DEINOVE, a biotech company developing innovative processes for producing biofuels and bio-based chemicals from non-food biomass with its Deinococcus bacteria, has produced 2G ethanol with an exceptional performance level in a 300 litre fermenter.
The trials were conducted at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, DEINOVE's long term partner, which has the necessary infrastructure to implement and evaluate this type of pilot operation. The raw material used is a mixture of glucose (a six carbon atoms sugar, C6) and xylose (C5), the main components obtained by the hydrolysis of non-food biomass used in the production of 2G biofuels.
Fermentation of these 2G sugars by an optimised DEINOL strain has resulted in the production of ethanol at 7.3% volume/volume (v/v). This performance is consistent with the results obtained by the DEINOVE team in its laboratories in 20 litre fermenters.
"We are very satisfied with these results," declares Jean-Paul LEONETTI, R&D Director of DEINOVE. "The long lasting collaboration between our R&D teams and those of the VTT has removed limitations due to different fermenter configuration, resulting in an adaptation of the process, and represents significant progress. In this industry, scaling up can be a real technical challenge. I congratulate our teams for this new success."
"This is a great step towards industrialisation of the process and this result confirms that the Deinococcus platform is suitable for commercialisation. On the eve of COP21, a French biotech demonstrates that 2G ethanol can truly and efficiently fight against climate change," adds Emmanuel Petiot, CEO of DEINOVE. "Based on these results, we will work with our partners on the next steps: scale up to a cubic meter scale and industrial pilots. We are confident in our capabilities to provide a technological and economically competitive solution by 2018."
Adapted from press release by Rosalie Starling