1 August 2011
Overview
BASF SE and Purac,
a subsidiary of CSM nv,
announce the start of negotiations to form
a joint venture company 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
downstream processing led to the development
of a sustainable and highly efficeint manufacturing process
based on proprietary miccoorganisms
The demand for succinic acid is anticipated to
grow strongly in the next years
Main drivers are expected to be
* bioplastics,
* chemical intermediates
* solvents
* plasticizers
BASF : Production capacity planning
* Until now the partnership has been very successful, and
moving towards a joint venture will strengthen the goal to
become the leading supplier in the succinic acid market
* The companies aim to be the first commercial producer
in the market with a 25,000 tons capacity fermentation
production plant a the Purac site near Barcelona, Spain
with the intention to start up by 2013 at the latest
* In addition the companies are already planning a world-scale
plant with a capacity of 50,000 tons to account for the
expected demand growth
Industrial production campaign in June 2011
* During the existing cooperation critical steps of the jointly
developed production process have been validated in
several successful production campaings.
* The resulting volumes were used to evaluate the market
After successfully testing the BASF in-house appliations
* then to make large volumes available for external customers
Purac
* Through this bio-succinic acid collaboration we aim to
add another important new growth-pillar to our
bio-based polymers and green chemical business
Process Technology
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 ecologicallly attractive
alternative to petrochemical substitutes
The employed miccroorganism Basfia succiniciproducens
is a natural producer of succinic acid and can
process a variety of C3, C5 and C6 renewable feedstocks,
including biomass sources
