Cobalt, Rhodia to build biobutanol demo facility in Brazil

Aug 3, 2012 - US bio-based chemicals developer Cobalt Technologies and Rhodia, part of Belgian chemicals group Solvay (EBR:SOLB), this week said they would jointly build and operate a biobutanol demonstration facility in Brazil.

The plan is another step by the companies towards constructing commercial biorefineries in Latin America that use Cobalt's technology to produce bio n-butanol from Brazilian bagasse and other local non-food feedstock, the announcement says. Butanol is used in paints, adhesives, inks and other solvents.

The aim of the demonstration project is to validate the technology and its potential to integrate with existing Brazilian sugar mills. Under a term sheet signed by Cobalt and Rhodia, they will start work on the project this month and move to a mill site for integration testing early next year. Operational tests are expected to be completed by the middle of 2013.

The signing of the term sheet was preceded by nine months of explorations by the companies of the options for integrating Cobalt's technology into existing sugar mills, according to the statement.

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