Global Bioenergies (Evry, France) has announced that Repsol S.A. (Madrid, Spain) signed a purchase order for a volume of Global Bioenergies’ full-bio-based Ethyl tertiary-butyl ether (ETBE) to be used for formulation and performance assessment of gasoline. ETBE is widely used as a high-octane component in gasoline.
However, standard ETBE, which is added up to around 15% in current gasoline, is only partially renewable as it is currently produced from renewable ethanol combined with fossil isobutene.
To produce full-bio-ETBE, Global Bioenergies converted wood residues into isobutene and combined it with renewable ethanol.
Using full-bio-ETBE in gasoline formulation would automatically increase the percentage of renewables in gasoline used for road and air transportation, and thus reduce the CO2 emissions of such energy streams. It could also be one of the key components to produce renewable gasoline and get closer to the long-term goal of net zero carbon emissions.
Bernard Chaud, Director of Industrial Strategy at Global Bioenergies, comments: “We are thrilled to see our collaboration with Repsol move to the next level. The construction of our production unit in Pomacle is now completed, and we will soon be in a position to supply larger quantities of bio-isobutene and derivatives, which can serve to design, prepare and test high performance formulations of renewable fuels.”