BASF has commenced negotiation with CSM’s subsidiary, Purac to establish a joint venture (JV) for bio-based succinic acid production. It is expected that the demand for succinic acid will show a strong growth in the upcoming years and the major drivers will be plasticizers, polyurethanes, solvents, chemical intermediates and bioplastics.
BASF’s Research Executive Director, Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer stated that the partnership of both the companies have been successful for years and the current move towards a JV will reinforce BASF’s objective to attain a leadership position in the succinic acid market. CSM’s goal is to become the leading commercial producer in the succinic acid market with a fermentation production facility located at the Purac site in Spain. The company is also planning to build a world-scale 50,000 t capacity plant to meet the demand.
The existing partnership between BASF and CSM has led to the development of a new production process. The process has been evaluated in many production campaigns. The new process uses renewable substrates and greenhouse gas carbon dioxide for production. It produces economical and environmentally-friendly bio-based succinic acid, which can be used as an alternative to petrochemical substitutes. Basfia succiniciproducens is the microorganism used in the succinic acid production and it can process different C6, C5 and C3 renewable feedstocks and also includes biomass sources.
Source: http://www.basf.com/