UK firm plans biobutanol plant in India

UK-based Green Biologics and Mumbai-based Laxmi Organic Industries have signed an agreement to build a commercial-scale biobutanol plant in India.

The demonstrator plant is expected to produce 1,000 metric tons of butanol a year starting in 2010.

Green Biologics said it’s now looking to raise £3.5 million ($6.33 million) to roll out its renewable chemicals technology, which uses fermentation to produce biochemicals from waste and by-product feedstocks.

Oxfordshire, England-based Green Biologics said the biobutanol plant will run on molasses produced by the Indian sugarcane industry, which has been ramping production to meet demand for renewable energy (see India to delay October's ethanol mandate).

Butanol is used to make a number of polymers and plastics but also has potential as a bioethanol and biodiesel that can be used in vehicles and planes (see Pratt & Whitney leads biofuels project for aircraft). Industry leaders DuPont (NYSE:DD) and BP are spending $58 million to build a biobutanol demonstration facility and a 420-million liter ethanol facility about 360 kilometers (223 miles) north of London (see DuPont and BP building biobutanol facility in UK).

Biobutanol has the potential to be distributed through the existing fuel supply infrastructure, to allow higher biofuel blends with gasoline and to improve fuel economy, according to the industry (see DuPont claims cellulosic energy efficiency code cracked).

Green Biologics said biobutanol is also cheaper than alternatives because it uses fermentation and waste feedstocks.

Green Biologics already operates a 300-liter pilot plant for butanol production in England. The company previously raised £1.58 million from Carbon Trust Investments, Oxford Capital Partners, company chairman Andrew Rickman and others in October 2007.

Green Biologics uses a microbial platform technology based on thermophiles and thermostable enzymes. The company works with industrial partners fit the technology alongside existing paper mills and sugar production facilities.

Laxmi Organic Industries is part of the Goenka Group, based in Mumbia. Laxmi is one of the 10 largest producers of ethyl acetate in the world, with a capacity of 30,000 metric tons of ethyl and butyl acetates a year, and 15,000 metric tons of acetic acid.

The company has a 26-percent share of the Indian market for ethyl acetate and exports 40 percent of its production to Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia and the Middle East.
Ethyl acetate is used in the pharmaceuticals, packaging, printing and paint industries.

The company has adopted several renewable-energy projects, proposing two 1.5 megawatt hydropower plants and 2.5 MW of windmills in Karnataka and Maharastha.

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• Beijing meets "blue sky days" target early
• Finland, Vietnam launch fish fuel project

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed