Chemical Engineering August 2013 - 14

Renmatix
Newsfront
BIO-BASED CHEMICALS
GAIN MARKET ACCEPTANCE
An acceleration of commercialization
for a number of bio-based building-block
chemicals signals further confidence
in the industry as a whole
Genomatica
s an industry sector, bio-based
chemicals have seen significant
expansion over the past year,
with several commercial developments
occurring in a group of fourcarbon
commodity chemicals, including
succinic acid, butanols, butadiene and
butanediol. While a host of technologybased
companies have built new facilities
and scaled up production capabilities,
others have formed alliances with
established players in the chemical industry
in the form of strategic partnerships
and development agreements.
Meanwhile, larger chemical companies
are seeking to incorporate bioderived
chemicals into their product
portfolios, either through their own
development or through partnerships.
Cumulatively, the activity may have
placed the bio-based chemicals industry
on the cusp of a rapid acceleration,
in terms of volume increases and market
uptake for bio-based products.
However, the successes in commercialization
have not come without
difficulties. Some companies have
shifted their focus toward lowervolume,
A
technology
officer at Renmatix
Inc. (King of Prussia,
Pa.; www.renmatix.com), a
maker of cellulosic sugar for the biobased
chemicals industry.
Taking stock of the recent activity
in setting up demonstration- and commercial-scale
plants, Alif Saleh, vice
president of sales and marketing for
the succinic acid and derivatives business
unit of Myriant (Quincy, Mass.;
www.myriant.com), says " The chemical
markets are starting to take the advent
of commercial supply of bio-based
chemicals more seriously. " Combined
with the new facilities, this factor helps
create an environment for bio-based
chemicals where commercialization
will start occurring even more rapidly
going forward, he adds.
FIGURE 1. Lanxess produced polybutylene
terephthalate from Genomatica's bio-based 1,4-butanediol
at this plant in Leverkusen, Germany
ogy for assessing developments in the
bio-based chemicals market. Nexant
projects that the bio-based industry
will have added 4 million tons of novel
bio-based capacity between 2012 and
2015, out of a total of 6 million tons
of announced capacity, including cellulosic
sugars, Cascone says. Other
Nexant work suggests there may be as
much as 15 million tons of cumulative
capacity by 2020.
higher-margin products,
and away from the larger market for
fuels. Also, they have had to navigate
a set of changes to the chemical industry
that have been wrought by
increased natural gas production
from shale. " The industry has been
somewhat soured by over-promising
and under-delivering in the past, but
there is now the potential for explosive
growth, " says Fred Moesler, chief
" While there hasn't been across-theboard
success in this sector, there is a
growing sense of credibility for the biobased
chemicals industry, " says Ronald
Cascone, a principal with Nexant
(White Plains, N.Y.; www.nexant.com).
Bio-based chemicals may be at a " tipping
point " preceding even more rapid
growth, he explains, where a critical
mass of companies has adopted a
stance favorable to using bio-based materials,
and enough technologies have
advanced to the point where they are
at or approaching cost parity with corresponding
petroleum-based products.
Along with Nexant colleague Bruce
Orr and others, Cascone has developed
and applied a capacity analysis
coupled with a risk analysis methodol14
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM AUGUST 2013
C4 chemicals opportunity
The flood of inexpensive natural gas
from shale in the U.S. has had a transformative
effect on the chemical industry
in the region, and the effect has
been felt by the bio-based chemicals
industry in a number of ways. Shale
gas has made it more difficult for biobased
chemical producers to compete
economically in the C2 and C3 olefins
space. But the shift on the part
of flexible-feedstock crackers toward
using ethane and away from naptha
in making ethylene (see Chem. Eng.,
October 2012, pp. 17-19) has created
a shortage of C4 chemicals, and this
has opened up an opportunity for biobased
chemical makers.
" When you run a cracker with
lighter feeds, you end up with dramatically
lower output of C4 chemicals, "
says Christophe Schilling, CEO of
Genomatica (San Diego, Calif.; www.
genomatica.com). " That plays havoc
http://www.renmatix.com http://www.myriant.com http://www.nexant.com http://www.genomatica.com http://WWW.CHE.COM
Chemical Engineering August 2013

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