For the first time, with the help of Processium, a chemical engineering company headquartered in Lyon, France, Global Bioenergies was able to purify batches to a much higher level, reaching 99.77%, the remaining 0.23% being mostly composed of CO₂, an inert gas known to be neutral in most chemical reactions.

Several applications in the polymers business (rubbers, plastics...) require high‐purity isobutene, and 99.77% corresponds to the polymer‐grade standard. We expect that our high‐purity bio‐isobutene will meet the specifications of the industrial leaders involved in converting isobutene into polymers, and that they will be able to use their existing polymerization processes, designed for fossil feedstocks, without any significant change. The higher the purity, the higher the value: targeting higher‐value markets is especially important in the present oil and gas environment.

—Thomas Buhl, Head of business development at Global Bioenergies

Global Bioenergies is developing processes to convert renewable resources into hydrocarbons through fermentation. The company initially focused its efforts on the production of isobutene, one of the most important petrochemical building blocks that can be converted into fuels, plastics, organic glass and elastomers.