Novozymes and M&G Chemicals join hands for world's first biomass-to-glycols biorefinery

Novozymes has announced that it will supply enzyme technology to the world’s first biomass-to-glycols biorefinery to be constructed by M&G Chemicals in China. The biorefinery will be located in Anhui province, close to Fuyang in Eastern China, and will have capacity to process 1 million metric tonnes of biomass per year, approximately 4 times the capacity of the biomass conversion facility by Beta Renewables in Crescentino, Italy. Construction of the biorefinery is contingent upon successful financing, and the bio-refinery is slated to begin operations in 2015.
 
The biorefinery is expected to be realised through a joint venture between M&G Chemicals and the Chinese company Guozhen Group Co, which will make available 1 million metric tonnes of wheat straw and corn stover per year. The biorefinery will produce mono-ethylene glycol (MEG). MEG’s main application areas are in the production of synthetic polyester fibres and as one of two main components in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) production. PET is one of the key building blocks for plastic packaging, including plastic bottles for water. The lignin by-product will feed a 45 MW cogeneration power plant which will be constructed in conjunction with the bio-refinery.
 
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M&G Chemicals is an affiliated entity with the Mossi & Ghisolfi Group and Beta Renewables.
 
“M&G Chemicals is today taking a big step towards a bio-based society where biomass is used for products like fuel, chemicals and plastics. We are incredibly excited to enable M&G Chemicals’ vision of producing bio-plastics on a commercial scale and are looking forward to the long-term collaboration,” said Thomas Videbaek, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Development, in Novozymes.
 
The biorefinery will use Beta Renewables’ PROESA technology, and Novozymes will supply the enzyme technology for biomass conversion on an exclusive basis over a 15-year period. Novozymes’ revenue from this biorefinery, which corresponds to four regular Beta Renewables facilities, is included in the expectations provided by Novozymes at the signing of the strategic partnership agreement with Beta Renewables in October, 2012. At the signing in October, 2012, Novozymes expected Beta Renewables to be able to contract 15-25 biomass conversion facilities in the five-year period up to 2017 and that the sales potential for Novozymes from the 15-25 facilities, once operational, could be up to DKK 1 billion annually.