Issue 49/2012 - Bio France discovers sustainable butadiene pathway

Bio-France discovers sustainable butadiene pathway

Global Bioenergies has announced that it has discovered a direct biological pathway
to convert renewable raw materials into butadiene.
In July 2011, Bioenergy signed a strategic cooperation agreement with rubber producer Synthos for the joint development of butadiene, a discovery that completed the first phase of the agreement, while the bioenergy company received a phased grant
of 1.
5 million euros.
The butadiene project is currently in the development phase, during which Synthos will also invest a total of several million euros in the form of an annual fee to support the project
.

Industry insiders said that in recent years, the global market for butadiene has been in short supply, especially the end market of butadiene - the increasing consumption of rubber, which has aggravated
this situation.
Tomasz Kalwat, Chairman of Synthos, said: "The development of an eco-friendly and low-cost biomass butadiene production process will enable the mass production of a new generation of rubber and will provide Synthos with a significant competitive advantage
.
Earlier
this year, LanzaTech signed an agreement with Invista to convert 2,3-butanediol produced by LanzaTech's proprietary gas microorganisms into butadiene
.
LanzaTech's ultimate goal is to industrialize
the technology for the direct production of butadiene by microorganisms.
Global bioenergy companies have also said they will produce propylene and isobutylene
from renewable raw materials.
LanzaTech and global bioenergy companies are collaborating to determine whether bioenergy's isobutylene production path can be used in LanzaTech's gas microbial technology
.
(Pine)