Comet Biorefining signs sugar supply agreement with BioAmber, announces investment
26 April 2016
Comet Biorefining recently signed an off-take agreement with bio-succinic acid producer BioAmber for high-purity dextrose from Comet’s planned commercial plant in Sarnia, Ontario. The dextrose will be produced from agricultural residues using Comet’s innovative technology. (Earlier post.)
The off-take agreement also includes provisions for Comet to supply dextrose to future BioAmber manufacturing facilities and provides BioAmber with certain exclusive rights in the fields of succinic acid, 1,4-butanediol (BDO) and tetrahydrofuran (THF). BioAmber provided an equity investment in Comet in 2015 and its CEO Jean-Francois Huc is now joining Comet’s board of directors.
The Comet cellulosic sugar process uses a novel, two-stage process to activate cellulosic biomass, followed by conversion to glucose at very low enzyme loading. Comet’s technology enables sugars to be produced competitively from biomass versus corn or cane-derived sugars, the benchmark raw materials for today’s biochemical production.
Comet’s facilities can also be built on a smaller scale enabling greater flexibility to locate production closer to biomass supplies and lower a region’s greenhouse gas footprint.
The off-take agreement is the culmination of development work performed by Comet and BioAmber as part of BioIndustrial Innovation Canada’s recently completed cellulosic sugar study.
Comet Biorefining operates a demonstration-scale plant in Rotondella, Italy, owned by ENEA—the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Sustainable Economic Development. In February 2016, Comet Biorefining announced the construction a 60 million pounds per year commercial sugar plant to come online in 2018. The company plans to build, own and operate its own plants and will strategically license its technology to select partners on a worldwide basis to meet the growing demand for bio-based products.
Canada's refined sugars are made with 90% imported raw sugars, mainly from Central and South America, at the rate of about 1,200,000 tones/year.
Per capita private/domestic consumption has gone down by about 40% in the last 10 years to about 15% of total consumption. Industrial consumption is up to 85% of total.
Sugar beets (mainly from Alberta) are used for about 10% of total production.
This process using local agriculture residues could reduce raw sugars importation but not necessarily local GHG nor pollution.
Posted by: HarveyD | 27 April 2016 at 09:44 AM