Myriant and Johnson Matthey-Davy open UK bio-chemical facility

“The recent developments that Johnson Matthey-Davy and Myriant have been able to achieve together are clear milestones in our overall strategy to bring renewable products to the market,” said Antoine Bordet, managing director at Johnson Matthey-Davy. “We have provided process technologies based on petroleum feedstocks to the BDO and THF markets globally for 25 years and understand what it takes to be competitive from a cost and quality point of view.”

The Johnson Matthey-Davy BDO/THF technology, which has undergone significant improvements over the past ten years, can now be offered with process and performance guarantees to produce commercial grade bio-butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, and gamma-butyrolactone equivalent to the petrochemical material that is currently produced in commercial plants, from Myriant’s bio-succinic acid at a competitive cost level.

“With this most recent success at Teesside, Myriant has proved that we are able to produce succinic acid suitable for the production of commercial grade bio-butanediol,” commented Cenan Ozmeral, Myriant chief operating officer. “Our bio-butanediol offers superior carbon efficiency that will enable our customers to reduce their overall carbon footprint. Achieving this success is another major step towards advancing Myriant’s commercialization strategy for bio-succinic acid and its derivatives, and, it is significant because it provides us immediate entrance into a large market with Johnson Matthey-Davy, the global leader in BDO/THF process technology.”

Johnson Matthey-Davy, a global leader in esterification and hydrogenation technology, has licensed 800,000 t/y of annual capacity for the production of butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, and gamma-butyrolactone representing approximately 25 % of the global installed capacity. Myriant’s flagship bio-succinic acid plant in Lake Providence, LA, USA, is currently being commissioned and it is the largest bio-succinic acid plant in the world.