BASF and Purac announced on October 5th, 2012
that they are establishing a joint venture for the production and
sale of biobased succinic acid. The company will be called
Succinity GmbH and will be operational in 2013. The company
headquarters will be in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The companies have been conducting research
under a joint development agreement on bio-based succinic acid
since 2009. The complementary strengths in fermentation and
downstream 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.
The newly developed process combines high
efficiency with the use of renewable substrates and the fixation of
the greenhouse gas CO2 during production. This results in a
positive eco-footprint and makes bio-based succinic acid an
economically and ecologically attractive alternative to
petrochemical-based 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.