www.icis.com26 | NPRA Supplement | March 2011

NPRA BIOBASED FEEDSTOCKS

The long search for biobased feedstocks is coming to an end

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The petrochemical sector will soon have an array of renewable raw materials to choose from, as companies gear up to commercialization through partnerships

Biobased chemicals activities are at fever pitch this year, as several start-up companies step up their efforts towards commercialization phase.

In the biobased intermediates, products such as acrylic acid, adipic acid, 1,4-butane-diol (BDO) and succinic acid are among those that are considered frontrunners in advancing product and process development. Biosuc-cinic acid producers US-based Myriant Tech-nologies and BioAmber are already neck and neck in forming partnerships and future mar-

DORIS DE GUZMAN NEW YORK

Biochemicals are coming soon

keting of succinic acid and its derivatives.In January, Myriant announced a joint ven-

ture with Thailand petrochemical producer PTT Chemical (PTTCH) for deployment of Myriant’s succinic acid technology in south-east Asia. The companies did not disclose fur-ther information about the joint venture, al-though a source from PTTCH noted its intention of investing in a new bioplastic facility within Asia as part of its recent tie-up with Myriant.

PTTCH parent company, PTT Group, is also in collaboration with Japan-based Mit-subishi Chemical (MCC) for the development

of biomass-based polybutylene succinate (PBS). MCC announced in December its plans to establish operations in Thailand with PTT for the production of lower-cost bio-PBS, with a target initial capacity of around 20,000 short tons/year by 2015. MCC already produces its biodegradable PBS polymer made from petro-leum-based succinic acid in Japan, and sells it worldwide under the trademark GS Pla.

Petrochemical-derived PBS demand world-wide is estimated at around 3,000 tonnes/year, says Jim Millis, chief technology officer at BioAmber. “PBS demand is expected to grow to 50,000 tonnes/year if the current monomer of succinic acid is replaced with biobased product,” he adds.

BioAmber is currently marketing PBS with more than 51% biobased content produced by its Chinese subsidiary Sinoven Biopolymer. Applications for the modified bio-PBS include food service coffee lids, cups, dishes, plastic cutlery, straws, stirrers, disposable razors, writ-ing instruments and cosmetic packaging.

“We believe that the availability of lower-cost, biobased succinic acid will drive the growth of PBS,” says BioAmber president Jean-Francois Huc. “PBS is a biopolymer with tremendous potential, especially when blend-ed with polylactic acid (PLA). Biobased suc-

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cinic acid makes PBS more cost competitive as well,” he adds.

BioAmber says it will soon disclose addi-tional strategic partnerships that have been established to com-mercialize succinic acid and modified PBS. The company currently produces biosuccinic acid at its 3,000 tonne/year demonstration facility in Pomacle, France.

BioAmber will start construction of its planned 20,000-30,000 tonnes/year North American plant – which is expected to start up in early 2013 – later this year. The compa-ny is already in discussions about a third facility in Asia that would come online in 2014 or 2015. “The Asian plant will be larger than the North American plant,” says Huc.

Myriant, meanwhile, is building its 30m lb/year (13,600 tonnes/year) biosuccinic acid fa-cility in Louisiana, US, which is expected to be operational by 2012. The facility will use sorghum and carbon dioxide for feedstock.

THE ROUTE TO CHEAPER BUTANEDIOLMyriant this month announced its collabora-tion with UK engineering firm Davy Process Technology for the production of BDO, tetrahydrofuran (THF) and gamma-butyro-lactone using biosuccinic acid as feedstock.

Davy’s BDO production technology, which accounted for more than half a million tonnes/year of BDO production worldwide, currently uses petroleum-based maleic anhydride for feedstock, says Alif Saleh, senior director, specialty chemicals at Myriant.

“Davy is one of the world’s premier BDO licensors, with significant market share and installed base. This partnership opens up an enormous market for Myriant’s biosuccinic acid, which is already in the BDO applica-tion,” says Saleh. “By sourcing biosuccinic acid from Myriant, companies that are already producing BDO can transform their business into a greener and less volatile business.”

The partnership will also focus on engi-neering a process that will produce BDO di-rectly from the purified fermentation broth thus avoiding the recovery and purification requirements of succinic acid, added Saleh.

Myriant notes tremendous increase in in-quiries from existing BDO producers and cus-tomers in the process of making a decision re-garding new BDO plants and capacities. “There are two main drivers from the market: the desire to move away from volatile petrole-

um-based feedstock and the desire to move into greener products,” Saleh notes.

