Global Bioenergies Awarded USPTO Patent for its Bio-sourced Butadiene Production Process

Evry (France) -- Global Bioenergies (NYSE Alternext Paris: ALGBE) announces that the USPTO has granted a key patent relative to its butadiene process.

A patent that protects an essential step of Global Bioenergies process to produce bio-sourced butadiene has been granted on recently by the USPTO, the American intellectual property office, and registered under number 8,703,455. Butadiene is a key petrochemical: Approximately 10 million tons of butadiene are currently produced annually from oil, representing an existing market value around 15 billion dollars. According to a number of experts a shortage of butadiene is expected in coming years and alternative production routes are therefore indispensable.

Philippe Marlière, co-founder and President of the Scientific Advisory Board of Global Bioenergies states: "The agreement from the USPTO regarding the invention of butadiene bio-production through enzymatic dehydration places Global Bioenergies at the avant-garde of innovation in the fields of bio-sourced elastomers and polyamides. The company validated and protected an unprecedented collection of metabolic processes to convert renewable resources into light olefins. In the future, we will deploy the necessary daring to transform these lab-scale successes into industrial assets."

Patent 8,703,455 results from an application filed on August 29th, 2012 by Philippe Marliére, and licensed exclusively to Global Bioenergies. This patent application entered the national phase in the United States in August 2013 under the accelerated TrackOne procedure.

The development of a butadiene biological production process is the scope of an industrial partnership between the Polish group Synthos and Global Bioenergies.

Tomasz Kalwat, CEO of Synthos declares: "Our collaboration with Global Bioenergies progresses as originally planned and we now consider that the riskiest phases of this promising program are behind us".

Thomas Buhl, Head of Business Development for Global Bioenergies concludes: "The competitive environment on bio-sourced butadiene incited us to request an accelerated procedure in the United States to clarify the situation. This will enable us to now look efficiently for new partners on this process".

The granting of this patent in the United States follows shortly after the granting of two patents in Australia that cover the isobutene production process as well as other, more generic aspects of the production of bio-sourced olefins and associated intermediates.

About GLOBAL BIOENERGIES