AMSTERDAM - The Advanced Biochemical Thailand (ABT) Epicerol® plant was among the top three finalists for the Commercial Scale Plant of the Year award. The award was announced at the WBM Bio Business Awards in Amsterdam.

Since its startup in 2012, the Epicerol plant has demonstrated its ability to compete against traditional oil-based production. “Solvay and ABT are proud to have been recognized for our world-class Epicerol plant,” said Thibaud Caulier, Senior Marketing Manager at Solvay. “We are breaking new ground in renewable chemicals and supplying market-competitive biobased ECH at commercial-scale.”

Epicerol’s commercial development has capitalized on its distinctive assets. These allow the ABT plant to keep producing at more than 70% of its nominal capacity, significantly higher than the ECH industry average in Asia. Epicerol also partner with leading companies down the value chain that valorize the biobased ECH in applications.

Epicerol is biobased epichlorohydrin (ECH) produced by technology from Solvay. Based on renewable glycerol, it is the most sustainable ECH in terms of CO2 emissions and process environmental performance. The Advanced Biochemical Thailand (ABT) plant in Thailand has been operational since 2012. ABT is fully owned by Vinythai, a subsidiary of Solvay.