Companies Involved in Bio-Succinic Acid Manufacturing

Introduction of bio-based succinic acid as a significant step toward a sustainable chemical industry depends on two important economic parameters. The first is summarized under the term of the production costs. Major constituents along the production process are the costs and the availability of the feedstock with 10-15%, the fermentation process itself contributing to 20-25% of the costs, and the purification of the final producf, which may utilize between 60% and 70% of the total costs. All these parameters can be improved to reduce the succinic acid price. For example, processes and/or producer strains capable of utilizing different kinds of feedstocks 

The second economic parameter which has high impact on the bio-based succinic acid market is the availability of succinic acid and the demand for succinic acid-based products. Currently the market is evolving very rapidly. For several years bio-based succinic acid was on the future portfolio of only a few companies. The plans for industrial production were still very vague as most of the companies were in the phase of research and development. Meanwhile production organisms and processes have been developed and tested in several pilot plants and in the last 2 years a number of press releases mapped several of the major players (Table 16.2) in the surprisingly fast-growing market of bio-based succinic acid. 

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