Amyris achieves record low cost farnesene production
EMERYVILLE, Calif., Oct. 12, 2015—Amyris, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMRS), the industrial bioscience company, today announced that after achieving a record low manufacturing cost of $1.75 per liter for farnesene in September 2015, Amyris has also accelerated its sales activity relating to high-performance polymer-grade farnesene for the polymers market and Myralene™ as a replacement for higher-priced limonene. Amyris expects several of its current partners to place initial orders for these products based on a guaranteed price for a three-year period that is lower than current prices for the materials being replaced.
Myralene is a higher-performance industrial solvent compared to equivalent products on the market and a lower cost alternative to limonene at current prices. Customers who are switching to Myralene as an industrial solvent are purchasing at approximately a 30% lower price compared with current limonene market prices and are achieving better cleaning performance without the negative environmental impact. At these low manufacturing costs, farnesene is also now priced competitively with isoprene as a raw material for many high-performance polymer applications and delivers better functional performance for Amyris’s partners’ end-market materials.
Amyris has focused its business on the creation of innovative ingredients that serve as drop-in replacements for other materials that are costly financially and environmentally and are subject to volatile supply issues. Amyris believes it is currently the low-cost provider of high-performance materials produced from sustainably-sourced sugar cane addressing the markets referenced above, and that the total value of these global markets could soon exceed $20 billion.
“We’re very pleased with our current production cost performance and the desire of several of our long-term partners to accelerate sales of high-performance farnesene into these end markets,” said John Melo, Amyris President & CEO. “We expect our sales from these markets to grow from less than $3 million in 2015 to over $20 million in 2016, with some of the shipments starting this quarter. We are realizing our vision that lower cost, higher performance and competitively priced materials would accelerate a transition to a bio-economy and are very pleased to be working with some of the world’s leading companies in making this vision a reality while helping them grow their business.”
About Amyris
Amyris is the integrated renewable products company that is enabling the world’s leading brands to achieve sustainable growth. Amyris applies its innovative bioscience solutions to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules, specialty ingredients and consumer products. The company is delivering its No Compromise® products in focused markets, including specialty and performance chemicals, fragrance ingredients, and cosmetic emollients. More information about the company is available at www.amyris.com.
CONTACT:
Peter DeNardo
Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Amyris, Inc.
+1 (510) 740-7481
[email protected]
[email protected]
