France’s TotalEnergies, the global multi-energy company, and Finland-based biotechnology company Ductor Corp. on May 24 announced a new commercial and financial partnership with joint development of organic fertilizer and biogas production facilities and TotalEnergies equity ownership in Ductor.
The two have agreed to form a joint venture to co-develop and jointly invest in 15-20 anaerobic digestion facilities targeting nitrogen rich feedstocks and organic waste from the agricultural sector and turning it into sustainable organic fertilizers and renewable natural gas.
The facilities will utilize Ductor’s proprietary circular biotechnology already in use at Ductor’s operational plants in Germany and Mexico, capable of processing highly untapped waste streams from the poultry and aquaculture industries. The priority geographies for these new projects are in the US and Europe.
“Ductor has identified a significant opportunity pipeline for future biogas and sustainable organic fertilizer plants ready for development and commercialization, and the partnership with TotalEnergies will allow us to move forward with executing that pipeline and towards the construction of the first integrated fertilizer and biogas project,” said Ductor CEO Bernard C. Fenner. He added that the global market for organic fertilizer and biogas is expected to grow strongly in the years to come, and that the market potential is virtually endless.
Ductor will be responsible for screening opportunities, securing land, providing feedstock, engineering, obtaining permits, and conducting feasibility studies. TotalEnergies will actively participate in the development, construction, and operational phase, as well as being the offtaker of all produced renewable natural gas and its associated environmental attributes.
Ductor will offtake and market the specialty fertilizers such as liquid nitrogen fertilizers produced at the facilities. The product was registered for use in organic farming by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in October 2021.
“We are pleased to partner with Ductor, a young company with an innovative pre-treatment technology that will enable us to develop new biomethane production projects, using organic waste that is currently not, or only slightly, reused. By accelerating the biogas chain, this technology contributes directly to the energy transition and to TotalEnergies’ ambition of producing 20 TWh of biogas worldwide by 2030,” said Olivier Guerrini, Vice President, Biogas at TotalEnergies.
In addition, TotalEnergies has acquired a 20% stake in Ductor. Guerrini will join the Ductor Board of Directors.