OG&A BioSpecialties LLC, an emerging leader in the next generation of advanced BioSpecialties, announced last Monday that engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) activities are underway for the company's Owensboro, Kentucky "HDX" Project for BioWax and BioEster production.

OG&A BioSpecialties LLC ("OG&A") has developed a suite of "HDX" hydroconversion technologies for conversion of soy and related BioBased feedstocks into a line of products registered as BioFAME-PH and BioWax-PH. These products have been certified under the USDA's BioPreferred Certification Program. Their properties can be tailored for various applications where high purity, low toxicity, biodegradability and overall combustion/emissions performance are important.

"This project represents the first step toward a fully integrated production facility to produce a wide range of biospecialty products for application in the oil field chemicals, heat transfer fluids, and industrial lubricants sectors. Our goal is to provide molecules whose use is warranted on the basis of their performance and cost competitiveness," said John Wright, Co-Managing Director of OG&A and Executive Vice President at Owensboro Grain Company.

"OG&A has secured exclusive licenses, joint development, and service agreements with major technology developers in the sector, enabling us to deploy state of the art process technology for HDX and related bioconversion production schemes," said Rocco Fiato, Co-Managing Director at OG&A and Chief Technical Officer at Accelergy Corporation. "The leverage provided by these relationships is helping us offer more reliable and cost competitive technology platforms than are currently available in the market."

The 1000 BD facility will be completed by YE2017 and commercial operations will commence in 2018.

Houston, TX-based Accelergy is a global producer of high-performance low-cost biospecialty fluids from a range of feedstocks, in development of carbon-based products with low overall GHG footprint, and in promoting energy/economic security by using domestic energy resources. The Company has specifically targeted product compositions that are biodegradable, and have low toxicity in order to meet increasingly demanding environmental requirements. Based in Houston, Texas, with partner facilities in Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Shanghai, China, Accelergy has established an international presence in partnerships with some of the world's leading energy and technology development companies.

Owensboro Grain Company is a fifth generation family-owned company that was founded in 1906 in Owensboro, Kentucky. The Company produces soy products and edible oils, including protein meal and hull pellets for animal feeds; crude and degummed oil, and lecithin; and various blends of refined vegetable oil for human consumption, biodiesel and glycerin.