Verbio breaks ground on biobased specialties plant

In Germany, Verbio has broken ground on a biobased specialty chemicals plant at Bitterfeld.

The €80-100 million (USD$87.2-109 million) site will use Novel Prize-winning ethenolysis technology to produce ingredients for detergents and cleaning agents; high-performance lubricants for engines; and plastics. The plant will use rapeseed oil methyl ester as feedstock. 

The rapeseed oil is first converted to rapeseed oil methyl ester biodiesel in Verbio’s biorefinery. Then, using catalyst systems developed by XiMo Hungary Kft., a wholly-owned Verbio subsidiary, the biodiesel is converted to green molecules that are in turn used as renewable raw materials in specialty chemicals. Prof. Dr. Richard Schrock, one of the former founders of XiMo, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005 for his discoveries in the field of metathesis in organic chemistry.