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As a university spin-out operating in the biotechnology space, Celtic Renewables is renowned for commercially scaling a fermentation process that converts the secondary by-products and waste streams of the food, beverage and agriculture industries into valuable chemicals. What makes the company’ s process particularly significant is its outputs of acetone, butanol and ethanol. Most acetone and butanol in the world come from fossil fuels, but Celtic Renewables produces both through a biological pathway, using waste and residues as feedstock, in a production process that is genuinely sustainable.
“ From a downstream perspective, these chemicals are used to manufacture thousands of products that are present in our everyday lives, from pharmaceuticals and cosmetics to cleaning products, paints, coatings and plastics,” begins Mark Simmers, CEO.“ It is crucial that we start to address the way we make the materials that we use in daily life. Huge strides have been made in generating sustainable energy, but the products we use every day need to be made differently too. Celtic Renewables is at the forefront of that shift. We started out as a university research project and have scaled that work up to build the biorefinery we operate today, which is no small undertaking.”
Celtic Renewables’ commercial demonstrator facility is fully operational and produces high-value green chemicals. The biorefinery is the springboard from which the company intends to build larger, industrialscale biorefineries and eventually carry out a globally applicable licensing model. The next critical milestone for the business is therefore to build, commission and bring into operation a full-scale biorefinery that demonstrates 178