News
October 2023
Synpet partners with KOLMAR to reinforce circular chemical cluster in the Port of Antwerp
Brussels, 20 September 2023. Synpet Technologies (“SYNPET”), the Belgium-based chemical recycling company, which provides a unique solution to waste management recycling, has partnered with Kolmar Group AG (“KOLMAR”), the Swiss trading and manufacturing entity; to substantially invest in the Port of Antwerp, one of Europe’s largest and most dense petrochemical clusters; to deploy its cutting-edge technology.
SYNPET is planning to invest in the Port of Antwerp to deploy its cutting-edge technology in one of Europe’s largest and dense clusters of chemicals companies; this is to be done in partnership with KOLMAR, who acquired a significant shareholding in SYNPET at the closure of Synpets first equity round.
Cem Ozsuer, CEO of SYNPET, comments: “Our first plant will be located in the Port of Antwerp, in the heart of one of Europe’s largest chemicals clusters. We are very proud to be investing in the heart of Flanders, at one of the most renowned and well-equipped ports in Europe. We will be contributing to the Flemish region in a sustainable way by addressing the problem of plastic waste, reducing carbon emissions, and creating long-term sustainable jobs. We’ll process 180.000 tons of wet rejected plastic waste per year in a first phase, with a plan to reach 720.000 tons of global plastic waste processing capacity by 2030. SynPet has secured sufficient plastic waste from European partners to feed the first phase.”
KOLMAR the Swiss petrochemical and renewables trading and manufacturing company which owns and operates biofuel assets in the USA; has become a significant shareholder in SYNPET and acquired the global marketing rights to the circular naphtha produced from the technology. KOLMAR is a highly regarded and trusted partner of the industry and is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland whilst operating in over 20 countries worldwide.
Ruth Sandelowsky the CEO of Kolmar Group notes: “Over the last 25 years, KOLMAR has grown to be recognized as a visionary leader in the evolving industry, active in over 100 different petrochemical and petroleum products, and provides] a significant footprint in biofuels and renewables market. This collaboration with SYNPET will allow KOLMAR to offer circular feed to the chemical industry, a corner stone to achieve their ambitions for circularity “.
Finance
Ahmet Eren, CFO of SYNPET continues: “We are very glad to close our first equity round with KOLMAR. SYNPET’s emerging technology and KOLMAR’s global experience in petrochemicals, biofuels and renewables marketing will be a very productive collaboration. At the present time, SYNPET will be executing project finance once the preliminary engineering work is completed. The financial partner, a leading global financial institution, is mandated to raise the required amount of debt to complete the first phase. For this project, we’re committed to partner up with top notch companies in their fields.”
Marketing
Owen Price-James Business Development Director of KOLMAR comments “Circularity [making chemicals from recycled plastics] is a key objective of the European Chemical industry. There is no technology other than SYNPET’s which produces high quality circular chemical feed requiring no further treatment, from rejected plastics at an industrial scale. This is a game changer for the industry, and we are delighted to be partnering with major chemical producers for the sale of the circular naphtha, which will be the subject of future announcements.
Engineering and Permitting
Cem Ozsuer, CEO of SYNPET concludes: “We will be working with KBR, the renowned American engineering firm. We wanted to work with a Tier 1 Engineering firm for this project and are delighted that KBR will be responsible for the engineering package. The procurement & construction will be done by ENKA, a prominent Turkish EPC company. We have also appointed ARUP, (a British engineering consulting firm) to complete the third Party Technical Due Diligence.”
About SynPet Technologies
Synpet Technologies is a clean-tech company created in 2014. Its process for recycling unsorted plastic waste has been tested on a demo scale since 2016, a production unit of 15 tons. It offers a circular economy solution to both the citizen and the oil industry, by recycling the carbon in the waste into renewable oil (naphtha) that can replace fossil oil naphtha in production of new plastics, into high-calorific natural gas for electricity generation, and into biochar that can be used as fertilizer in agriculture or raw material for cement industry. SynPet Technologies now raised enough capital to start the first plant. www.synpet.com
About KOLMAR GROUP
KOLMAR Group AG is a Swiss company with headquarters in Zug and 24 offices worldwide. Over the last 27 years, Kolmar has grown to be recognized as a solid leader in the industry, active in over 100 different petrochemical and petroleum products, including special emphasis on biofuels and renewables: and present in over 20 different countries. The company transacts approximately 6 million metric tons per year. Kolmar Group has a core philosophy of “Growth through Collaboration” this is evident in the intricate physical network and long-term close relationships it has with business partners. Kolmar Group AG has a network of offices strategically located in the centres of the global industry, including North and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the MED, Africa, and North and South America. The management of Kolmar Group AG have extensive industry experience with major industry entities and oil majors. Kolmar’s business development teams in Europe and the U.S. are engaged in originating and delivering promising projects with a focus on renewables, circular and low carbon to ensure that Kolmar remains a fundamental and progressive partner for years to come.
