with the construction of a demonstrator at Bassens, in France.

Scheduled for completion in late 2020, this demonstrator will enable an annual production of between 20 and 30 tons of bio-sourced butadiene. It will also validate the industrial process on both a technical and economic level. By mid-2021, the first butadiene batches will be available.

Since its launch in 2012, and till the end of the project in 2022, Michelin and its partners, IFP Energies Nouvelles and Axens, backed by the ADEME (French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management), will have invested nearly 70 million euros. In the validation phase alone, the project will lead to the creation of over twenty jobs on the Bassens site.