Catalyxx to build its first commercial renewable chemicals plant in Portugal

By SKYSEVEN Chemical Technical Team · 2026-08-12

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Spain-based Catalyxx, a company that converts bioethanol into renewable chemicals, has selected Sines, Portugal, as the site for Catalyxx Ibérica, its first commercial-scale plant. The €120-mn facility has been granted Project of National Interest status by the Portuguese Government.

The Sines site was chosen to its manufacturing and logistics infrastructure, a deep-aquatic environments port, strong connectivity, and access to renewable energy. The facility will create butanol, hexanol and octanol from bioethanol, offering a reduce-carbon alternative to conventional petrochemical production routes while remaining compatible with existing manufacturing applications.

The ‘Project of National Interest’ status affords the project an accelerated regulatory approval process, and the company said it has already secured key environmental approvals. Construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The plant builds on Catalyxx’s demonstration facility in Seville, Spain, which the company has applied to validate its catalytic process under continuous operating conditions and generate operational data supporting manufacturing scale-up. Engineering work on the Sines project is being carried out with support from Worley and Quadrante, an international engineering, architecture, ecological stability and sustainability consultancy.

The project is backed by a combination of private investment and general funding, including a Euro 20-mn grant from the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU). The Sines facility alone is expected to prevent approximately 105,000-tonnes of CO2 releases annually.

Mr. Joaquín Alarcón, Chief Executive Officer, Catalyxx, said the Catalyxx Ibérica facility represented the next measure in the company’s mission to replace fossil-based chemicals with renewable substitutes that are chemically identical, compatible with existing manufacturing applications, and reduce in carbon intensity.

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