Joaquín Alarcón spent his career in industrial enzymes and chemical bio-products watching good green chemistry ideas die on the way to a plant. Catalyxx, the company he founded in 2017 and now leads as CEO, is built to avoid that fate. It takes plant-based alcohol — in the U.S., largely corn ethanol — and turns it into the same molecules the chemical industry has made from oil for a century. Same performance, same specifications, no reformulation required.
This week on Agbioscience, Joaquín walks Eric Pfeiffer through a decade of work on the innovation platform behind it, from a demo facility in Seville to the 120 million euro commercial plant now rising in Sines, Portugal — the first production of its kind at scale. Along the way: why the Consider Corn Challenge win in 2021 and years of Indiana Corn Marketing Council support for the GrenOl renewable fuel project matter, what Indiana’s corn and ethanol base could offer Catalyxx, and what still has to change in policy, infrastructure and capital markets before bio-based chemicals scale in the U.S. the way they are starting to in Europe,
Highlights include:
Plant alcohol, not petroleum: Catalyxx turns plant-based alcohol into the same molecules the chemical industry has made from oil for a century — what that means for agbioscience, and what drew Joaquín to the innovation platform for the last decade of his career.
Founding to first plant: Founded in 2017 and now building its first commercial plant — the moment he knew it would work, and what it actually took to get a first plant off the ground.
Why most green chemistry dies: Years in industrial enzymes and chemical bio-products taught him why a few green chemistry ideas reach a plant and most never do — and how Catalyxx was built differently on purpose.
No reformulation required: Most sustainable chemicals ask a manufacturer to alter a process, a specification, even a supply chain. Catalyxx’s product is identical to what they already buy — and that is the point.
Volatility as a business model: Working from ethanol, which in the U.S. largely means corn ethanol — building on a commodity that moves constantly, with policy behind it that moves too. How the business stays profitable through that volatility, and how much of the model depends on ethanol staying cheap.
The Indiana relationships: How the Consider Corn Challenge win in 2021 and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council’s multi-year backing for the GrenOl renewable fuel project started — and what that Indiana support has enabled.
Indiana as a plant site: Indiana is among the largest corn and ethanol producing states, with an active conversation about moving more of what it grows into higher-value products. What stands out about Indiana as a potential site for Catalyxx.
Seville to Sines: From a demo facility in Seville to a 120 million euro plant in Sines — the first commercial-scale production of its kind. What had to be proven at demo scale before anyone would commit capital, why Sines was the right location, and what remains between a signed project and commercial production.
The sequencing: U.S. and Brazilian plants follow the European one — the sequencing logic, and what has to be true before a U.S. plant makes sense.
The scaling bottleneck: The single biggest thing that has to change — policy, infrastructure, or capital markets — for bio-based chemicals to scale in the U.S. the way they are beginning to in Europe.
What Catalyxx becomes: Five years out: a licensor of technology, an operator of plants, or a chemical company in its own right — and what has him most excited about what’s ahead.
