BioAmber Inc., an industrial biotechnology company producing sustainable chemicals, has signed an exclusive supply agreement for bio-based succinic acid with Xuchuan. Under the terms of the 5-year contract, which runs from 2015 to the end of 2019, BioAmber Sarnia, a joint venture with Mitsui & Co., will ship to Xuchuan’s Chinese facilities bio-based succinic acid it has produced in Sarnia, Canada.
Xuchuan is a top five global producer of polyester polyols, which are used to produce a wide range of products including paints and coatings, polyester resins and synthetic leather. Xuchuan operates four polyester polyol plants in China and has an annual production capacity of 150,000 tons. Xuchuan is initially launching PU systems for cast polyurethane elastomers (CPU) made with bio-succinic acid. CPU is used in applications including automotive instruments, caster wheels, industrial and mining equipment, power tools, industrial tires, coating rolls, drive belts, mold makers and hoses.
By replacing adipic acid with succinic acid, Xuchuan has produced CPUs that offer better properties: they are more abrasion/scratch resistant and more resistant to solvents. The forecasted succinic acid volumes in the contract for this initial application are 300 to 500 tons per year. Xuchuan is broadening its line of sustainable, bio-succinic acid based polyester polyols to other applications, including resins for shoe soles, coating and synthetic leathers. BioAmber projects the long-term sales potential to Xuchuan for these applications could be several thousand tons of succinic acid per year.
BioAmber’s Sarnia plant is expected to be completed in early 2015 and will have an initial capacity of 30,000 tons per year. BioAmber has signed take-or pay agreements that commit 50 percent of the output over the first three years of production, and has committed the balance of available capacity in 2016 and 2017 by signing 20 supply and distribution agreements.
