US renewable chemistry company BioAmber (Plymouth, Minnesota; www.bio-amber.com) has entered into a strategic agreement to become Mitsubishi Chemical’s (MCC, Tokyo / Japan; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) exclusive supplier of biobased succinic acid. The deal also includes Mitsui & Co (Tokyo / Japan; www.mitsui.com) – BioAmber’s Asian distribution partner. The US company has already begun supplying MCC with biobased succinic acid produced at its 3,000 t/y succinic acid plant in Pomacle, located in the Champagne region of France. A BioAmber spokesperson told Plasteurope.com that “Mitsubishi will be among our biggest customers in terms of annual volume.” In addition, BioAmber will source biobased polybutylene succinate (PBS) from MCC for its Sinoven Biopolymers subsidiary, which will turn the PBS into modified PBS polymers.

As part of the deal, elements of MCC’s succinic acid technology are to be incorporated into BioAmber’s biosuccinic platform in an effort to produce the material at lower costs and thus decrease MCC’s manufacturing costs.

In addition, the three companies are conducting a feasibility study to build a succinic acid production plant near the location of MCC’s proposed PBS facility in Thailand. Plasteurope.com was unable to get any more information from MCC about these plans, although we were able to glean that the three companies’ investigation, expected to be completed by year’s end, is to determine the size, location, feedstock sourcing as well as the legal and equity structure of the proposed plant. Thailand has attracted numerous bioplastics producers because of its wealth of natural resources – see also Plasteurope.com of 07.12.2009.

BioAmber was founded in late 2008 as DNP Green Technology. After the company secured some USD 12m in financing from various institutional investors – including Sofinnova Partners (France / Paris; www.sofinnova.fr), Mitsui and Samsung – DNP in autumn last year acquired 100% of the shares in its BioAmber joint venture with Agroindustries-Recherches et Developpements (ARD, Pomacle / France; www.a-r-d.fr), the R&D subsidiary of a French agricultural consortium. Once the takeover was complete, DNP changed its name to BioAmber.

According to the BioAmber spokesperson, the company is in the final stages of selecting a site for a new 20,000 t/y plant in North America, with construction scheduled to begin later this year. The new facility, whose design will provide for expansion capability, is due to come on stream in 2013. BioAmber also operates a 3,000 t/y contract manufacturing facility in Shanghai / China, which sources PBS from third parties and then modifies them using Sinoven Biopolymer technology.