Butanediol from renewable feedstock planned
German chemical giant BASF has acquired a license from American Genomatica for its patented production process allowing the production of renewable butanediol
BASF plans to start the production of 1,4-buitanedial based on renewable feedstock (renewable BDO) by making use of the patented process of Genomatica, San Diego (USA). The one step fermentation process is based on sugars as a renewable feedstock. The financial parts of the deal are not revealed.
The license agreement permits BASF to build a world-scale production facility on the basis of the Genomatica process to manufacture BDO based on renewable feedstock. Genomatica will continue to advance its patented renewable BDO production process technology while BASF will produce the new product available in the second half of 2013 for sampling and trials. Genomatica is a technlogy leader for the chemical industry and delivers new manufacturing processes to enable its partners to produce intermediate and basic chemicals from renewable feedstocks. These chemicals serve as the basis for manufacturing a great substance of all the products that make modern life possible. The company is developing a pipeline of manufacturing processes for the production of these chemicals, including BDO and butadiene, as well as other areas
BDO and its derivatives are widely used for producing plastics, solvents, electric chemicals and elastic fibres. The starting materials for the conventional BDO are natural gas, butane, butadiene and propylene. BASF currently produces BDO and BDO equivalents at its sites in Ludwigshafen (D), Geismar, Louisiana (USA), Chiba (J, Kuantan (Malaysia), and Caojing (PRC). The actual total capacity is 535000 metric tons. BASF has recently announced the intention of building a BDO complex in China with a capacity of 100000 annual tons.