Perstorp Launches Biotech Project

The Swedish specialty chemicals producer Perstorp has embarked upon two five-year research projects aimed at replacing fossil fuel raw materials with renewable ones. Perstorp, Lund University, and other industrial partners will use nearly $6 million in funding from the Swedish government research fund Vinnova to research production of propionic acid and 3-hydroxypropionic acid from natural raw materials. The partners also will develop methods of producing immobilized biocatalysts. In this project, "Perstorp's interest is to design a factory to produce 3-hydroxypropionic aldehydes in a continual process," says Stefan Lundmark, Perstorp's project representative.