World's Largest Soybean Processing Plant Converts to Usage of Verenium's Purifine PLC Enzymatic Degumming Process

Molinos Rio de la Plata's San Lorenzo plant completes start up of commercial scale oil degumming process utilizing Verenium's Purifine enzyme.

4 Mar 2010 --- Verenium Corporation, a pioneer in the development of next-generation cellulosic ethanol and high-performance specialty enzymes, announced that Molinos Rio de la Plata, Argentina's leading soybean and sunflower seed processor, has successfully begun use of Verenium's Purifine enzymatic degumming process at its San Lorenzo facility in Argentina. Purifine enzymatic degumming is a novel process that significantly increases yields in edible oil production and can have additional benefits in refining the Purifine-degummed oil.

"Molinos' ability to adopt new innovative technologies is what makes them a global leader in the edible oil market," said Janet Roemer, Verenium's Executive Vice President, Specialty Enzymes Business. "Verenium is pleased to be able to work with Molinos to further enhance their operating efficiency through the use of Purifine PLC, which allows for the simultaneous increasing of oil yields and improving the efficacy of meal production without requiring major changes to the existing plant layout."

"Through Purifine PLC's innovative enzymatic degumming process, we have seen a significant increase in oil yields and processing margins enabling our facility to more fully reach its potential," said Luis Palacios, Molinos' Industrial Manager.  "The ability to squeeze extra yield from the same plant without increased chemical usage is critical to our philosophy of minimizing the overall environmental impact of our processes."

The Molinos San Lorenzo facility has been built to include several state of the art technologies that enable maximum yields of oil and meal from soybeans in a highly efficient and low-cost process. Integration of Verenium's enzyme further improves the plant performance because the oil loss in the enzyme-based process is lower than in non-enzymatic processes.