Cobalt Technologies announced the successful completion of a production campaign of n-butanol at a fermentation scale greater than 100,000 liters. The performance demonstrates scalability by replicating the performance previously obtained at both the 10 liter bench scale and the 4,000 liter pilot scale. This scale validation is a crucial stepping stone to finalizing any commercial project, since scale up to a commercial fermentor is under 10x, well within industry norms. With the results achieved during the latest production run, Cobalt demonstrated a clear economic advantage over petroleum-based butanol under current market conditions. Ongoing process improvements at commercial scale are expected to yield at least a 40% cost advantage.

Cobalt Technologies announced a strategic relationship with two prominent Asian chemical companies for the development of a complete biomass-to-butadiene solution, to be followed by construction of a commercial-scale biorefinery in Asia. The partners also plan to build or license additional plants to support the high growth in global butadiene demand. In support of the relationship, the partners made an equity investment in Cobalt. A $40 billion market worldwide, butadiene is widely used in the manufacture of synthetic rubber and nylon. Butadiene is also a key ingredient in high mileage 'eco-tires', a market the company expects to grow rapidly as automakers seek to meet higher fuel economy standards. Under the terms of the strategic relationship, Cobalt and the partners will work together on the development of integrated technology for the conversion of biomass to butadiene. The integrated technology will form the basis for construction of a commercial-scale biomass-to-butadiene biorefinery. Work to date has demonstrated that this solution can be highly competitive with petroleum-based butadiene under current market conditions. Technology development is expected to be completed in 2014 with construction of the first plant to follow.

Harris & Harris Group, Inc. noted the announcement by Cobalt Technologies and Rhodia, a member of the Solvay Group, that they will begin joint development and operation of a biobutanol demonstration facility in Brazil. This step is part of the development effort between the two companies to make progress toward the construction of commercial-scale biorefineries using Cobalt's technology to convert Brazilian bagasse and other local non-food feedstock into bio-based n-butanol in Latin America.