Pomacle-Bazancourt, France -- French company ARD (Agro-industrie Recherches et Développements) is to build a plant to make butanediol and other derivates from bio-based succinic acid.
ARD has a permit to build the first-ever commercial plant to make such succinic acid from renewable feedstocks such as cereals or sugar, at the bio-refinery of Pomacle-Bazancourt, near Reims, France. Bioamber, a joint venture between ARD and DNP Green Technology (DNP) will benefit from ARD's Euro 21 million ($29.4 million) investment in the demonstration plant, which will come on stream during fall of 2009, said a 16 Dec announcement from BioAmber.
"This is a critical step for Bioamber. This plant with a production capacity of 2 kilotonnes per annum of bio-based succinic acid, is a major tool to fine-tune our technology," said Patrick Piot, Bioamber's general manager, in the statement. "We will be in the position to provide our partners with industrial quantities, whose quality will be equivalent to that produced in future commercial-scale plants that will be built in 2010-2011," Piot added. "This plant will be used to showcase our technology and know-how."
Bioamber aims to develop technologies to produce bio-based succinic acid and all its monomer derivatives such as 1,4-butanediol, and enable its partners to develop applications. The total market is estimated at several billion euros, the company said.
The plant was sponsored by public funding, from groups including the Conseil Général de la Marne, the Champagne-Ardenne region, as well as the European fund FEDER. The project will lead to the creation of 20 qualified jobs.
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