The Catalyst Review - October 2015 - 7

SPECIal fEaTuRE
On the commercial side, the most significant developments by incumbent manufacturers have been in increasing production
volumes of bio-based aromatics. Virent's new demonstration-scale capacity at its Madison, WI facility is capable of producing 10
tonnes per year of its bio-based p-xylene using a glucose feedstock and its Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) process to produce an
aromatics stream tuned to maximize p-xylene production. The company expects to sell the expanded production to end users for
market trials and validation.
Anellotech is collaborating with IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) and Axens to develop a new lower-cost production method for biobased aromatics, with plans to have the technology ready by 2019. Anellotech will supply the technology platform at its Pearl River,
NY pilot plant-which currently produces 1 kg batches of bio-based BTX and which the company is in the process of expanding-
while IFPEN will provide scale-up and hydrodynamic studies and Axens will provide final basic plant design for commercialization.
Anellotech uses pyrolysis to process lignocellulosic feedstocks for its aromatics stream.
Now that Gevo's seemingly never-ending legal battle with Butamax has been resolved to the satisfaction of both companies, Gevo
is able to devote more of its energy and finances to improving production efficiency at its commercial-scale isobutanol facility
in Luverne, MN. The company wants to increase isobutanol capacity by seven to ten times over 2015 production (i.e., up to 3.8
million liters in 2016) while simultaneously reducing production costs by bringing the isobutanol purification and yeast production
processes on-site. Gevo produces its bio-based p-xylene through first dehydrating the isobutanol, followed by dimerization and
dehydrocyclization of the intermediates. Gevo announced in May 2014 it was selling USD $1.5 million worth of its bio-based p-xylene
to Toray Industries (Gevo 2014). However, there has been no clear word from Gevo on plans to expand p-xylene production.
Finally, Dutch startup BioBTX BV is planning to construct a pilot plant to produce BTX through its catalytic pyrolysis process using
feedstocks such as wood, lignin, palm oil and bagasse. The company has received a €500,000 (USD $665,000) grant for the project
from the Netherland government's bio-economy funding organ TKI BBE (Topconsortium voor Kennis-en Innovatie Biobased
Economy), and is now looking for other partners to help fund the plant at polyester manufacturer Cumapol's facility in Emmen, the
Netherlands. BioBTX hopes to have the 30 kilotonne per year (ktpa) plant operational sometime in 2016.

The State of Bio-Olefins Development
The global olefins market is driven by demand for light olefins, specifically C2 ethylene and C3 propylene as the two highest volume
production chemicals in the world, followed by C4 olefins such as butadiene and isobutene. The main use for light olefins is as
feedstock for polymer production for popular plastics such as low-density and high-density polyethylene, styrene and polypropylene.
As with olefins in general, the primary driver behind the bio-olefin market is the desire for bio-based plastics-more specifically bioplastics that can be used seamlessly in the same processes and products as their petrochemical counterparts. Even with virtually all
bio-ethylene and bio-propylene production currently used for this purpose, it still just accounts for the smallest drop in the bucket
that is global polymer demand.
Shown in Figure 2, there are three general
Figure 2: Pathways for bio-olefin production.
pathways available to produce olefins from
bio-based feedstocks. The first pathway
is fermentation of sugars processed from
biomass, either in a direct process to produce
the olefins or more likely dehydration of
an intermediate alcohol. Some olefins such
as propylene require further processing
such as metathesis beyond dehydration.
The second general pathway is through
gasification of biomass to syngas, followed
by either the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis
of alcohols that can then be dehydrated
as above or through conversion of the
syngas to methanol that can then undergo a
methanol to olefins (MTO) process such as
those already developed by companies such
Source: Author, 2015
as UOP, Air Liquide/Lurgi, and Sinopec to
produce a high carbon mixed olefins stream.
The third broad pathway is through catalytic cracking of vegetable oils or refining of bio-diesels to create various olefin streams in
processes equivalent to typical petrochemical approaches.
The Catalyst Review

October 2015

The Catalyst Review - October 2015

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