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10 things to know about BioAmber

BioAmber is a biotechnology company building a global-scale manufacturing facility in Sarnia. The plant will create 60 jobs, but officials are hoping it will do much more.
BioAmber2
Sarnia’s newest manufacturer will use corn to produce a chemical used to make an astonishing variety of consumer products.

BioAmber is a biotechnology company building a global-scale manufacturing facility in Sarnia.

The plant will create 60 jobs, but officials are hoping it will do much more. They see BioAmber as the vanguard in Sarnia’s transformation from an oil-based manufacturing economy to one built on “green” plant-based chemistry.

Here are some facts:

 1 - BioAmber has a patented technology that takes high-fructose corn syrup and turns it into a “platform” chemical called succinic acid. Currently, most of the world’s succinic acid comes from petroleum. The corn-based alternative is chemically identical.

 2 - Succinic acid is used in an astonishing variety of everyday consumer products. They include foods, toys, textiles, paint, lubricants, de-icing products and cosmetics. Future applications might include car parts, spandex and carpets, but without the toxic effects of conventional plasticizers.

 3 - Montreal-based BioAmber has been making succinic acid from plant material at a large demonstration fermenter in France since 2010. To expand, it formed a partnership with Japanese giant Mitsui & Co.

4 - Construction at the Lanxess Bio-industrial Park on Vidal Street is on budget and on time. When the $135-million Sarnia plant opens next spring it will be the largest succinic acid manufacturer in the world.

5 – BioAmber lost buckets of money in 2013 and the first quarter of 2014. Investors seem undaunted. Money keeps rolling in from government and private backers, including another $7 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada last week.

 –Twenty percent of Sarnia’s production is secured in a deal inked with PTTMCC Biochem, a joint venture of chemical companies from Japan and Thailand. What’s more, BioAmber has signed 19 supply and distribution agreements and eight other memorandums of understanding. Together, the demand exceeds the plant’s annual capacity. More than 90% is targeted for export.

7 – The corn will come from growers in southwestern Ontario and southern Quebec. Corn-based succinic acid is cheaper than that derived from oil, and could become much cheaper as production ramps up.

8 – BioAmber located the plant in Sarnia, in large part, because the Ontario government offered an early $15-million low-interest loan, its CEO said.

9- BioAmber expects to have 100 employees by 2016, including 60 in Sarnia, 25 at a research centre in Minneapolis, 20 at its Montreal headquarters, plus a few marketers in the U.S. and Europe.

10 - If all goes well, the company intends to build a second plant, with twice the capacity, somewhere in North America.

- George Mathewson

 Sources: BioAmber, Montreal Gazette, The Wall Street Journal, AgFunder News


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