Speciality chemical company Lygos is working in partnership with fermentation and biotechnology firm CJ BIO to produce and deliver commercial volumes of biobased chemicals.
The companies signed a memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement on 10 September, Lygos said on the same date.
As part of the partnership, Lygos said it would develop a commercial-scale biorefinery complex in Fort Dodge, Iowa, combining CJ BIO’s expertise in fermentation and biotechnology with Lygos’ advanced biology, chemistry and application development technologies for high-performing, sustainable solutions.
While the biorefinery complex would use infrastructure and capabilities from CJ BIO’s existing site, Lygos said it would develop additional facilities and downstream operations.
“Scaling up our existing CDMO partnership with Lygos to manufacture commercial quantities of their products will help us … to deliver … sustainable products to large markets,” CJ BIO America CEO Lance Choi said.
The complex will be part of Iowa’s Ag-Industrial campus that fosters collaboration and growth within the biomanufacturing sector, located just west of Fort Dodge.
CJ’s existing site is next to Cargill’s Fort Dodge Corn Mill, which will provide utilities and access to plant-derived sugar, a biobased feedstock that can be fermented into the key intermediates for Lygos’ products, the company said.
Initially, the biorefinery would produce up to 40,000 tonnes/year of Soltellus biodegradable polymers and Ecoteria biobased malonates with the potential to expand to 100,000 tonnes/year, Lygos said.
“The biorefinery complex, combined with our … Collaborate to Accelerate strategy, allows us to control the entire product development process from idea to R&D, to commercial delivery, helping us expand the scale of our flagship products,” Lygos founder and CEO Eric Steen said.
Lygos said it expected construction would take 18-24 months.
Soltellus polymers are used in home care, personal care, agronomy and water treatment applications.
Ecoteria malonates are used in the fragrance, coatings, agriculture chemicals and pharmaceutical sectors and in other speciality applications.
The partnership was also looking into the production of biobased aspartic acid and the launch of new biobased and biodegradable materials, Lygos said.
Using advanced technologies for microbe development, fermentation and downstream processing, Lygos processes renewable feedstocks like sugar and CO₂ to create bio-based materials.
A global supplier of fermentation-based bio-products for the food and feed industries, CJ BIO is a business unit of CJ CheilJedang, a subsidiary of CJ Group, which operates in the food & food Service, bio & pharma, entertainment & media and retail & logistics sectors.