BASF and CSM explore a bio-based Succinic Acid joint venture
01 August 2011. Back
to overview
BASF SE and Purac, a subsidiary of CSM nv, today
announce the start of negotiations to form a joint venture for the
production of bio-based succinic acid. The companies have been
conducting research under a joint development agreement on
bio-based succinic acid since 2009. The complementary strengths in
fermentation and down-stream processing led to the development of a
sustainable and highly efficient manufacturing process based on a
proprietary microorganism. The demand for succinic acid is
anticipated to grow strongly in the next years. Main drivers are
expected to be bioplastics, chemical intermediates, solvents,
polyurethanes and plasticizers.
"We are happy to bring our partnership with Purac to the
next level," said Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, Member of the Board
of Executive Directors and Research Executive Director of BASF.
"Until now our partnership has been very successful, and moving
towards a joint venture will strengthen our goal to become the
leading supplier in the succinic acid market."
"We aim to be the first commercial producer in the market
with a 25,000 tons capacity fermentation production plant at the
Purac site near Barcelona, Spain, with the intention to start up by
2013 at the latest," said Gerard Hoetmer, Chief Executive
Officer of CSM. "In addition, we are already planning a
world-scale plant with a capacity of 50,000 tons to account for the
expected demand growth. This partnership has enormous potential as
it leverages the combined competencies of two leading companies in
their fields."
During the existing cooperation critical steps of the jointly
developed production process have been validated in several
successful production campaigns. The resulting volumes were used to
evaluate the market. "After successfully testing the BASF
in-house applications we are now able to make large volumes
available for external customers," said Dr. Thomas Weber,
Managing Director of BASF Future Business GmbH with regard to the
recent industrial production campaign in June 2011. "The goal
is to globally provide a high product quality and offer security of
supply to the customers," Fabrizio Rampinelli, Managing
Director of Purac, added. "Through this bio-based succinic acid
collaboration we aim to add another important new growth-pillar to
our bio-based polymers and green chemical business."
The newly developed process combines high efficiency with the
use of renewable substrates and the fixation of the greenhouse gas
CO2 during the production. This
results in a positive eco-footprint and makes bio-based succinic
acid an economically and ecologically attractive alternative to
petrochemical substitutes. The employed microorganism Basfia
succiniciproducens is a natural producer of succinic acid and can
process a wide variety of C3, C5 and C6 renewable feedstocks,
including biomass sources.