US Amyris to expand production of biochemical farnesene

03 March 2011 14:53  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--Amyris is expanding production of its biochemical farnesene through a contract manufacturing deal with a company in Spain, the US-based renewable chemicals firm said on Thursday.

Amyris’ farnesene platform molecule can serve as a base chemical building block using sugarcane as feedstock.

Under the deal, Spain’s Antibioticos would produce farnesene at its facilities in Leon, Spain, Amyris said.

The product would be owned and distributed by Amyris, it said. Amyris had similar arrangements with other firms, it added.

Amyris and Antibioticos already started test fermentation runs in January, and, based on the outcome, would proceed with expanded production, Amyris said.

“This agreement with Antibioticos should allow us to reach our target initial production levels and meet customer demand for our near-term product offerings,” John Melo, CEO of Amyris, said.

“We have been very impressed with the world-class technical expertise in aseptic fermentation at Antibioticos, and are looking forward to leverage this as we build up our commercial production capability,” he said.

He did not disclose capacity or financial details.

Potential applications for Amyris’ farnesene are in plastics additives, flavours and fragrance, lubricants, consumer product ingredients, and fuel.

Check out Doris de Guzman’s Green Chemicals Blog for views on sustainability issues

By: Stefan Baumgarten
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