Mitsui licenses technology for biomass-derived phenols

Mitsui Chemicals has formed a licensing agreement with a Japanese research team that has come up with a method to synthesize organic compounds having a six-membered ring, such as phenols. Mitsui secured a license to use the method to set up the world’s first commercial-scale production of biomass-derived phenols. The method ferments starch with E. coli bacteria spliced with the genes of a special enzyme. It is based on an enzyme for synthesizing 2-deoxy-scyllo-inosose (DOI), which transforms glucose into phenols. The research team is a collaboration of researchers from Niigata Bio Research Park, Niigata University of Pharmacy and Applied Sciences, and Tokyo Institute of Technology. Mitsui intends to use the new synthesis method with its catalyst technology to develop a process for the mass production of DOI and phenols from sugarcane, soybeans, cellulose and other biomass materials. (May 22, 2008)