High-precision industrial cleaning - Spanish energy startup Catalyxx picks Portugal for €120 million bio-based chemicals plant.

Seville’s Catalyxx, a bio-based chemicals company transforming bioethanol into alternatives to fossil-derived industrial chemicals, has selected Sines, Portugal, as the location for its €120 million commercial-scale production facility.

The development is being financed through a combination of private investment and public funding. Catalyxx was recently awarded €20 million by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking, a public-private partnership supporting the development of Europe’s circular bio-based industries. The funding will contribute to the Sines project and its role in reducing emissions and strengthening European chemical supply chains.

Today’s announcement follows a €3 million financing for its Seville technology centre and the pre-approval of €37 million in European Investment Bank funding for an earlier proposed industrial plant in France, indicating that the Sines project follows several stages of financing and demonstration-scale development.

“Our Catalyxx Ibérica facility represents the next step in Catalyxx’s mission to replace fossil-based chemicals with renewable alternatives that are chemically identical, fully compatible with existing industrial applications and significantly lower in carbon intensity,” said Joaquín Alarcón, Chief Executive Officer of Catalyxx.

Catalyxx’s award and production facility form part of a broader, though still relatively selective, flow of European financing into bio-based chemicals, industrial biomanufacturing and renewable substitutes for petrochemical materials during 2026.

EU-Startups has seen approximately €58 million across eight adjacent transactions, including funding for Octarine Bio’s fermentation-derived pigments, Seprify’s cellulose-based industrial ingredients, D-CRBN’s circular carbon molecules and Foamlab’s bacterial-cellulose materials.

Including Catalyxx’s award brings the indicative total to around €78.3 million.

“We are thrilled to be building our first commercial-scale plant in Portugal, and we are particularly grateful to the Portuguese Trade and Investment Agency (AICEP – Global Parques ZILS), CCDR Alentejo, Câmara Municipal de Sines, Port of Sines and Algarve Authority (APS) and all the Portuguese authorities for their support and recognition of the project’s strategic importance. This project will not only accelerate the defossilization of the chemical industry, but also position Portugal as a European leader in sustainable industrial innovation,” adds Joaquín.

Founded in 2017 by Joaquín Alarcón de la Lastra Romero, a former Abengoa executive with more than two decades of international experience in bioenergy, Catalyxx also develops its R&D activities and operates its Demo Plant in La Rinconada (Seville), focused on the production of sustainable chemicals and the research of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).

Catalyxx’s technology converts bioethanol into what the company describes as drop-in, cost-competitive and carbon-negative chemicals. “Drop-in” chemicals are designed to be chemically equivalent to their fossil-based counterparts, allowing manufacturers to introduce them into existing production systems without replacing equipment or reformulating their products.

The company’s approach is intended to give industrial customers another source of butanol, hexanol and octanol while helping them reduce the emissions associated with their raw materials. These chemicals can be used in sectors including coatings, adhesives, plastics, solvents, personal care products and other industrial manufacturing processes.

The new €120 million plant, Catalyxx Ibérica, will produce butanol, hexanol and octanol from bioethanol. These chemicals are widely used across existing industrial applications and value chains, and the company says its production process offers a lower-carbon alternative to conventional petrochemical routes without requiring customers to change their infrastructure or compromise product performance.

The Sines project marks the next stage of Catalyxx’s industrial development, building on the work carried out at its demonstration facility in Seville, Spain. At that site, the company has reportedly validated its proprietary catalytic process under continuous operating conditions, collected operational data and developed the technical expertise needed to move towards commercial-scale production.

Catalyxx says they selected Sines due to its established industrial infrastructure, deep-water port, logistics connections and access to renewable energy. Located within one of Portugal’s principal industrial and logistics hubs, the site is expected to support the company’s plans to expand the production of low-carbon chemicals and fuels internationally.

The facility is also expected to help European chemical companies diversify their supply chains while reducing their dependence on fossil-based production.

According to Catalyxx, the Sines plant could avoid approximately 105,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year.

Construction is scheduled to begin by the fourth quarter of 2026. The project is currently progressing through its final development phase, with engineering activities supported by Worley, an international provider of services to the energy, chemicals and resources industries, and Quadrante, an engineering, architecture, environment and sustainability consultancy.

The Portuguese Government has granted Catalyxx Ibérica Project of National Interest status, commonly known as PIN status. This designation recognises projects considered strategically important to Portugal’s economic development and provides access to an accelerated regulatory approval process.

Catalyxx has also secured the project’s main environmental approvals, bringing the company closer to beginning construction.

By moving from demonstration-scale operations in Seville to commercial production in Sines, Catalyxx aims to prove that renewable chemical manufacturing can operate at an industrial scale. The Portuguese facility will serve as the company’s first major commercial plant and as a base for its planned international expansion.

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