nasdaq abgb industry technology engineering founded 1941 headquarters seville spain key people jos dom nguez abascal chairman joaqu n fern ndez de pi rola mar n ceo products solar energy and bioenergy devices it water and waste treatment construction of telecom networks power stations infrastructure revenue 7.150 billion 2014 1 operating income 933.1 million 2014 1 profit 125.2 million 2014 1 total assets 25.246 billion end 2014 1 total equity 2.646 billion end 2014 1 number of employees 20 250 end 2014 1 website abengoa.com abengoa s.a. spanish pronunciation a e oa is a spanish multinational corporation which includes companies in the domains of energy telecommunications transportation and the environment . the company was founded in 1941 by javier benjumea puigcerver and jos manuel abaurre fern ndez pasalagua 2 and is based in seville spain with u.s. headquarters in st. louis missouri . it is a global biotechnology company specializing in the development of new technologies in producing biofuels and biochemicals and promoting sustainability of raw materials . abengoa invests in research in sustainable technology and implements these technologies in spain as well as exporting them globally . these technologies include concentrated solar power second generation biofuels and desalination . in 2014 abengoa and subsidiaries employed approximately 20 250 people operating in more than 80 countries . 1 abengoa has started insolvency proceedings . 3 in a 2016 effort to avoid bankruptcy abengoa is seeking to reduce its size by 30 percent by selling subsidiaries . 4 on february 15 2016 a nebraska grain dealer filed a petition to force abengoa bioenergy into bankruptcy so as to recover moneys owed to them for past corn deliveries . 5 on march 29 2016 abengoa filed for bankruptcy in the united states . 6 contents 1 subsidiaries 1.1 befesa 1.2 abengoa solar 2 abengoa bioenergy 2.1 feedstocks 2.2 pretreatment 2.2.1 acid impregnation 2.2.1.1 soaking 2.2.1.2 spraying 2.2.1.3 wetting agent 2.2.2 steam treatment steam explosion 2.3 enzyme supplier 2.4 pilot plants and commercialization 2.4.1 york pilot plant nebraska us 2.4.2 bcyl demonstration plant salamanca spain 2.4.3 hugoton commercial hybrid biomass plant kansas us 2.5 abeinsa engineering and construction 3 recent news 4 competitors 5 see also 6 references 7 external links subsidiaries edit befesa edit befesa is an abengoa subsidiary specialising in the integral management of industrial wastes and the generation and management of water . abengoa solar edit main article abengoa solar abengoa began its involvement in the development of solar technologies in 1984 with the construction of the solar almeria platform in spain . in 2008 the us department of energy awarded abengoa solar two research and development projects in the field of concentrating solar power csp that total over 14 million . the goal of the r & d program is to develop csp technologies that are competitive with conventional energy sources grid parity by 2015 . 7 on july 3 2010 us president barack obama announced that the us department of energy conditionally committed to offering a 1.45 billion loan guarantee to support construction by abengoa solar of the solana generating station in maricopa county arizona . 8 it is set to begin operation in 2013 . operational oct 2013 the mojave solar project in the mojave desert in california is currently under construction and is expected to come on line in 2014 . 9 abengoa are constructing three csp plants in south africa for eskom khai 50 mw xina 100mw and kaxu 100 mw abengoa are also constructing a 400kv transmission line for eskom . abengoa bioenergy edit abengoa bioenergy is a global biotechnology company specializing in the development of new technologies in producing biofuels and biochemicals and promoting sustainability of raw materials . ab is currently constructing a biomass to ethanol facility in hugoton kansas that will produce second generation biofuels . this refinery is forecast to be on line and in full production by the end of 2013 or early 2014 . the facility will be operated by abengoa bioenergy biomass of kansas a company of abengoa bioenergy . 10 abengoa bioenergy also has a joint venture biofuel plant with ebro puleva . 11 feedstocks edit the feedstock comprises woody and non woody cellulosic biomass provided by plant biomass agricultural wastes forestry residues and sugar processing residues . currently the most important grain cereal for production of bioethanol in abengoa bioenergy s plants are wheat barley corn and sorghum . in abengoa bioenergy brazil the company grows sugarcane while maintaining sustainable rural development methods biodiversity and regional economic growth . other plants produce second generation bioethanol from a combination of corn stover wheat straw oat straw barley straw hardwood switchgrass . converting starch from cereals through fermentation creates a high protein co product that is a source of vegetable protein energy fiber and vitamins and is used to produce cattle feed . 12 pretreatment edit lignocellulosic raw material is first milled and cleaned before pre treatment . pre treatment consists of contacting the cellulosic biomass feedstock with an acidic liquid medium to form an acid impregnated biomass feedstock then contacting the feedstock with h2o at elevated temperature and pressure to solubilize hemicellulose resulting in a steam treated feedstock . the biomass is then subjected to a depressurization zone to further solubilize hemicellulose and producing a volatilized fraction . temperature and pressure within the depressurization zone is controlled by releasing a portion of the volatilized fraction . 13 acid impregnation edit acid impregnation prepares the feedstock for enzymatic hydrolysis to produce fermentable sugars by increasing bioavailability of feedstock . feedstock is introduced to an acid impregnation vessel consisting of hydrochloric acid sulfuric acid sulfurous acid sulfur dioxide nitric acid and combinations thereof . 13 the acidic liquid medium contains an acid concentration of less than 5 wt % . 