In France, Global Bioenergies agreed to acquire Netherlands-based gas fermentation company Syngip for \u20ac1.02M, with a milestone-based bonus that could boost the acquisition price up to \u20ac1.775M. The acquisition price includes assumption of \u20ac150K of Syngip\u2019s debt. The deal is subject to shareholder approval.<\/p>\n
The ultimate goal<\/p>\n
Syngip talked here about the possibility of producing liquid hydrocarbons from waste feedstocks at costs as low as \u20ac100 per ton.<\/p>\n
Feedstock diversification<\/p>\n
What\u2019s this deal all about? In two words, cheaper carbon.<\/p>\n
The Global Bioenergies story is about converting renewable resources to hydrocarbons. The technical route is a specialized form of fermentation, where the product produced by the organism (after munching a sugar) is rapidly vaporized \u2014 in a gas state, the product is non-toxic to the organism and easier to separate and harvest. For other technologies, separation has been a challenge and titers have been low because of toxicity issues \u2013 adding costs and risks to already-new technology. Though companies such as Gevo report that their GIFT separation technology works just fine.<\/p>\n
So, that\u2019s the primary technological innovation. The starting point was using conventional sugars to make isobutene, which has a $30B market. From there, Global Bioenergies like just about everyone else has been seeking product and feedstock diversification. Thereby avoiding the costs and price volatility of mainstream sugars, avoiding some of the food-vs-fuel debate which is still puzzlingly popular in the EU. On the product side, diversification taps an ever larger set of markets for offtake, and allows for price optimization along the way.<\/p>\n
In its own labs, Global Bioenergies had been making progress on diversification, demonstrating that it could shift from glucose to sucrose (thereby opening up the possibility of using sugarbeets or sugarcane). Meanwhile, Global Bioenergies and Cristal Union have partnered in a Joint Venture (IBN-One) to build and operate the first full-scale bio-isobutene commercial plant. The plant targets the conversion of sugar beet-derived sucrose into 50,000 tonnes of bio-isobutene annually.<\/p>\n
And earlier this year, we reported that Global Bioenergies and LanzaTech extended their 5-year collaboration agreement to broaden the feedstock flexibility of Global Bioenergies\u2019 Isobutene process and the product-portfolio of LanzaTech\u2019s carbon capture technology. The two companies entered into a collaboration agreement in 2011, with the goal to synergize their technologies, and build microbial strains capable of converting non-sugar feedstock into isobutene. The two companies have now entered a new collaboration agreement in order to both intensify this cooperation and to develop, an integrated process.<\/p>\n
So, the race has been on to use that cheapest carbon, And that\u2019s where Syngip comes in.<\/p>\n
The Syngip backstory<\/p>\n
Syngip is a 3rd generation industrial biotech start-up created in 2014 in the Netherlands. It has developed a process to convert gaseous carbon sources such as CO2, CO, and industrial emissions such as syngas, into various valuable chemical compounds. To this end, the company has identified a specific micro-organism capable of growing using these gaseous carbon sources as its sole feedstock, and has developed genetic tools to allow the implementation of artificial metabolic pathways into it. Its recent work has been directed to the implementation of metabolic pathways leading to light olefins, major petrochemical molecules, which include isobutene.<\/p>\n
So, what are the main questions?<\/p>\n
There are three questions that almost anyone will have.<\/p>\n
First, how far has Syngip proceeded on scale-up? Our latest information is that the technology is still on the bench \u2014 which is to say, we\u2019re a long ways from commercial-scale here, and there are many engineering questions that will have to be resolved along the way, as gas fermentation technologies such as Coskata and INEOS Bio discovered. Gas transfer rates, for one. Continuous gas supply is another. Rate and yield. We could go on and on. Everyone will be more excited when Syngip technology proves out at least at 100 liter fermentation scale.<\/p>\n
Second, what is the nature of the work Syngip has been doing on its micro-organism. Patent work and public technical reports are not easy to find \u2014 so, most of what the company has been doing lies behind the NDA wall. Now, you could say the same thing about atomic bomb technology, which works just fine, alas \u2014 so let\u2019s adopt some friendly skepticism but without substantive complaint, for the time present.<\/p>\n
Third, can Syngip\u2019s process be adapted to Global Bioenergies final steps. Both companies have a gaseous end-product, where the product is in vapor form to avoid the toxicity and separation issues we mentioned above. But feedstocks can be finicky. Does Syngip\u2019s process work seamlessly with Global Bioenergies, or is this a low-rick or a high-risk aspect of the process integration? Conceptually, the companies would already have some answers \u2014 but we\u2019ll know a lot more when Syngip\u2019s technology has reached pilot-scale.<\/p>\n
The Global Bioenergies backstory<\/p>\n
We reported on Global Bioenergies\u2019 technology, progress and prospects, here in Global Bioenergies completes construction of German demo-scale plant<\/a>, and here in E Pluribus<\/a>, Unum: LanzaTech, Global Bioenergies demonstrate The Biotechnology App Store, and here in Global Bioenergies heads for demo scale: a magic path to isobutane in sight<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n