DSM (Sittard / The Netherlands; www.dsm.com) and French starch and derivatives producer Roquette Frères (Lestrem; www.roquette.com) have announced plans to build a commercial scale plant for fermentation-based bio-succinic acid used in bioplastics production. Investment costs are not being disclosed. Start-up of the 10,000 t/y unit at Roquette’s Cassano Spinola / Italy site is scheduled for the second half of 2012. Initially, the plant will use starch derivatives as a feedstock for the succinic acid; longer term, a switch to cellulosic biomass is planned.

DSM, which now brands itself as a life-science company, began cooperating with Roquette in 2008. In early 2010, the partners started up a demonstration plant in Lestrem and in June of last year disclosed plans for a 50:50 joint venture, Reverdia, to market the process. The companies say their proprietary yeast-based fermentation process operates at a much lower pH than competing processes and allows succinic acid to be produced with a “significantly higher energy efficiency” compared to the traditional method. It is also claimed to be one of the first bio-based technologies that sequesters carbon dioxide in the production process– see Plasteurope.com of 18.08.2010.

Because of its superior environmental footprint – DSM points out that its process produces no salt waste – bio-based succinic acid is being increasingly developed as an alternative to petrochemical feedstocks such as adipic acid and 1.4-butanediol. US renewables producer BioAmber (Plymouth, Minnesota / USA; www.bio-amber.com) recently agreed to supply Mitsubishi Chemicals (MCC, Tokyo / Japan; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) – see Plasteurope.com of 04.05.2011.

DSM and Roquette say their new plant will be Europe’s largest such facility. Earlier this year, Myriant Technologies (Quincy, Massachusetts / USA; www.myriant.com) announced plans for a 14,000 t/y succinic acid plant at Lake Providence, Louisiana / USA – see Plasteurope.com of 02.02.2011.

According to Rob van Leen, chief innovation officer at DSM, “the time is right to capitalise on the tremendous progress” his company has made together with Roquette in the past two years. Jean-Bernard Leleu, deputy CEO and RID director at Roquette, commented that the partners are “very encouraged” with development efforts in several new applications and are receiving favourable feedback from customers who have sourced product from the demonstration plant. The commercial-scale facility “will allow customers in Europe, North America and Asia to make larger volume commitments to their customers,” he added.