Amyris commissions 2nd industrial-scale facility for production of renewable farnesene
25 July 2011
Amyris, Inc. has commissioned its second industrial-scale facility for the production of Biofene, Amyris’s renewable farnesene. Biofene may be sold directly into industrial applications or put through simple chemical finishing steps to form a broad range of renewable products including squalane, base oil and finished lubricants and diesel.
The production facility is located in León, Spain at a facility owned by Antibióticos, S.A. Amyris is currently producing Biofene using Amyris equipment at a facility owned by Biomin do Brasil Nutricão Animal Ltda. in Piracicaba, Brazil.
We are seeing strong customer demand for squalane and our renewable diesel, and this increase in production also supports our expected near-term commercialization of Amyris base oils.
—John Melo, CEO of Amyris
Amyris is scaling its production through agreements with manufacturers located in Brazil, Europe and the United States, and has five production agreements in place including contract manufacturing agreements with Antibióticos, Biomin, Paraíso Bioenergia Ltda., Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas, Inc., an affiliate of Tate & Lyle PLC, and a joint venture with Usina São Martinho, one of the largest sugar and ethanol producers in Brazil. Amyris has also established chemical finishing capabilities under a production agreement with Glycotech, Inc.
Separately, Amyris and Firmenichannounced they are expanding their collaboration agreement to include a third ingredient for the flavors and fragrances market. Under the current agreement, established in November 2010, Firmenich is funding work at Amyris to develop a first ingredient with rights to co-fund a second.
Amyris has delivered on a key milestone for the development of that first ingredient ahead of schedule. The parties expect to begin work on the second ingredient on schedule and, as a result of the performance so far, have decided to expand the collaboration to now incorporate a third ingredient.
The goal of the Amyris-Firmenich collaboration is to promote long-term interests of the flavors and fragrances industry by providing sustainable ingredients that are cost-competitive. Under the agreement, Amyris will manufacture and supply key ingredients to Firmenich, and Firmenich will market and distribute them exclusively in the flavors and fragrances market. Both parties will share in the economic value derived from these ingredients.
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