First of a kind bio n-butanol industrial facility

Project Information

RenewChem

Grant agreement ID: 101189202

DOI

10.3030/101189202

EC signature date 12 December 2024

Start date 1 September 2024

End date 30 September 2026

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 2 495 625,00

Coordinated by

CATALYXX PROCESOS CATALITICOS SOCIEDAD LIMITADA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RenewChem (First of a kind bio n-butanol industrial facility)

Reporting period: 2024-09-01 to 2025-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The chemical industry is one of the largest industrial contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, emitting approximately 935 million tonnes of CO2 per year. In Europe, the sector is essential to the economy and value chains, but remains highly dependent on fossil-based feedstocks and energy-intensive production routes. Achieving the objectives of the EU Green Deal and the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality target therefore requires viable and scalable decarbonisation pathways for chemical manufacturing that preserve industrial competitiveness and security of supply.

In this context, Catalyxx is developing the RenewChem project, which aims to decarbonise the production of widely used chemical intermediates by replacing fossil-based routes with a renewable, low-carbon alternative. RenewChem is based on a catalytic process that converts bioethanol into drop-in bio-alcohols, enabling the production of essential chemicals with a significantly reduced carbon footprint while maintaining performance, cost competitiveness and compatibility with existing industrial infrastructure.

The RenewChem process produces bio-based butanol, hexanol and higher alcohols that can be used across a broad range of downstream applications, including paints, coatings, adhesives, solvents, surfactants, and products for cosmetics, home and personal care, flavours and fragrances, and pharmaceuticals. By offering chemically identical molecules, the project allows industrial users to reduce emissions and diversify their supply chains without requiring changes to formulations, equipment or end-product performance.

The project pathway to impact is centred on the deployment of a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) commercial facility with a production capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year, which will demonstrate industrial viability and support future replication and scale-up.

Through the substitution of petroleum-derived chemicals with renewable alternatives, RenewChem is expected to deliver significant impacts, including the avoidance of approximately 100,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions, reduced dependence on fossil-based imports, and strengthened European industrial competitiveness with the creation of more than 600 direct and indirect jobs across the value chain.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Since September 2024, the Catalyxx team and its partners have carried out the technical and industrial work required to prepare the RenewChem project for the construction phase of its first commercial facility. Activities during the reporting period focused on de-risking the technology, finalising the industrial concept, and ensuring environmental and regulatory readiness.

The main work performed and achievements can be summarised as follows:
1. Engineering and industrial design: the engineering and design of the new reactor, distillation units and associated infrastructure were advanced, with a strong focus on efficiency and a low carbon footprint. The resulting design is a compact, highly efficient industrial facility based on a near effluent-free process configuration.
2. Environmental and regulatory preparation: building on the completed engineering work, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and environmental dossier were prepared to initiate the permitting process. The site selection process was optimised, leading to the identification of an alternative location within the Port of Sines, Portugal. The engineering was adapted accordingly, and the updated environmental dossier was submitted to the Portuguese authorities in November 2025.
3. Technology consolidation and catalyst readiness: the final catalyst batch intended for deployment in the commercial reactor was successfully tested at the demonstration facility in Seville, confirming the robustness and consistency of the already validated technology platform.
4. Market traction supporting industrial scale-up: engagement with chemical industry players resulted in strong market traction and advanced offtake discussions. The depth of demand supported the decision to increase the planned production capacity of the first commercial facility from 15,000 to 30,000 tonnes per year.

Overall, the work performed during the reporting period resulted in a fully defined industrial concept, confirmed technology readiness, and validated assumptions for commercial deployment.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The RenewChem project represents a significant advancement over the current state of the art in bio-based chemical production, combining proven catalytic technology with an industrially scalable process design.

Technical innovation: Catalyxx’s technology differs fundamentally from conventional bio-alcohol production pathways. While traditional fermentation-based processes face scalability and efficiency limitations at industrial scale, Catalyxx’s catalytic process has been developed to operate reliably at large scale and is well suited for commercial deployment.

Process efficiency: the process delivers high conversion rates and efficient product recovery compared to existing bio-based alternatives. This performance translates into a meaningful energy advantage versus conventional petrochemical routes, which are inherently energy-intensive.

Environmental performance: compared to petrochemical production, the RenewChem process delivers carbon-negative performance. For key products such as butanol and hexanol, lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by more than 100%. This outcome is driven by the use of renewable ethanol as feedstock combined with an optimized and energy-efficient process design, and has been confirmed through a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

The detailed engineering of the future RenewChem facility will be finalized during the second reporting period through a FEL-3 design phase, following Safe and Sustainable by Design principles. A final Life Cycle Assessment based on the FEL-3 configuration will confirm the plant’s ultimate environmental performance.

Path to uptake and impact: the results achieved to date position RenewChem for commercial uptake. Key enablers include continued market development, offtake agreements, access to project and growth financing, and completion of permitting processes, enabling the transition from demonstration to commercial implementation.