October 2022
Kolmar signs marketing deal with Synpet for circular cracker feed
Kolmar Group (Zug, Switzerland)—a trader of petrochemicals and oil products, and producer of renewable fuels-
-has announced its intention to invest in Synpet Technologies (Brussels, Belgium), a company with proprietary
technology to manufacture circular naphtha, a circular feed for steam crackers. Ruth Sandelowsky, CEO of
Kolmar, says the company will have marketing exclusivity for products made by Synpet following the
investment.
Synpet is planning to invest €90 million ($87 million) at Genk, Belgium, to build a unit that will process dixicultto-recycle plastics into synthetic oil. The plant will utilize Synpetʼs technology, the thermal conversion process
(TCP), which provides “a unique solution to waste management and recycling of plastics,” Kolmar says. TCP is
cost exective and can make circular products such as circular naphtha, natural gas, and fertilizers, as well as
synthetic oil, depending on the input of various waste feeds, it says. Synpetʼs technology, currently being
deployed at a pilot scale, provides a continuous process that is scalable and carbon neutral, Kolmar adds.
Kolmar says it will be the exclusive marketer of volume from any deployed Synpet technology, working with
Synpet to bring to market upward of 150,000 metric tons/year of circular feed by 2027, with the first volumes
expected to be available to market in 2025 from a series of planned deployments.
“The chemicals Industry is in a paradigm shiy concerning feed strategy, under growing pressure from
consumers, legislation, and brand owners to use recycled plastic,” says Owen Price-James, consultant
director/business development at Kolmar. “Production of circular feeds such as pyrolysis oil have the potential
to grow significantly as a slice of cracker feed, especially in the EU where the Commission Green Deal requires
decarbonization and recycling from chemical producers.”
According to Sandelowsky, “the industry both in Europe and globally will require a nimble marketer to manage
volatility both in each region and interregional arbs. This presents an opportunity to Kolmar to create service
provision with access to pyrolysis oil, supply-chain optionality, and optionality with cracker operators.”
Kolmarʼs strategic intent is “to build a material position as a marketer and service provider for renewable,
circular fuel, and low-carbon feedstocks for the fuels and chemical industry,” Sandelowsky says. “Kolmar has
targeted a material position in the development of circular chemical feeds.” The company says it intends to
invest in selected projects to develop its intended “industry-leading position.”
As the market for pyrolysis, circular, and renewable cracker feeds matures, the industry “will require service
provision to balance operational volatility for both feed producers and cracker operators, to provide logistics
infrastructure including tankage and loading facilities, to blend grades from multiple production locations to
acceptable input grades for crackers [rather than single-sourced oils to single crackers with no fungibility], and
to upgrade/purify pyrolysis oils from a variety of sources and technology platforms into ʻmain gradeʼ cracker
feed,” says Price-James.
Kolmar says it is active in more than 100 petroleum and petrochemical products, including biofuels and
renewables, and present in more than 20 countries. The company transacts approximately 6 million metric
tons/year with annual revenue of more than $5 billion. Kolmar is also a manufacturer of biofuels in the US under
the name American Green Fuels (AGF) with production sites for biodiesel in Connecticut and Texas. It has also
invested significantly in cellulosic technology with new production of renewable diesel coming online in 2022.
