Linde, Sud-Chemie in cellulosic ethanol venture

Munich, Germany-based Linde and Sud-Chemie, also based in Munich, announced today that they would team up to develop facilities for the production of cellulosic ethanol.

Linde Group, a gases and engineering company, and Sud-Chemie, a producer of catalysts and adsorbent materials, said they entered into an exclusive cooperation agreement to develop and market the new production plants.

"In this highly attractive market of the future, we plan to bundle our activities even more closely together, so that we can develop cost-effective market-ready plants for the production of energy-efficient climate-friendly biofuels," said Guenter von Au, chairman of the managing board of Sud-Chemie.

Under the agreement, the companies said Sud-Chemie would be supplying its know-how in biocatalysts and bioprocessing technology, while Linde through its subsidiary Linde-KCA-Dresden has expertise in chemical and biotechnological facility engineering.

Aldo Belloni, a member of Linde's executive board, said, "By using biocatalysis and biotechnology plant engineering we are seeking to develop large-scale cost-effective techniques for the production of new biofuels."

"We are confident that by working together we will be able to help solve a number of important issues in the fields of energy, climate protection and mobility."

Linde and Sud-Chemie said biotechnology would be used to extract fuels from the parts of plants that contain cellulose, such as wheat and maize straw, grasses and wood.

The companies said they would work together to plan and build the second-generation biofuel plants worldwide for potential customers, such as ethanol producers and other companies in the industrial and agricultural sector, and for investors in the plants.