The first production plant of its kind for green ethyl acetate in Europe
The first production facility of its kind for green ethyl acetate in Europe is currently under construction at the Elsteraue site and will be operated by CE Biobased Chemicals GmbH. Production is scheduled to start in summer 2026.
CropEnergies AG is constructing a plant for the production of renewable ethyl acetate from sustainable ethanol at the Zeitz Chemical and Industrial Park. This will not only significantly reduce the fossil carbon footprint of the products manufactured from it, but also offer customers the opportunity to increase their security of supply thanks to domestic production in Europe. With the new plant, CropEnergies is kicking off its business segment for bio-based chemicals. In the future, bio-based chemicals can make an important contribution to the transformation of an industry that is still almost entirely based on fossil raw materials.
The exclusive use of renewable carbon as a feedstock is an important prerequisite for climate neutrality in the chemical industry. The use of renewable carbon in the chemical and materials industry is what decarbonisation is in the energy sector. With the energy sector's carbon demand falling and the chemical and materials sector's use rising, the structure of carbon demand between energy and chemicals & materials is changing fundamentally: while the embedded carbon demand of the chemical and materials industry is still low compared to the energy sector today, both sectors will be almost equal in size by 2050.
Our renewable ethyl acetate is a starting material for bio-based products that make a sustainable contribution to reducing the carbon footprint. At the same time, customers benefit from the security of supply and short delivery routes associated with European production. A study by the Nova Institute concludes
that CropEnergies ethyl acetate enables CO2 savings of around 50% compared to the fossil-based product. As it is a plant-based product, a net positive climate balance can even be achieved when taking into account temporarily stored biogenic carbon (carbon capture).
Production requires around 80% less fossil resources than its fossil-based counterpart.
