Germany-based Helm and US-based Greenyug LLC have signed an exclusive off-take contract for bio-based ethyl acetate which will be produced at Greenyug's planned facility in Columbus, Nebraska, according to a joint company statement Wednesday.
Greenyug has formed a subsidiary, Prairie Catalytic, which will own and operate the production facility.
"This off-take agreement provides us with immediate access to Ethyl Acetate customers enabling Prairie Catalytic to generate revenue once the plant is operational," Greenyug and Prairie Catalytic CEO Sagar Gadewar said. Construction of the plant is expected to start sometime during 2017 and production is expected to follow about a year later.
The new facility will be located next to Archer Daniels Midland's corn processing plant which will provide the bioethanol feedstock.
Greenyug, a predominately research and development company, developed the patented technology at its Santa Barbara, California Research Facility and continued the scale-up at its fully integrated demonstration plant in Pune, India.
Global Ethyl Acetate markets are worth more than $4 billion a year, according to the announcement.
