Suc­cin­ity pro­duces first com­mer­cial quant­it­ies of biobased suc­cin­ic acid

Düs­sel­dorf — March 3, 2014 — Suc­cin­ity GmbH, the joint ven­ture between Cor­bion Pur­ac and BASF for the pro­duc­tion and com­mer­cial­iz­a­tion of biobased suc­cin­ic acid, has announced the suc­cess­ful start-up of its first com­mer­cial pro­duc­tion facil­ity. The plant, loc­ated at the Cor­bion Pur­ac site in Mont­meló, Spain, has an annu­al capa­city of 10,000 met­ric tons and is pro­du­cing com­mer­cial quant­it­ies of biobased suc­cin­ic acid for the glob­al mar­ket. In addi­tion to this first facil­ity, Suc­cin­ity plans a second large-scale facil­ity. The final invest­ment decision for this facil­ity will be made fol­low­ing a suc­cess­ful mar­ket intro­duc­tion. ​“The start-up of our first facil­ity for Suc­cin­ity® biobased suc­cin­ic acid rep­res­ents a key mile­stone in our plan to become a major pro­du­cer of biobased suc­cin­ic acid in the future,” com­ments Phil­ipp Wal­ter, Man­aging Dir­ect­or of Suc­cin­ity. ​“The com­bined exper­i­ences of the team in Mont­meló and the sup­port from Cor­bion Pur­ac and BASF have ensured the achieve­ment of this import­ant mile­stone with­in sched­ule. With the facil­ity in Spain we will be able to serve the grow­ing suc­cin­ic acid mar­ket.” The Suc­cin­ity pro­cess is based on renew­able raw mater­i­als and fixes car­bon diox­ide. The pro­pri­et­ary microor­gan­ism Bas­fia suc­cini­cipro­du­cens allows for a flex­ible usage of dif­fer­ent feed­stocks. Fur­ther­more, Suc­cin­ity biobased suc­cin­ic acid can be pro­duced effi­ciently without major waste streams thanks to a closed-loop pro­cess. An elab­or­ate down­stream pro­cessing meth­od ensures the pro­duc­tion of high qual­ity biobased suc­cin­ic acid. Based on tech­no­lo­gic­al advances and an increased need for renew­able inter­me­di­ates in dif­fer­ent applic­a­tion fields, BASF and Cor­bion Pur­ac have been work­ing on the devel­op­ment of biobased suc­cin­ic acid since 2009. Biobased suc­cin­ic acid fea­tures a sig­ni­fic­antly improved car­bon foot­print com­pared to con­ven­tion­al, fossil-based suc­cin­ic acid or oth­er dicarboxyl­ic acids. Biobased suc­cin­ic acid is a ver­sat­ile build­ing block with a sig­ni­fic­ant mar­ket poten­tial in the chem­ic­al inter­me­di­ates mar­ket. It can be used in a vari­ety of poten­tial applic­a­tions, such as bio-poly­mers (e.g. Poly­butylene suc­cin­ate, PBS), poly­ureth­anes, coat­ings and life sci­ence products. Source: Succinity