It was announced jointly that DuPont Industrial Biosciences (www.biosciences.dupont.com) and VERBIO North America Corporation (VNA), the U.S. subsidiary of leading German bioenergy producer VERBIO Vereinigte BioEnergie AG, have reached terms for VNA to acquire DuPont’s Nevada, Iowa-based cellulosic ethanol plant and a portion of its corn stover inventory. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to occur in November. VNA intends to install facilities to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) made from corn stover and other cellulosic crop residues at the site. This would be VERBIO’s third production facility devoted to this cellulosic technology – in 2014, the company commissioned its first facility in Schwedt, Germany, and its second facility in Pinnow, Germany is currently being commissioned.
VERBIO is a leading manufacturer in the German biomethane and biofuels market running four production facilities producing around 27 million gallons of RNG, 140 million gallons of biodiesel and 87 million gallons of ethanol per year. The company focuses on developing and installing new technologies to produce first and second generation biofuels from biomass and crop residues.
“The DuPont facility in Nevada, Iowa offers excellent infrastructure to construct our first RNG facility outside Germany. We can use part of the installed equipment for our production and there is a solid base of local farmers from whom to procure the raw materials. Once the plant is in operation, it offers the Nevada, IA community new agricultural revenue streams, new employment opportunities and new sources of tax revenues,” said Claus Sauter, CEO of VERBIO.