Joint ventures and other collaborations, formed to expand niche products and increase global supplies, are rife within the biobased chemicals and bioproducts space. Companies are exploring different ways to supplement or replace existing starch-based feedstocks with nonfood-based inputs to produce a variety of chemicals and products traditionally derived from petroleum sources. One that is increasingly garnering attention is biobased succinic acid.

DNP Green Technology and GreenField Ethanol announced in March a partnership to build a $50 million biobased succinic acid facility in Hensall, Ontario, Canada. The chemical will be used in the production of a novel deicing agent. GreenField Ethanol will build and operate the plant while DNP GT will hold a significant equity stake. The Canadian firms plan to penetrate key market segments by working with distributors like Basic Solutions, a provider of innovative runway deicing products.

The biobased deicer, to be produced from grain-derived glucose, will be applied to airport runways and other high-value structures such as bridges, according to Mike Hartmann, vice president of corporate affairs at DNP GT. He adds the company intends to migrate to cellulosic nonfood-based inputs in the future.

"We understand there are a lot of companies trying to move away from starch-based feedstocks to lignocellulosic inputs, but we have to make sure it’s a clean enough stream and it’s cost-competitive to corn, sugarbeet or sugarcane," he says. "We’re definitely looking at lignocellulosics, but it’s all a question of price."

In Europe, Netherlands-based Royal DSM N.V. and French-based starch and starch-derivatives company Roquette Freres signed a joint venture agreement to develop biobased succinic acid. Reverdia, the proposed joint venture name, plans to focus on derivative applications-1,4 butanediol (BDO), polyurethane resins and biopolymers such as polybutylene succinate-for products such as paints, coatings and textiles. Both companies will be marketing biobased succinic acid under the Reverdia name.

Since early 2008, the two companies have worked together to develop fermentative technology using available starch-based feedstocks such as corn starch and sugarcane to produce biobased succinic acid, according to Royal DSM N.V. spokesman Ynte Hoekstra.

"One of the key targets for DSM and Roquette is to constantly strive for more environmentally-friendly production routes, so if there is a feasible second-generation production route, we certainly will consider moving to biomass as a feedstock," he says. "In the future we aim to use second-generation feedstocks like wheat straw, corn stover, wood chips or energy crops. The key factor in moving towards a second-generation feedstock is finding a cost-competitive process for converting biomass into sugars."

DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products LLC, a joint venture between the respective companies, plans to expand production capacity by 35 percent at its 100-million-pound-per-year Loudon, Tenn., facility, which produces the company’s trademarked biobased 1,3 propanediol (Bio-PDO). Operating since 2007 adjacent to Tate & Lyle’s existing 60 MMgy corn-based ethanol plant, construction for expansion of the PDO facility is underway with completion scheduled for the second quarter of 2011.

Formed in 2004, DuPont Tate & Lyle produces Bio-PDO from corn instead of petroleum-based feedstock using a proprietary fermentation process. Since 2007, the Bio-PDO production plant has been producing a valuable ingredient used currently in materials for a variety of applications such as cosmetics and personal care formulations to fluids and polymers, most notably DuPont Sorona, a renewably sourced polymer. Bio-PDO is sold under the Zemea and Susterra brands.

"Additional feedstocks like sugarcane are currently being assessed and when the project economics are feasible, the joint venture will begin implementing its development plans for additional feedstocks," says Joe DeSalvo, marketing director for DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products LLC.