Advanced BioFuels USA – Cobalt Signs Strategic Partner and Investor to Commercialize Bio-Based Butadiene Solution

(Cobalt/PRNewswire) Strategic Partnership Opens Pathway to $40 Billion Butadiene Market

Cobalt Technologies, a leading developer of next generation bio-based chemicals, today announced a strategic relationship with two prominent Asian chemical companies for the development of a complete biomass-to-butadiene solution, to be followed by construction of a commercial-scale biorefinery in Asia. The partners also plan to build or license additional plants to support the high growth in global butadiene demand. In support of the relationship, the partners made an equity investment in Cobalt.

A $40 billion market worldwide, butadiene is widely used in the manufacture of synthetic rubber and nylon. Butadiene is also a key ingredient in high mileage "eco-tires", a market the company expects to grow rapidly as automakers seek to meet higher fuel economy standards.

"This agreement validates Cobalt's ability to leverage its biobutanol platform into large high-value markets for downstream chemicals. With this agreement, we now have a path to fully-funded, large scale commercial projects in two of the three main geographies for bio-based projects – Asia and Brazil," said Bob Mayer , CEO of Cobalt Technologies. "We believe that our long term focus on using biomass-based feedstock, as opposed to food-based sugars, has resulted in a technology advantage and lower cost production that is attracting partners worldwide."

Under the terms of the strategic relationship, Cobalt and the partners will work together on the development of integrated technology for the conversion of biomass to butadiene. The integrated technology will form the basis for construction of a commercial-scale biomass-to-butadiene biorefinery. Work to date has demonstrated that this solution can be highly competitive with petroleum-based butadiene under current market conditions. Technology development is expected to be completed in 2014 with construction of the first plant to follow. READ MORE and MORE (Biofuels Digest)

Excerpt from Biofuels Digest: ... ICIS has reported that 1.18m tonne/year of new plants are expected to come online in China this year alone. ICIS has also been reporting for the last couple of years now on destructive levels of volatility in naphtha prices — naphtha is the primary petrochemical feedstock for butadiene. Further, the growth in natural gas production — and prospects for more growth, especially to serve C2 markets such as ethylene, are expected to reduce naphtha production and further tighten the production outlook for C4 chemicals, especially butadiene. READ MORE