• CERAWEEK 2025 | March 10-14, 2025
  • CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Markus Rarbach

Clariant Produkte (Deutschland) GmbH

Head of Business Line Biofuels & Derivatives

Dr. Markus Rarbach, Head of Business Line Biofuels and Derivatives, Clariant, leads the firm’s bioethanol operations. Among other tasks, Dr. Rarbach is chiefly responsible for the development and commercialization of Clariant’s sunliquid® technology for the conversion of cellulosic feedstock into second generation bioethanol and other bio-based chemicals. In November 2000, Dr. Rarbach joined DIREVO Biotech AG as Department Head of Screening and Automation and assumed the responsibilities of Vice President Operations at DIREVO in 2005. In November 2006, Dr. Rarbach joined Süd-Chemie as Head of Biocatalysis at its Corporate Research & Development Department in Munich. Following the acquisition of Süd-Chemie by Clariant in 2011, he took on the role of Head of Start-up Business Project Biofuels & Derivatives at Clariant’s Group Biotechnology. As of January 2018, Dr. Rarbach is leading the Business Line Biofuels & Derivatives to further focus on the commercialization of bioethanol, licenses, and enzymes. Dr. Rarbach holds a Dipl. Ing. degree as well as a PhD (Dr.-Ing.) from the Technical University of Berlin. Dr. Rarbach held a Post-Doc at the Institute of Biochemical Kinetics at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. 

Sessions With Markus Rarbach

Monday, 9 March

  • 02:00pm - 02:50pm (CST) / -

    Next Generation Biofuels
    Downstream, Midstream & Chemicals

    Next-generation biofuels continue to be the holy grail of the renewables sector. Despite broad political support for producing transportation fuels and reducing GHG by using waste products, progress has been patchy, and today there is still no large-scale plant in operation. Recently, the outlook for the sector has improved as Asian companies join the well-established market players in Europe and the Americas. What is the current state of play in NextGen biofuels? What are the stumbling blocks to market maturity? What will drive growth in the future? Can NextGen’s life cycle and economics beat conventional biofuels’?