December 2021
Gevo Inks Largest Supply Agreement To-Date for Renewable Fuels
Kolmar Americas Inc Deal Valued at Up to US$2.4 Billion over Eight Years
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., December 7, 2021 — Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO) has a new partner: Kolmar Americas Inc. (“Kolmar”). Kolmar and Gevo have entered into a financeable fuel supply agreement for 45 million gallons per year (on a neat basis) of renewable, energy-dense liquid hydrocarbons that are expected to be produced from Gevo’s second Net-Zero production facility, Net-Zero 2. Kolmar is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kolmar Group AG that is a privately held service provider, manufacturer, and marketer of renewable fuels headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. The agreement with Kolmar demonstrates that Gevo is continuing to diversify its partner base geographically as it grows its presence on the global stage. The fuel supply agreement provides for Gevo to supply Kolmar with renewable hydrocarbons, including sustainable aviation fuel (“SAF”) and isooctane that is a key component of renewable premium gasoline. Gevo expects to supply 45MGPY of renewable fuels to Kolmar from its Net-Zero 2 plant that is currently being developed in the Mid-West of the United States. Deliveries to Kolmar would represent the entire plant output based on Net-Zero 2’s current design. Under the fuel supply agreement, Net-Zero 2 is expected to generate approximately US$300 million per year of gross revenue, including revenue from environmental benefits. With protein and corn oil co-product sales, Net-Zero 2 is estimated to generate gross revenues of approximately US$350 million per year. Over the eight years of the agreement, Net-Zero 2 all-in, gross revenue is estimated to be up to approximately US$2.8 billion, inclusive of renewable fuels and related products for the food chain. According to Raf Aviner, President of Kolmar Americas, Inc.: “In addition to our traditional businesses, Kolmar is dedicated to commercial development and optimization of leading-edge low carbon products and technologies. We are excited to align Kolmar’s global supply reach, logistics, and regulatory capabilities with GEVO’s Net-Zero 2 production of cutting-edge low carbon aviation and gasoline fuels to get these advanced, sustainable products to the varied global markets that need and want them the most.” “With this agreement, Kolmar is investing in the future, and this kind of foresight makes for another excellent partner and should make clear to our investors that we have traction in the market,” said Dr. Patrick R. Gruber, Gevo’s Chief Executive Officer. “We have great potential in our business system to reinvent what is possible. Our system translates well because we actively address food security with the high-value nutritional products that our process generates simultaneously as we produce our advanced renewable fuels. Both products come from the same acre of farmland and add to our environmental benefit.” The fuel supply agreement with Kolmar is subject to certain important terms and conditions. A copy of the fuel supply agreement with Kolmar has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 8-K.
About Gevo
Gevo’s mission is to transform renewable energy and carbon into energy-dense liquid hydrocarbons. These liquid hydrocarbons can be used for drop-in transportation fuels such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel, that when burned have potential to yield netzero greenhouse gas emissions when measured across the full life cycle of the products. Gevo uses low-carbon renewable resource-based carbohydrates as raw materials, and is in an advanced state of developing renewable electricity and renewable natural gas for use in production processes, resulting in low-carbon fuels with substantially reduced carbon intensity (the level of greenhouse gas emissions compared to standard petroleum fossil-based fuels across their life cycle). Gevo’s products perform as well or better than traditional fossil-based fuels in infrastructure and engines, but with substantially reduced greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to addressing the problems of fuels, Gevo’s technology also enables certain plastics, such as polyester, to be made with more sustainable ingredients. Gevo’s ability to penetrate the growing low-carbon fuels market depends on the price of oil and the value of abating carbon emissions that would otherwise increase greenhouse gas emissions. Gevo believes that its proven, patented technology enabling the use of a variety of low-carbon sustainable feedstocks to produce price-competitive low-carbon products such as gasoline components, jet fuel and diesel fuel yields the potential to generate project and corporate returns that justify the build-out of a multi-billion-dollar business. Gevo believes that the Argonne National Laboratory GREET model is the best available standard of scientific-based measurement for life cycle inventory or LCI. Learn more at Gevo’s website: www.gevo.com
About Kolmar
Kolmar Americas, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Kolmar Group AG, is a leading petrochemical, renewable fuels and liquid energy products trader and producer, headquartered in Shelton, Connecticut. Kolmar’s product slate includes crude oil to light petroleum derivatives, biodiesel, cellulosic fuels, renewable diesel, SAF, and biomass/circular carbon petrochemical feeds. Kolmar Group AG is a global company with twenty offices worldwide and dedicated storage capacity located in the world’s main energy and chemicals hubs.
Learn more at Kolmar’s website: www.kolmargroup.com or contact press@kolmaramericas.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements relate to a variety of matters, without limitation, including Gevo’s technology, the fuel supply agreement with Kolmar, the estimated revenue that Gevo might earn from the Kolmar fuel supply agreement, Gevo’s estimated value of the fuel supply agreement with Kolmar, Gevo’s Net-Zero 2 project, Gevo’s ability to develop, finance and construct Net-Zero 2 using the fuel supply agreement with Kolmar, Gevo’s ability to produce renewable hydrocarbons, the attributes of Gevo’s products, and other statements that are not purely statements of historical fact. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of Gevo and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Gevo undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Although Gevo believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements involve many risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from what may be expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. For a further discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of Gevo in general, see the risk disclosures in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Gevo for the year ended December 31, 2020, and in subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K and other filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Gevo.