FUELS & LUBES INTERNATIONAL
Quarter Four 2014
40
downstream processing (DSP): What
happens after fermentation ends?
This is a very important consid-
eration as the interface between
biology and non-biology is critical.
It is equally important to determine
where material losses occur over the
entire process.
Cascone believes that the makers
of lubricants are some of the most
important companies to watch,
highlighting Elevance Renewable
Sciences as a stand-out company.
In addition, he suggests keeping an
eye on companies producing green
jet fuels, which he calls “the non-
optional biofuel.”
Elevance, headquartered in
Woodridge, Ill., USA, has a variety
of products in the market, such
as renewable alpha olefins, novel
esters, advanced biofuels (includ-
ing biodiesel and bio-based “green
diesel” that can replace petro-
chemical diesel and jet fuel). Their
Nobel-prize winning technology
can use a variety of feedstock, and,
as such, local sourcing of feedstock
means further reduction in costs
and carbon footprint.
The panel agreed that Elevance is
a company that has already achieved
some success, including overseas
from its U.S. operations base.
Cascone said he likes mid-level
companies like Elevance, which has
a great pedigree—originating from
Cargill—and a good and “strong
hedge account support.”
Dodds showed interest in com-
panies, such as Bioamber, Myriant,
Global BioEnergies and Genomat-
ica, which focus on harnessing the
power of metabolic pathways to
create custom molecules. He finds
a lot of merit in the succinic acid
platform, which allows high yield
and consumption of carbon dioxide
by a non-photosynthetic pathway.
Although the market for succinic
acid isn’t huge per se, “there is a big
hidden market.” Maleic anhy-
dride is an important commodity
chemical manufactured by the
oxidation of butane and has about
a 5-billion-pound-a-year market.
Of the industrial processes that use
maleic anhydride, about 90-95% of
them take the maleic anhydride to
succinic acid or esters in their initial
chemical steps. Intercepting these
processes by inputting succinic acid,
rather than maleic anhydride, pres-
ents a large opportunity, he said.
However, according to Ge-
nomatica, the market for succinic
acid “is not here today and is far
from proven,” and many large chemi-
cal producers believe that the idea
of succinic as a platform (i.e., that it
can be used to make other chemicals
like BDO) will face two key chal-
lenges. The first is cost. More steps
to get to the end product mean more
equipment and, thus, higher capital
costs and lower overall yield and,
therefore, higher operating costs and
higher total production costs. For ex-
ample, BASF is generally regarded as
a leader in process costs and has its
own bio-succinic venture (Succinity);
however, the company has chosen to
license Genomatica’s GENO BDO
process.
The second issue is whether
using an in-between “platform”
molecule (like succinic acid) may
make it notably harder to deliver a
final product that works from the
customers’ point of view without
impacting their product’s attributes
(e.g. residual or unwanted color
in polymers) or manufacturing
processes.
Bioamber, headquartered in
Montreal, Canada, and Myriant,
based in Quincy, Mass., USA,
both produce bio-succinic acid.
Both use plant materials as feed-
stock, although Bioamber would
like to ultimately focus on lignocel-
lulosic biomass from waste sources.
It currently uses corn stover while
Myriant uses sorghum and corn,
as well.
Although most derivatives of
succinic acid are used in con-
sumer products like personal care
products, plastics, resins and the
like, the companies are betting on
esters from bio-based succinic acid
being used as a replacement for
adipates in the lubricants market.
In addition, maleic acid, which can
be transformed to succinic acid, is
used to make unsaturated polyester
resin, 1,4-butanediol, additives for
JoshSilverman,
CTO, right,andSol
Resnick, Fermenta-
tionDirector,Calysta
JessicaLong,ResearchAssociate,Calysta
AlanShaw,CEO, right,andSungwonLee,Scientist,Calysta
Deinove
all-in-one
process