BioAmber’s Huc agreed on the strong po-tential demand growth coming from biobased BDO, but noted its intention to focus more on the liquid phase hydrogenation technology rather than the vapor phase hydrogenation route through the Davy process.

“We believe the low-cost route to BDO and THF is via liquid phase hydrogenation, where there is no need to evaporate and crystallize succinic acid once it has been purified from broth, and there is no need to esterify the suc-cinic,” says Huc. “Our focus is to couple our low-cost succinic acid process with liquid phase hydrogenation to cost-effectively convert renewable sugars to BDO and THF.”

Huc adds that the firm is, however, open to working with companies interested in BDO from succinic, regardless of technology “as we believe our succinic technology will be low cost in the industry,” Huc said.

US-based sustainable chemicals producer Genomatica noted that the succinic acid-to-BDO route is not as cost-effective compared to the company’s direct bio-BDO production, which involves only fermentation and separa-tion processes using sugar feedstock.

“Our direct production route to BDO elimi-nates the need for the isolation and purifica-tion of succinic acid and the subsequent high-temperature and high-pressure steps for BDO conversion via catalytic hydrogenation,” said Genomatica CEO Christophe Schilling. “We estimate that the additional processing steps between succinic acid and BDO could add at least 20 cents/lb (€0.36/kg) to the cost of the final product,” he added.

Genomatica recently raised $45m (€32m) from new and existing investors to complete its planned demonstration facility this year. Further details for the demonstration facility will soon be announced, said Schilling. “Our focus is on commercialization. We have achieved our cost, quality and performance targets. We’re continuing to provide product samples to our customers,” he added.

Genomatica plans the first commercial-scale facility in late 2013, pending successful operation of its demo facility. The company expects to have partners involved in both the scale-up process and downstream applica-tions development, said Schilling.

METABOLIX ENTERS BIOCHEMICALSFor the past few years, US bioplastic develop-er Metabolix has been developing C4 chemi-cals using its polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) platform. The company just confirmed its in-tention towards producing bio-BDO.

“Our initial focus is on C4 chemicals target-ing the $3bn pyrrolidones and BDO markets,” said Rick Eno, president and CEO of Metabo-lix. “During 2010, we successfully scaled up

the fermentation process for C4 chemicals, with our commercial entry focusing on the pyrrolidones segment of the value chain. This will be followed by BDO production based on direct hydrogenation of gamma butyrolactone (GBL) produced in the process.”

Metabolix aims to deliver product samples to potential customers before the end of first quarter. “This is the first step in the systematic development of our offering in this strategi-cally important value chain,” Eno added.

The company’s PHA bioplastic under the Mirel brand is already running at commercial scale and is produced by Telles, its joint ven-ture company with US agribusiness firm Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Metabolix said its PHA platform allows the company to produce a range of C2-C5 chemicals using a common fermenta-tion and recovery process. Metabolix’ chemicals activi-ties are outside of its Telles joint venture.

After commercialization of its bio-BDO and GBL, the company’s next focus is on C3 chem-icals. “We have already demonstrated proof of concept for C3s targeting the $7bn acrylic and acrylates market,” said Eno.

HEAD START ON BIOACRYLICSUS renewable chemical firm OPX Biotech-nologies (OPXBIO) intends to be the first to commercially produce bio-based acrylic acid by 2014, also through strategic partnerships.

The company is currently scaling up to a 1m lb/year demonstration-scale plant, which it expects to operate in 2011-2012 through a contract bioprocessing facility located in North America, said OPXBIO president and CEO Chas Eggert. Partnership for the demo phase will be announced soon, he said.

“The demo facility is to confirm that our process technologies and economics will work on a larger scale, as well as to generate bioacryl-ic products for our downstream customers to evaluate,” said Eggert. “The next step is to com-plete engineering of the commercial-scale facil-ity and have it ready for operation by Q4 2014.”

OPXBIO has achieved commercial-scale manufacturing costs of 70 cents/lb for corn sugar-based bioacrylic acid and 55 cents/lb using sugar feedstock from Brazil. Its ultimate target is 50 cents/lb using corn sugar and less than 40 cents/lb using cane sugar.

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“Our focus is now on our commercialization journey”CHRISTOPHE SCHILLING CEO, Genomatica

“The next step is to complete engineering of thecommercial-scale facility”CHAS EGGERT President and CEO, OPX Biotechnologies

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