Inventure Renewables, Wilmar And Desmet Ballestra Announce Agreement To Build New Plant

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Aug. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Inventure Renewables has announced an agreement with Wilmar International and Desmet Ballestra Group to begin construction on a new facility in Jiangsu province, China.  The plant, which will bolt on to an existing Wilmar facility, will utilize Inventure's recently developed Soap Carbonate Technology to convert low-value processing residues into valuable, uncontaminated Free Fatty Acids. 

"The announcement of the new plant is a validation of our soap carbonate technology, and of our ability to walk a project from research to reality," said John Brown, Inventure's Chief Operating Officer.  "Inventure's Mixed Super Critical Fluid technology is already being used by Wilmar to produce FAME for oleochemicals and biodiesel from a wide range of vegetable oil feedstocks, and we're very excited to break ground with them on this new project."

"The market for green oleochemicals is rapidly expanding," said Matt Morgenroth, Group Technical Head at Wilmar International Limited. "By adopting Inventure's Soap Carbonate Technology at our Jiangsu plant, we will be better positioned to help meet this demand."

"Inventure's Soap Carbonate Technology is attractive for two reasons," said Giuseppe Di Carpegna, General Manager of Desmet Ballestra S.p.A.- Mazzoni LB Soap, which is closely cooperating with Inventure for the industrialization and the commercialization of this technology and which will provide engineering services and required technical assistance for the construction and the start-up.  "First, it's more sustainable —it can avoid the use of sulfuric acid, generates no acidic wastewater, and traps CO2 as NaHCO3 in water.  Second, it allows for near complete recovery of targeted oleochemical products, and is much more cost-effective than recovering FFA from palm oil or tallow."

Construction of the facility is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2019.

About Wilmar
Wilmar International is Asia's leading agribusiness group, and one of the largest listed companies by market capitalization on the Singapore Exchange. The company's business activities include oil palm cultivation, oilseeds crushing, edible oils refining, sugar, specialty fats, oleochemicals and biodiesel manufacturing and grains processing. Wilmar has over 300 manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network covering China, India, Indonesia and some 50 other countries to support a well-established processing and merchandising business. Wilmar also manufactures and distributes fertilizers and owns a fleet of vessels. The Wilmar Group is backed by a multi-national workforce of approximately 90,000 people.

About Desmet Ballestra Group
The Desmet Ballestra Group is the world leader in developing, engineering and supplying technologies, processing plants and proprietary equipment for food & feed and chemicals businesses (including oleochemicals, biodiesel and detergents).  The Desmet Ballestra Group resulted from the merger of best-in-class companies in their field, including De Smet (Belgium); Rosedowns (UK), Ballestra (Italy), Stolz (France) and Mazzoni LB (Italy).

About Inventure Renewables
Founded in 2007, Inventure helps agri-business, oleochemical and biofuel companies find novel ways to turn waste products and by-products into value-added materials to increase overall profitability. The company has pioneered many processes toward these ends. Inventure also
manufactures its own branded bio-based oleochemicals.  In early 2018, it launched TASC Labs, an analytical services company that works closely with clients to solve problems. Inventure Renewables is a wholly-owned subsidiary of its holding company, Inventure International (Pte) Limited.

SOURCE Inventure Renewables