Renmatix acquisition of feedstock facility ‘more efficient’ – CEO

Interview story by Christie Moffat

HOUSTON (ICIS)–The acquisition of a new feedstock manufacturing facility by renewable technology licensor Renmatix has ensured a “more efficient, more optimised” way to run the technology, the CEO said on Tuesday.

The 56,000 square foot facility located in Rome, New York, was recently acquired from US biofuel company Mascoma Corp.

CEO Mike Hamilton said the facility, which officially opened on April 20, is dedicated to the first step in converting biomass materials to cellulosic sugar.

Renmatix’s proprietary Plantrose process uses supercritical hydrolysis to covert cellulosic biomass – such as wood waste and agricultural residue – into second generation cellulose sugars, which can then be used downstream to make renewable fuels and chemicals.

Renmatix is now able operate the equipment under its specific operating conditions to create a secure supply to feed the company’s Integrated Plantrose Complex (IPC) facility in Georgia, which performs the second part of the conversion process.

Hamilton said the acquisition of the facility allowed the company to accelerate its efforts to progress both the technology and existing partner development plans.

“This gives us more capacity to accelerate that work and handle increasingly more partners in the future,” Hamilton said.

The company’s business model involves licensing the Plantrose technology to producers looking to build bio-refineries.

Though there were several partners working with Renmatix, Hamilton said the company had only publically announced three major partners – Germany-based chemical giant BASF, France-based energy group Total, and Finland-based forestry player UPM.

“All of our partners are deep in development programs where they pay us to test their biomass and optimise the sugars for their downstream use. And those are multi-stage efforts and timelines,” Hamilton said.

“But they will be in the position – at least one – to probably announce a bio-refinery built at some stage in 2016.”

According to Hamilton, the heavyweight partners had chosen to invest in Renmatix because the company had “disruptive economics” and offered “the lowest cost-conversion pathway”.

“Yes, we have great technology, it’s exciting – we’re having a lot of success and we’re hitting our milestones – but fundamentally, it’s the lowest cost path,” Hamilton said.