Avantium, the Royal Dutch Shell spin-off, has announced (22nd October) its intention to raise new funds through an initial public offering and to apply for a listing on Eurolist by Euronext Amsterdam. The company intends to complete the IPO before the end of the year, subject to market conditions.

Avantium says it plans to use the funds raised through the IPO to further grow its business by advancing its product development programs notably in the field of next generation biofuels. As part of a series of announcements made today the company also said it had achieved a successful proof-of-concept engine test of its next-generation, proprietary, Furanics, biofuel.

The test was carried out by Intertek, in The Netherlands, an independent test centre. Using a Citroën Berlingo with a regular diesel engine, Avantium tested a wide range of blends of Furanics with regular diesel. The test, said the company, yielded positive results for all blends tested with the engine running smoothly for several hours.

Tom van Aken, Chief Executive Officer of Avantium said: "The excellent results of the engine test support the proof of principle of our next generation biofuel, and is an essential milestone for our biofuels development program. The significant reduction of soot in the car exhaust is encouraging, as soot emmissions are considered a major disadvantage of using diesel today, because of its adverse environmental and health effects. We are developing a next generation biofuel that has superior fuel properties and process economics compared to existing biofuels. The production process of Furanics  has an excellent fit with existing chemical process technology and infrastructure. Ultimately our ambition is to develop biofuels that are competitive with fossil based fuels."

The company plans to undertake an additional engine tests in 2008 to study engine performance and long terms effects of Furanics.