BioAmber (Plymouth, Minnesota / USA; www.bio-amber.com) has put the finishing touches on the 30,000 t/y bio-succinic acid plant it has built at Sarnia, Ontario / Canada as part of the BioAmber Sarnia joint venture with Japan’s Mitsui & Co (Tokyo; www.mitsui.com) – for the latest coverage see Plasteurope.com of 06.07.2015. The company said the facility, which cost USD 141.5m to build, is now operating at commercial scale, and the first test quantities are being shipped to customers. Production is planned to reach full run by 2017.

The renewable feedstock producer said its proprietary yeast process is already performing “significantly above” the targets it initially set for 2015, and the yield and productivity levels exceed the targets the plant was designed to react to longer term. Moreover, the bio-succinic acid being produced is of higher quality than the output of its demonstration plant in France. The company claims its route to succinic acid consumes considerably less energy than production using fossil fuels, is more cost-effective and has a better carbon footprint.

With volumes specified in signed take-or-pay and sales agreements exceeding annual production capacity, chief operations officer Fabrice Orecchioni said prospective operating margins are also better than initially projected. International customers include Vinmar International (Houston, Texas / USA; www.vinmar.com), PBS producer PTTMCC Biochem (Bangkok / Thailand), polyester polyols and PU producer Xuchuan Chemical (Taicang, Jiangsu / China; www.chinaxuchuan.com) and Covestro (Leverkusen / Germany; www.covestro.com), the former Bayer MaterialScience.

The Canadian plant, billed as the world’s largest for bio-succinic acid, has received support from the Government of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development. The project was financed through Export Development Canada, the Farm Credit Corporation and Comerica Bank.