The US bioeconomy takes a step forward. Genomatica, Cargill, HELM and Qore completed a groundbreaking ceremony in Eddyville, Iowa, to celebrate the construction of the first, bio-1,4-butanediol (BDO) facility to be built in the U.S. and the second bio BDO commercial scale plant for Geno. It’s a major milestone for biotech to supply more sustainable materials to meet surging consumer demand, while advancing manufacturing right in America’s heartland.
Cargill and German company HELM entered into a joint venture, Qore, to help leading brands replace fossil-based chemistries with bio-based intermediates, enabling them to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the agreement, both companies are investing a combined $300M to build the first commercial-scale, renewable BDO facility in the U.S. Bio-based intermediates give the apparel, automotive, electronics and packaging industries the ability to improve their environmental footprint without sacrificing product performance or altering their existing downstream manufacturing processes.
Cargill is one of the main players of the world bioeconomy. The company founded in 1865 by William Wallace Cargill in Minnesota, USA, has today more than 155,000 employees worldwide serving food and beverage manufacturers, foodservice companies and retailers with food ingredients as well as food and non-food applications.
In this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista, Colleen May, President of Cargill’s Bioindustrial Group, tells us what is the bioeconomy from her company’s point of view and what are Cargill’s next steps in the green chemistry.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Royal DSM and Cargill established Avansya V.O.F. The 50:50 joint venture is a partnership between the two companies. Both parties announced their intention to establish this joint venture on 8 November 2018 subject to regulatory approvals. Avansya will produce zero-calorie, great-tasting sweeteners through fermentation and will be headquartered at the Biotech Campus Delft (Netherlands).Cargill and Royal DSM, a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, established a new joint venture, Avansya, to significantly reduce calories in their offerings to consumers. Together, the companies will produce highly sought-after, sweet-tasting molecules, such as steviol glycosides Reb M and Reb D through fermentation, giving food and beverage manufacturers an even more scalable, sustainable and low cost-in-use solution than if these same molecules were extracted from the stevia leaf.
“Biotech is becoming increasingly important to the mainstream chemical industry as the demand for more sustainable solutions intensifies. Biotech is especially well-suited to help with some of the industry’s biggest challenges”. To say it – in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Christophe Schilling, founder and CEO of Genomatica, a widely-recognized bioengineering leader for the chemical industry. The San Diego-based biotechnology company develops and licenses bio-based manufacturing processes for the production of intermediate and basic chemicals.
Since being named CEO in May 2009, Christophe Schilling has led Genomatica to widespread recognition as a leader in industrial biotechnology, with a commercialized first process, top-tier licensees, strong investors and an unrivaled string of awards for engineering (Kirkpatrick), science (EPA Presidential Green Chemistry), industry leadership (voted #1 Hottest three years in a row by Biofuels Digest), and company culture (The Scientist as a Best Place to Work). Schilling frequently speaks on industry trends at major conferences and serves as a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Genomatica and Cargill have entered into a collaboration agreement to accelerate the production of renewable chemicals for industrial applications. The collaboration will give chemical producers, distributors and users access to a reliable, cost-effective source of carbohydrate feedstocks, co-location support services and production partnerships, based on GENO™ process technologies.
Chemical giant Basf has decided to exit the current R&D collaboration with Novozymes and Cargill to develop a bio-based process for producing 3-hydroxypropionic (3-HP) and acrylic acid from renewable raw materials.
BASF, Cargill and Novozymes announced the achievement of another milestone in their joint development of technologies to produce acrylic acid from renewable raw materials. The team has demonstrated the successful conversion of 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) to glacial acrylic acid and superabsorbent polymers. Moreover they have selected the process for further scale-up.
Rivertop Renewables, a U.S. producer of novel chemicals derived from natural plant sugars, based in Montana, has raised $26 million from Cargill (an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services), First Green Partners (an enterprise focused on commercializing advanced technologies in the carbon value chain) and existing investors.
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