Biobased Chemicals Advance

Several companies are doing deals in the field of biobased chemicals. BioAmber and Mitsui & Co. have formed a partnership to build and operate a17,000-metric-ton-per-year succinic acid plant that BioAmber previously slated for Sarnia, Ontario. The two companies earlier announced plans for a facility in Thailand and now say they plan a third project, in North America or Brazil. Cumulative capacity will be 165,000 metric tons of succinic acid and 123,000 metric tons of derivative butanediol, they say. Myriant, another succinic acid developer, has formed a marketing partnership with Sojitz, a Japanese trading firm that plans to build a derivatives plantby 2015 that will consume 330,000 metric tons of Myriant’s succinic acid.Meanwhile, Rivertop Renewables has received a$1.5 million investment from Cultivian Ventures to help it commercialize detergent builders and corrosion inhibitors derived from biobased glucaric acid. Finally, LS9 says it has expanded its fermentation technology to the 20,000-Lscale in order to make a biobased chemical for Procter & Gamble. LS9 plans to have a 135,000-L fermenter running in Okeechobee, Fla., by the first quarter of 2012.