Biobased Firms Join For Synthetic Leather

The biobased chemical makers BioAmber and DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products have teamed up with Turkey’s Flokser to develop an artificial leather fabric that has 70% renewable content. The fabric, sold as Sertex, contains a polyester polyol made from BioAmber’s succinic acid and DuPont Tate & Lyle’s 1,3-propanediol. The partners say the potential market for the polyol in synthetic leather is 150,000 metric tons per year.