Green Biologics Limited (GBL), a UK-based industrial biotechnology company, has merged with butylfuel Inc., a US-based renewable chemicals and biofuels company. The new company will operate under the Green Biologics name and continue to be headquartered in Abingdon, UK with a strong operational presence and commercial focus in the US contributed by butylfuel Inc., which will become Green Biologics, Inc.

“This merger creates a truly global leader in biobutanol and represents a transformational deal for both companies,” said Sean Sutcliffe, CEO of the combined GBL group. “We are combining GBL’s acknowledged technology leadership and commercialization expertise in China, India and Brazil with the scale up, operational process experience and North American business building capabilities of butylfuel.”

The merged GBL will be a globally managed company focused on the production of C4 chemicals and advanced fuels from renewable feedstocks, primarily from waste and by-product agricultural sources. GBL has an extensive portfolio of proprietary and engineered Clostridia strains used as biocatalysts to process a wide range of starch, sugar and cellulosic feedstocks. In China, GBL has three projects underway on molasses and corn by-product feedstocks. In India and Brazil, GBL’s focus is molasses, cane and bagasse. In North America, the focus is on both starch-based and cellulosic feedstocks.

“This is a near perfect fit of a remarkable industrial biotechnology company in GBL with an experienced bioprocessing and commercial scale-up company in butylfuel Inc.,” said Joel Stone, president, North America and global VP of engineering, formerly CEO of butylfuel Inc. “The synergies of GBL’s microbiological and fermentation capabilities and global presence combined with our commercial and operational skills in building and operating large scale fermentation facilities in North America creates a compelling business model, in particular for the commercialization of biobutanol in North America, the world’s leading advanced renewable chemicals and biofuels market.”

GBL said it deploys its technology using a “capital light” business model to leverage existing production assets to reduce operating and capital expenses, and to enable rapid deployment and commercialization. GBL aims to work closely with key customers and collaboration partners in the value chain to manage an orderly entry into large global markets.

Butanol and its derivatives are key intermediates in the production of paints, coatings, adhesives and inks, an $85 billion global market. Butyl acrylates are also used in the $700 billion global plastics and polymers market.