Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) — Global Bioenergies SA, a French
biotechnology company, received 1.5 million euros ($2 million)
in funding from Synthos SA after meeting a requirement in its
efforts to develop a biological process for converting plant
material into butadiene, a chemical used to make synthetic
rubber and other products.
The company also will receive “several million euros”
annually from Synthos to continue developing the technology,
Envy, France-based Global Bioenergies said in a statement today.
Global Bioenergies Chief Executive Officer Marc Delcourt said
this stage will last for three years.
“Had we not entered this partnership, we probably would
not have started this program,” Delcourt said yesterday in a
telephone interview.“It was too cash-intensive to do it on our
own.”
Synthos, based in Oswiecim, Poland, will have the rights to
use the renewable butadiene for rubber applications and will pay
royalties to Global Bioenergies for products that use it.
Synthos agreed in July 2011 to support Global Bioenergies, which
retains the rights to the chemical for non-rubber applications.
Butadiene is typically produced from oil and is also used
to make plastics, latex and nylon. Of the 10 million tons of the
chemical produced worldwide each year from oil, about 7 million
tons are used to manufacture rubber, according to the statement.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
