DNP Green Technology (USA), one of the two shareholders of Bioamber, has announced a scientific agreement with the National Research Council of Canada Biotechnology Research Institute (NRC-BRI). This partnership aims to develop a second-generation technology for the production of bio-based succinic acid, which is used in various industrial applications. Succinic acid is a building block for the production of numerous valuable chemicals. It is used in products such as deicers, food and pharmaceutical chemicals, solvents and polymers (polyesters, polyurethanes and polyamides).
Bioamber, a joint venture of DNP Green Technology and Agro-Industrie Recherches et Développements (ARD), had already developed a first-generation technology for producing bio-based succinic acid. Bioamber's technology also offers an important environmental advantage: it consumes CO2, as opposed to equivalent petrochemical processes that emit greenhouse gases. The new initiative will include assessment of sugar streams from different potential sources, such as corn, sugarcane, wheat, ligno-cellulose and glycerol to determine their economic impact as feedstocks in Bioamber's succinic acid production process.
In March, DSM (Netherlands) and ROQUETTE (France) jointly announced that its bio-based succinic acid demonstration plant in Lestrem (France) will be operational by the end of 2009. The two companies have developed a method to produce succinic acid from starch using an innovative enzyme-based fermentation technology rather than the traditional ingredients, crude oil and natural gas.