{"id":27279,"date":"2015-07-31T04:01:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T02:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rss.nova-institut.net\/public.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.biofuelsdigest.com%2Fbdigest%2F2015%2F07%2F28%2Fseeking-success-in-succinic-succinctly-sustainably%2F"},"modified":"2015-07-29T16:48:06","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T14:48:06","slug":"seeking-success-in-succinic-succinctly-sustainably","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/seeking-success-in-succinic-succinctly-sustainably\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking success in succinic, succinctly, sustainably"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is there anyone left\u00a0on Planet Earth not making biobased\u00a0succinic acid, or running for the US Republican presidential nomination?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In succinic, though, there might be several winners. Reverdia CEO Marcel Lubben helps us to understand the broad applications and markets in an exclusive interview with The Digest.<\/h3>\n

\"lubben\"<\/h3>\n

Ah, grashopper, you might have thought that \u201cSeeking success in succinic, succinctly, sustainably\u201d is just a tongue-twister for elocutionists, right along with \u201cred leather, yellow leather\u201d or \u201crubber baby buggy bumpers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then again, you may find yourself identifying \u201cPBS\u201d as a television network that gave Congressman Aaron Schock the wrong ideas about decorating a legislative office on the public dime, via broadcasts of Downton Abbey<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s the SucciniMania<\/em>? The fainting teenagers? The environmentalists singing Hallelujah? Life is unfair.<\/h4>\n

Downton<\/em>-mania, bah! The real deal is\u00a0succinic acid and polybutylene succinate. The latter found in everything from boxes, bags, tableware, even mulching films. If we haven\u2019t seen SucciniMania<\/em> quite yet, well, it\u2019s the fate of intermediates to be less known than they should. Meanwhile, let\u2019s bring you up to speed.<\/p>\n

What they are, and why they are<\/h4>\n

\u201cPBS can be made from succinic acid,\u201d Reverdia CEO Marcel Lubben tells us, \u201cand among the thermoplastics, biodegradability is PBS\u2019 unique selling proposition.\u201d Reverdia is a joint venture between DSM, the Netherlands chemical and materials biobased, and Roquette Freres, the French starch giants \u2014 with a focus on succinic acid. Which has also been the focal point for BioAmber, Myriant and Succinity of late, just to name three market entrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cLamination, for example,\u201d says Lubben. \u201cThink about that shiny material inside a paper coffee cup. That can be PBS. Compostability and degradability is very important for the market in a number of applications, and PBS has it. There\u2019s PLA , but that is very brittle, and you can have a lot of sound when it crackles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, PBS has become important for production in Japan, China and a little in the EU. It\u2019s complimentary to other plastics, you see it in blends where PBS can be used to fine tune properties as an ingredient in co-polymers. So, companies like MCC Showa and Denko drive PBS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"shoe-sole\"Honey, don\u2019t you fret,\u00a0\u2018Cause you ain\u2019t seen nothing yet,\u00a0I\u2019m a Sole\u00a0man<\/h4>\n

\u201cThere are other poloyols and polyesters, for instance, intermediates for sport shoes, in the soles. The proposition there is to replace adipic acid as the main building block, so that with succinic we are providing a more renewable version with another diacid, succinic in this case. The renewable attribute? Brand owners like that, especially for the outdoors, where their customers are very conscious of lifecycle, and the carbon footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true. Renewable attributes are important to many brand owners \u2014 but not all have joined the bandwagon, and where there is a renewable molecule that doesn\u2019t have a brand owner committed (or skilled) at marketing that attribute, well, it can languish. So we asked Reverdia,\u00a0 what is the role of the intermediate producer in terms of communicating renewable attributes?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe quantify for them the lifecycle and carbon footprint,\u201d said Lubben. \u201cIn the end, the customer controls how much of a given intermediate they use, and how renewable a product is, and it is really up to them to communicate those attributes with their customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that, whether it is Nike or GM, very much from top down and throughout the organizations that\u00a0are\u00a0looking at renewable ingredients. Our challenge from them is to find out, where can we source it, what is available where and when. Secure and stable supply is an issue for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for projects like the Plant Bottle, industry works hard on the renewable raw materials and the monomers, and we can tell them the lifecycle data. But we don\u2019t have an illusion on marketing: they have a whole team on that, that\u2019s their forte, and they have the connection with the consumer. What we can do sometimes is find new ways to excite the,.For example, we literally make shoe soles to show to potential customers what\u00a0 the product can do. As opposed to dropping off a bag of polymer and saying \u201cgood luck\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn turn, customers can create the traction by creating commitments and pushing that through the chain. They now have a unique opportunity to get sustainability under control. Our role is in helping them to set up and realize that new value chain, from polymers all the way back to, for example, lignocellulosic feedstock.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s working on what?<\/h4>\n

So, who\u2019s working hard on a renewables project that we might have not heard much about yet, compared to, say, the Plant Bottle?<\/p>\n

\u201cIKEA announced that by 2020 all their material will be recyclable or renewable, and they create a lot of traction, and<\/p>\n

now we see big companies committing. When LEGO and IKEA making big announcements, you know the search is on with the brand owners. But we are still far way \u2014 you have 4-5 different steps before you have a shoe.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Reverdia sees customers in a much more innovative business mode?<\/h4>\n

\u201cYes! It\u2019s about \u201creally renewable\u201d and not about greenwashing. And they are looking seriously at the lifecycle analysis right through to indirect land use. Most importantly, I think everyone recognizes now that nothing will happen without real commitment all along the value chain, producers and brand owners, because they see the valley of death, and they know that someone needs to bring commitments and drive more awareness with the consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n

How are they tapping that consumer desire and making that work within corporate structures for investment and return?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to feel good about our purchases,\u201d Lubben said. \u201cSo, projects like USDA Biopreferred labeling are a great start. In the case of Coke, they also brought a different perspective on investment. Because one thing we known is that consumers don;t necessarily want to pay more, on an ongoing basis, for green. But how Coca-Cola saw it was as a one-time investment \u2014 to drive production to where you get the economies of scale and multiple suppliers, so you get competitive costs.<\/p>\n

The Reverdia update<\/h4>\n

\u201cAs of September we will have been running for 1000 days at our 10 kiloton plant in Italy,\u201d Lubben said. \u201cWe have our process debottlenecked now and it is running at designed capacity. So, now we have begun to focus more on application development, and we also announced that we would license the technology and have 10-15 license requests from users and potential sellers, including the petrochemical companies. There\u2019s a lot of traction but we are not happy yet with the marlet traction, we continue to develop applications and get people on board, and market the advantages and performance benefits.<\/p>\n

What best about the market\u00a0traction so far\u00a0seen?<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe increase in order sizes, for sure,\u201d said Lubben. \u201cAt first, you have to validate an application. But now, we see 100s of tons ordered at once, or even 1 kiloton in a single order size.\u201d<\/p>\n

More capacity down the line?<\/h4>\n

\u201cBased on the client contact, the leads, the sampling, what we see is that around 2018-19 we\u2019ll need another 50 kilotons in capacity for ourselves, so we are doing rigorous pipeline management to understand and validate that. Licensing gives\u00a0 another way to meet that. But the tech is ready. We did the Cassano\u00a0plant with not all the commitments in place, and we have set ourselves a goal of getting\u00a060% of capacity sold in for a new plant. You never sell out the whole capacity, as there\u2019s always opportunity\u00a0 left on the table that way, but we do owe it to the shareholders to de-risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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