India on radar of Elevance Renewable for biorefinery

The US-based Elevance Renewable Sciences Inc, a high-growth specialty chemicals company, has plans to set up additional biorefineries throughout the world, including India, said a company official, without giving any specific details about the timing, place and scale of the future biorefineries.

 

“The timing and location of our biorefineries will be coordinated with our customers' supply chain needs. Currently, our emphasis is on meeting the significant needs identified by our customers for our announced biorefineries in Indonesia and in the US (Natchez, Mississippi). We are having discussions regarding timing for additional biorefineries throughout the world, and our discussions have included India at various times,” said Andy Shafer, Executive Vice President, Sales & Market Development, Elevance Renewable Sciences, when asked whether Elevance was planning to start a biorefinery in India in an email query. 

 

Elevance Renewable Sciences in a joint venture with Wilmar International has set up a biorefinery at Gresik, Indonesia, from which they have begun shipping commercial products, including novel specialty chemicals, to customers from last month. 

 

The 1,80,000 metric tonne manufacturing facility is the first biorefinery based on Elevance’s proprietary metathesis technology. The renewable performance specialty chemicals, olefins and oleochemicals will be used in personal care products, detergents and cleaners, lubricants and additives, engineered polymers, and other specialty chemicals markets.

 

“Elevance has secured several strategic partnerships with global market leaders, such as Arkema and Stepan Company, to accelerate rapid deployment and commercialisation of the high-performance specialty chemicals in end user applications. In addition to the demand from Elevance’s strategic partners, we have already secured offtake for a substantial portion of the products the biorefinery will produce. Wilmar’s existing oleochemicals business will consume the oleochemicals produced in the biorefinery, which represent approximately 50 percent of the production when we are using palm oil as our feedstock,” said Shafer. 

 

Wilmar International has presence in India and supplies oleochemicals to customers in the country. When asked about the plans to market specialty chemicals, manufactured at the Indonesian biorefinery JV, in India, Shafer said, “The markets and industries that Elevance is serving are large and global. We expect that several biorefineries will be needed as our technology is adopted. All of our biorefineries will supply globally. Biorefineries will be located close to customers and feedstock supplies to enhance service, reduce costs and minimise our environmental footprint.”