13 acid impregnation involves soaking or spraying the liquid medium to the feedstock . either method involves agitation or mixing for 1 13 minutes to promote dispersion of the acid throughout the feedstock . impregnation of feedstock results in degradation of fibers as the hold time and temperature reach certain limits . soaking edit when soaking the entire mass of feedstock is submerged in acidic liquid medium to promote bulk movement of the feedstock to provide dynamic and continuous contact of the feedstock and acidic liquid medium . to promote dynamic physical contact and dispersion of the acidic liquid medium to feedstock the feedstock acidic liquid medium slurry is agitated . soaked biomass feedstock is dewatered to reduce its moisture content . spraying edit less acidic liquid medium is used so material costs are reduced and avoids the need for dewatering . the feedstock is agitated to disperse the acid throughout the feedstock . wetting agent edit acidic liquid medium may include a surfactant to promote dispersion of acid throughout the resulting acid impregnated biomass slurry by reducing surface tension of the liquid medium . suitable surfactants are bio degradable non toxic and are commercially available . nonionic surfactants are preferred as their performance is unaffected by the presence of an acidic liquid medium such as alcohols . heating during acid impregnation is also employed to promote dispersion of acid throughout the resulting acid impregnated biomass slurry . the biomass feedstock dilute acid mixture is heated to temperatures of at least 10 40c . 13 however heating at this stage does not significantly solubilize hemicellulose component . instead it is used to minimize and avoid solubilization of hemicellulose . the feedstock is heated in a low moisture environment of a relative humidity of less than 80 100 % specifically less than 50 70 wt % . 13 moisture inhibits the dispersion of acid throughout the feedstock or results in an uneven acid dispersion . low moisture content of acid impregnated feedstock reduces the energy required during subsequent heating . acid impregnated feedstock results in a slurry with biomass solids dispersed throughout the acidic liquid medium with total solids of at least 25 wt % 0.35 0.65 g solids per g wet mixture . temperature of the acid impregnated biomass becomes the same as the acidic liquid medium 20 95c . additionally the ph of the acid impregnated biomass becomes less than 4 . total glucan content of acid impregnated feedstock is about 25 50 % . 13 steam treatment steam explosion edit after acid impregnation the feedstock is subjected to elevated temperature and pressure in the presence of h2o then discharged to an environment of reduced pressure to break down the cellulose hemicellulose lignin complex . steam treatment dissociates cellulose from hemicellulose and lignin for enzymatic hydrolysis to produce fermentable sugars . steam is introduced at a pressure of at least 75 150 psig . the acid impregnated feedstock and h2o are introduced into the same vessel under a pressure of about 75 250 psig . 13 temperature of steam is about 160 220c . uniform moisture from the water vapor of steam treatment promotes uniform temperature of the feedstock . to promote even temperature distribution throughout the vessel the total solids content of the feedstock is maintained from about 30 70 wt % by direct steam injection as higher moisture feedstocks hinders steam penetration and heat transfer throughout the feedstock . 13 if necessary feedstock may be dewatered by removing excess acidic liquid medium using a mechanical solid liquid separation device such as a dewatering screw press . the abrupt change in pressure by withdrawing or removing the pretreated feedstock to a vessel of reduced pressure above atmospheric pressure degrades the lignin hemicellulose cellulose complex . to maintain adequate and rapid depressurization for effective degradation of fiber structures the pressure at the outlet differs by less than 50 100 psig . 13 steam treatment reduces the size of particulate solids of the acid impregnated feedstock to provide an increase in exposed surface area of cellulose and or hemicellulose for enzymatic hydrolysis . enzyme supplier edit dyadic international is a global biotechnology company focused on the discovery development manufacturing and sale of enzyme and protein products for bioenergy biochemical biopharmaceutical and industrial enzyme industries . dyadic utilizes its patented c1 fungus to develop and manufacture low cost proteins and enzymes for diverse market opportunities . dyadic actively pursues licensing arrangements and other commercial opportunities to leverage the value of their technologies by providing its partners with the benefits of manufacturing and or utilizing the enzymes which these technologies help produce . 14 dyadic s license agreement with abengoa bioenergy gives them the right to use dyadic s c1 platform technology to develop manufacture and sell enzymes for use in second generation biorefining processes to convert biomass into sugars for the production of fuels . 14 c1 is based on the myceliopthora thermophila fungal expression system for gene discovery expression and production of enzymes and other proteins . 15 dyadic scientists have developed strains of this fungal microorganism to go from gene discovery to commercial manufacturing using the same host organism . it s integrated and patented c1 platform eliminates many of the bottlenecks of protein discovery development scale up and commercialization . 15 thus enabling new product introduction with less time cost and risk . dna from various sources including individual organisms environmental samples or collections of genes can be fragmented and cloned into dyadic s specialized c1 expression vectors . the resulting cultures are distributed into cultures and are allowed to grow to create a gene expression library . the collection can be further used to create replicates or stored away for later use . the target protein are screened against the gene library . to make a commercially viable product dyadic researchers use the c1 express hyperproducing protein expression system to increase the expression level of the gene of interest . because the same c1 organism is used for gene discovery and expression the probability of successfully increasing the level of protein expression is very high . dyadic currently sells more than 55 enzyme products to more than 150 industrial customers in approximately 50 countries for