What We Do
Staff, competencies, and functions
We are a dedicated, professional, and versatile team. We have succeeded in striking the right balance between academic and hands-on skills and competencies ranging from product innovation, project development and execution to plant operation, lab analysis and maintenance.
History
- The biorefinery in Kalundborg was built in 2008/09 by Ørsted (former DONG) as the first operating plant in the world producing advanced biofuels (second generation biofuel) from straw. At the time, the plant was known as “Inbicon”, and that name is still owned by Ørsted.
- The biorefinery’s previous owner decided to cease its operation in 2014.
- Karsten Ree Holding then negotiated to take-over the refinery in 2019/20. The ownership was transferred on April 1st. 2020. Thereafter the plant was renamed to RE Energy.
- Immediately after this, a part of the biorefinery (fermentation and distillation) was put into operation, and took on non-profit manufacturing of sanitary ethanol for hospitals and public institutions due to the Covid situation. The production was organised by the Danish Police with support from the Carlsberg and Novo foundation, RE Energy and Ørsted.
- After more than 2 million litres of sanitary ethanol were produced, this production ceased in the late summer of 2020.
- Later that same year, RE Energy entered into an agreement with Comet Bio to produce raw material for Comet’s production of a pre-biotic food ingredience (Arabinoxylan). Early in 2021, reconstruction of the Bio refinery commenced, focussing on preparing the future production as well as solving the operational problems which the plant had experienced during its first production period from 2009 to 2014.
- Late in 2021, RE Energy and Comet Bio entered into a shared project to establish a separate factory to undertake the actual production of the pre-Biotic ingredience, and construction of the building commenced in December 2021.
- The production in the biorefinery is expected to commence late in the summer of 2022, and the ingredient factory will follow late 2022.
Aspiration
We thrive on and are motivated by product innovation, technology development and incremental improvements that support sustainable product development, green energy transition, reduced CO2 footprint and the reduction of energy consumption. We continuously search globally for exciting new technologies and ideas, which we as a company can rally behind and help bring to market.