The Croatian oil and gas company INA has signed a license agreement with Axens to supply its "Futurol" cellulosic ethanol technology and awarded a basic engineering design contract for an advanced bioethanol production plant in Sisak, Croatia.
Supplying INA with its innovative and sustainable Futurol technology for the advanced bioethanol production project marks a major step for Axens as a key player in biofuels and bio-based chemical production processes. Axens will be involved in a full-scale commercial cellulosic bioethanol production plant, a first of its kind.
Axens is very excited to work with INA and be part of this advanced bioethanol production project. Based on Futurol technology, it represents a significant strategic milestone for INA as meeting environmental European regulations – the Renewable Energy Directive RED II, said Frédéric Balligand, Renewables Business Group Director, Axens.
An IFP Group company, France-headed Axens provides a complete range of solutions for the conversion of oil and biomass to cleaner fuels, the production, and purification of major petrochemical intermediates as well as all of the natural gas treatment and conversion options.
This project is in line with the company’s development guidelines and INA Downstream 2023 New course program. Moreover, it fits into the EU Green Deal guidelines and empowers the transformation of the industry in a sustainable direction by having advanced biofuel with a negative CO2 footprint as a final project target. Choosing the technology and signing the contract for basic engineering design for the advanced bioethanol plant is an important step towards the final investment decision, said Stjepan Nikolić, Operating Director of Refining and Marketing, INA.
Enzymatic pathway
The Futurol technology would enable INA to produce 55 000 tonnes, equivalent to 70 million liters, of advanced ethanol in synergy with green energy production, based on lignocellulosic feedstock such as agricultural residues and energy crop Miscanthus.
As per the Renewable Energy Directive II (REDII), second-generation ethanol allows more than 85 percent reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as compared to the fossil reference.
Commercialized by Axens, the Futurol technology converts biomass from agricultural and forest residues into cellulosic, second-generation (2G) bioethanol through enzymatic conversion and fermentation.
This innovative technology combines several integrated stages, including onsite enzyme production (In-Situ).
Futurol has been developed since 2008 by a consortium of eleven partners, including R&D, industrial and financial actors, whose expertise cover the whole production chain, from the biomass resources to the bioethanol: ARD, IFP Energies nouvelles, INRA, Lesaffre, Office national des forêts (ONF), Tereos, Total, Vivescia, Crédit Agricole Nord Est Participations, CGB, Unigrains.
A continuous pilot plant located in Pomacle-Bazancourt, and a commercial-scale pretreatment unit implemented in the Tereos facility in Bucy-Le-Long allowed validation of the different stages of the technology.
