Verbio to start up renewable chemicals plant next year

LONDON (ICIS)–Verbio’s ethenolysis plant under construction in Germany is expected to start up in 2026, a company official told ICIS.

The plant will produce renewable chemicals based on rapeseed oil methyl ester.

“The distillation columns are in, all the big-ticket items have been installed,” Marc Siegel, Verbio’s head of sales, Specialty Chemicals and Catalysts, said in an interview.

While there were some delays, the project at the Bitterfeld chemicals park in Saxony-Anhalt state remains on budget, he said.

Capacities:
– 32,000 tonnes/year of methyl 9-decenoate (9-DAME)
– 17,000 tonnes/year of 1-decene.
Project cost: €80-100 million.
Startup: early 2026

“We are seeing a lot of interest in the materials,” Siegel said.

9-DAME has applications in surfactants, lubricants, solvents, polymers and others while 1-decene is a precursor for lubricants, coating agents, surfactants, polymers and others.

Siegel also noted an opportunity to convert 9-DAME, which is similar to C10 fatty acid methyl ester, into a C10 fatty acid or alcohol, replacing palm kernel oil (PKO).

Customers would thus avoid the complex supply chains of PKO, and its price fluctuations.

More important, however, they would reduce their carbon footprint, and they could put palm-free and GMO-free labels on their shampoos and other products, he said.

Nongovernment organizations have created a lot of pressure against palm oil because of the environmental impacts of palm oil plantations, he noted.

A NEW CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
“Customers see the value of these renewable chemicals”, he said, adding that many companies have strong decarbonization targets.

While Germany’s chemical industry was currently in crisis, renewable chemicals was its opportunity, he said.

“All the companies are hurting now, but once we rebound, there will be a new chemical industry, otherwise we will end up as an industrial museum,” he said.

“Sustainability is the way to go, chemical companies need to reinvent themselves in the things they do,” he said.

For Verbio, the ethenolysis project is part of its strategy to reduce its reliance on biofuels, Siegel said.

Biofuels is a heavily regulated market that leaves producers exposed to political decisions, he said and noted the changes in policies under the current US administration.

The diversification into renewable chemicals will give Verbio additional mainstays outside the transport sector, he said.

While Verbio plans to focus on producing and supplying the two renewable chemicals – 9-DAME and 1-decene – it does not intend to get involved in making downstream products, he added.

Interview article by Stefan Baumgarten

Thumbnail photo of Verbio’s ethenolysis plant under construction at Bitterfeld, Germany. Source: Verbio