Important he says this increase is not utopian

Transform plant in gasoline for vehicles with micro-organisms-this is the adventure in which Global Bioenergies is committed. And the young company installed on the Evry Génopole was able to convince, because after a first fundraising in early 2009, she comes to obtain funding from OSEO height of 760,000 euros. In the meantime, the company had the experimental demonstration of his idea. Last October, it indeed successfully make by bacteria of the isobuthène, an easily convertible gas into liquid fuels (gasoline, kerosene, diesel, ETBE) and various polymers (tires, organic glass, plastic). To do this, its researchers have reprogrammed the metabolism of bacteria so they synthesize the isobuthène, that they are not natural.

Yet six years of work

Funding from OSEO will now allow Global Bioenergies to carry out the following step began as early as last October which should be spread over 18 months and require a down payment total of 2.1 million euros. It involves the transfer, stably, in bacteria the artificial metabolic pathway to synthesize the isobuthène and to increase performance. "We can hire and install us in more spacious premises", welcomes Marc Delcourt, Global Bioenergies President.

But, before that produced gasoline in this way is at the pump, it still count at least six years and several round table, since the total cost of the project from "idea to pump" is encrypted to approximately EUR 10 million. The next step is to develop a fermentor driver a few cubic metres to industrialize the trial. As the last step of making fuel from isobutene, Global Bioenergies will use for chemical process classical already proven.

That is what today distinguishes this project of the multitude of biofuels initiatives First of all, the finished product will be the same as we are now in the tank of our car. Unnecessary therefore to change the distribution network, unlike what happens for ethanol.

Cost at $ 50 per barrel

Second, the isobuthène is a gaseous hydrocarbon that volatilizes spontaneously during fermentation. As a result, the product does not accumulate in the medium become toxic to the bacteria that synthesize. "When the BioProcess derived fuel is in liquid form, this limit because of this performance, explains Marc Delcourt." "This is the reason why the fermentation of grape juice stops at approximately 12.5 ." The two main competitors of Global Bioenergies, American or both, Amyris and LS9, are confronted with this problem. "With gaseous form, in addition, no effort of purification, such as distillation in the case of ethanol, for example, is necessary", he added.

These benefits enable Global Bioenergies build on a threshold of profitability for its process for $ 50 per barrel of oil. "Under current conditions", said Marc Delcourt, because the other critical variable is the cost of agricultural products and paraagricoles that the start-up process uses as raw materials: sugar cane or beet sugar, glucose from the starch of grain or sugar resulting from the digestion of lignocellulosic (agricultural or forestry waste) material.

That the process of Global Bioenergies can compete with food uses of agricultural production is probably his weak point. So, this is not fatal to Marc Delcourt. "Run replace all fuels by biofuels based on agricultural products, would multiply by 2.5 agricultural production world and even more, if one considers that food needs will increase." Important, he says, this increase is not utopian. There is a reservoir of arable land and the constant progress of agricultural science should allow an increase in yields. "Otherwise, it will have to choose between eating and move. Or even resort to organizations such as the microalgae, capable of converting CO2 from the air in hydrocarbons. But this method is still very far from being developed.