May 6 2008
Green Biologics Ltd (GBL), the Oxfordshire industrial biotechnology company developing renewable chemicals, today announced the appointments of Sean Sutcliffe as Chief Executive and Kristan Wadrop as Chief Operating Officer with immediate effect. Mr Sutcliffe succeeds founder and former CEO, Dr Edward Green, who becomes Chief Technical Officer.
Mr Sutcliffe, 44, joins GBL from Biofuels Corporation Trading Ltd, which operates one of Europe’s largest biodiesel plants, where he has been Chief Executive since 2005 and will retain a non-executive Chairman position. Mr Wadrop, 36, joins from Vireol plc, where he was responsible for technical and operational delivery including the project management of a £150 million bio-ethanol plant.
Last October, GBL secured £1.58 million from investors including Carbon Trust Investments and Oxford Capital Partners to develop its proprietary fermentation and process technology for the production of bio-butanol from waste feedstocks. Over the past six months, the Company has successfully completed investment milestones relating to the butanol process development, new patent filings, scale-up, commercial engagement and recruitment.
The efficiency of the fermentation process has been improved using Green Biologics’ novel proprietary microbes, resulting in significant cost reductions. Process improvements have been demonstrated at pilot plant scale in the Company’s laboratories at Milton Park, Oxfordshire, and GBL is now working with commercial partners to demonstrate its fermentation process on a larger scale.
The new appointments strengthen the management team to provide the technical, commercial and operational expertise necessary to commercialise and roll out GBL’s fermentation technology.
Chairman of GBL, Dr Andrew Rickman OBE, said: “We are making excellent progress with the development and successful demonstration of GBL’s bio-butanol fermentation process. We are collaborating with several crop processors to use low value and sustainable waste streams.
“Sean and Kristan bring extensive experience in the commercialisation and operational delivery of large scale biofuel programmes and complement Edward Green’s technology leadership as we move into the next stage of scale-up and demonstration. GBL is attracting a network of partners who are interested in collaborating on the production of bio-butanol utilising waste feedstocks as a viable alternative to petrochemicals and ‘first generation’ biofuels.”
Mr Sutcliffe said: “I look forward to working with Andrew, Edward and the other members of GBL’s management team. The Company has demonstrated that its unique advanced fermentation process for bio-butanol can work at pilot scale and I am excited by the opportunity to build on Edward’s work and lead a successful demonstration of the process on a significantly larger scale.”
Mr Wadrop said: “I am pleased to join GBL at this exciting stage of development. The Company’s bio-butanol product is unique in offering huge environmental and sustainability benefits, while being more cost-effective than conventional oil-derived chemical processes.”
Following these appointments, GBL has expanded to 25 staff at its Milton Park headquarters in Oxfordshire. GBL has also established offices and scale-up facilities in Georgia, USA.