BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) has signed a non-exclusive agreement with Renmatix (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / USA) to scale up the US technology company’s “Plantrose” process for production of industrial sugars from lignocellulosic biomass. The R&D pact follows BASF’s initial investment of USD 30m in Renmatix in January 2012. The partners have agreed to key financial terms for future commercial licences that the world’s largest chemical group said it can exercise at its discretion.

Availability of the industrial sugars in sufficient quantities and at competitive cost is important to enable both environmentally-friendly and cost-competitive bio-based products, BASF explained, adding that incorporating biomass feedstocks as a first step in the value chain, creates a raw material change that can reduce reliance on fossil raw material sources such as naphtha.

The Plantrose process “addresses our needs for renewable raw materials. It will help us to support our customers in developing solutions that contribute to sustainable development,” said Peter Schuhmacher, president of BASF’s Process Research and Chemical Engineering competence centre.

Over the past two years, BASF has made “significant investments of time and capital to support our efforts at Renmatix,” said Mike Hamilton, CEO of Renmatix. The privately held US company claims to be the leading technology licensor for conversion of biomass into cellulosic sugar. Its operations in Georgia currently have capacity to convert three dry US tons of cellulosic biomass to sugar per day.