BioAmber, a renewable chemistry company focused on bio-based succinic acid and derivatives (earlier post), has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with CELEXION LLC
for technology related to the production of adipic acid and other chemical
intermediates.
The current market for adipic acid—mainly for use as a feedstock for nylon 66 fibers and resins, polyester polyols and plasticizers—is close to 3 million tons per year,
worth approximately $8 billion at current market prices.
Over the past year, BioAmber has successfully applied its succinic acid
purification process to adipic acid. Through the licensing deal with CELEXION,
BioAmber will leverage its succinic know-how, infrastructure, partnerships and
customer base to accelerate the development of bio-based adipic acid. BioAmber has
also established a research and development facility in Plymouth,
Minnesota with capabilities in molecular biology, fermentation and analytical
chemistry to support its adipic acid program.
CELEXION’s highly attractive metabolic pathway, coupled with our novel purification process and scale-up capabilities, gives us a clear path to biobased adipic acid that, like our biobased succinic, is lower cost and has a better environmental footprint than the current petroleum route.
—Jean-Francois Huc, CEO of BioAmber
BioAmber has the world’s first dedicated
bio-based succinic acid plant and has partnerships with market leaders Cargill, Mitsui
& Co and DuPont Applied Biosciences.