Petrobras and BIOeCON will work together to further develop this technology and establish proof of concept on pilot and demonstration scales. The first part of this work, including the pilot phase, will be performed in The Netherlands, while the demonstration plant is envisioned to be constructed in Brazil.

In 2008, Petrobras, through its research center (Cenpes), signed a cooperation agreement with start-up KiOR—a joint venture between Khosla Ventures and BIOeCON (earlier post)—to use KiOR’s Biomass Catalytic Cracking (BCC) process to produce second-generation biofuels from sugarcane waste. (Earlier post.) BCC catalytic pyrolysis technology converts lignocellulosic biomass into a bio-oil product that can be further upgraded to transportation fuels and chemicals.

BiCHEM is BIOeCON’s second technology. BiCHEM uses a recyclable, inexpensive solvent to dissolve cellulose and hemicellulose into their constituent sugars. These sugars are then hydrogenated and converted into base chemicals to produce amongst others green plastics, or transformed into next generation advanced fuel additives such as high cetane biodiesel.