Cargill & Novozymes to enable production of acrylic acid

16 Jan '08

3 min read

Cargill and Novozymes announced a joint agreement to develop technology enabling the production of acrylic acid via 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3HPA) from renewable raw materials. The project is supported by a $1.5 million matching cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The collaboration aims at enabling fermentation of sugar into 3HPA using a bioengineered microorganism. The 3HPA can subsequently be transformed into a range of valuable chemical derivatives including acrylic acid -- a high value, high volume chemical that goes into a broad range of materials including plastics, fiber, coatings, paints and super-absorbent diapers.

“Due to increasing oil prices, conversion of renewable raw materials to chemicals is becoming economically viable and holds significant commercial potential,” says Novozymes' Executive Vice President Thomas Videbæk, who heads up the company's BioBusiness division.

“This strongly positions Novozymes to put its bioinnovation capabilities to work towards our vision of a 'biobased economy' where biomaterials will gradually replace many of the petroleum-based products we know today. The collaboration with Cargill is a good example of how we leverage and build upon our technology base to expand the business into new areas.”

Cargill, a leading supplier to the bioindustry globally, already has patents relating to biobased 3HPA. Novozymes will contribute its unique technological platform in protein and pathway engineering, i.e., targeting microorganisms to produce a desired compound. Both companies bring expertise in large-scale fermentation.

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