Heritage and history
INEOS is one of the world’s top three chemical companies and is the world’s fastest growing chemical company. It has sales approaching $45 billion from 70 sites in 14 countries. Most of the INEOS employees have spent their working lives in the chemical or oil industry. INEOS Technologies is one of the INEOS Group Companies and has three main activities:
- Licensing of leading technologies for the global petrochemicals industry
- Manufacturing and supply of high quality catalysts, additives and coatings to support our licensees. These include INEOS manufacturing sites and other major multi-national companies around the world
- Research and development (R&D) to sustain the leading edge of our existing technology platforms and also to develop new, step-out technologies to meet the emerging needs of our clients, and of society.
INEOS Bio is the fruit of one such step-out project, which we have been incubating for a number of years.
The heart of the INEOS Bio technology platform is an incredibly innovative biochemical process that began in Arkansas, USA in 1989. A small, highly dedicated team of researchers led by Dr. James Gaddy took the technology from discovery through to integrated pilot plant scale over nearly two decades. As is often the case with important discoveries, the first production of ethanol from gases using bacteria was detected as an unexpected bi-product during an experiment. The phenomenon was investigated and, over time, an understanding of the science was developed. Progressive stages of laboratory development finally culminated in the construction in 1994 of a significantly sized, purpose built, pilot fermenter with laboratory and offices just outside the City of Fayetteville in Arkansas. A gasifier was added to the pilot plant in 2003 to prove the commercial viability of ethanol production from a variety of low-cost carbon materials. The pilot plant has been operating continuously on a range of waste materials ever since. The sustained passion and commitment of the Arkansas team has produced a long series of innovations, which, progressively has transformed an inspired concept into an outstanding commercial reality.
The team in Arkansas has now joined together with INEOS to create a new, stronger, multi-disciplinary and global INEOS Bio team, which has the skills, capabilities and resolve to commercialise the technology quickly.