Our Research Extraction Facility (REF) in Balk is operational! This facility is engineered to help us develop our extraction technology efficiently. We extract only a few grams in our laboratory but over 50 kilos per run in our pilot plant in Emmen. We were looking for an intermediate solution that gave us the flexibility to do quick tests. Our colleague Chris Vermeer developed and engineered the REF, which will extract a few kilos per run. Exactly enough to allow us to perform serial test runs, extract different grades of PHBV, and support us in our bold creativity to try new ideas.
Our REF does exactly the same extractions as our pilot plant will in Emmen, only in smaller batches. The REF allows us to do different trial runs, saving us lots of time and biomass before we do a test run in the pilot plant. The REF’s main purpose is to assist in scaling up to the full-scale factory.
