DSM and Evonik have given a name to their joint venture to produce omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA from natural marine algae for animal nutrition \u2014 something that\u2019s been traditionally been made from wild-caught fish oil. They\u2019re calling it Veramaris \u2014 and they\u2019re cutting out the middlefish, more or less, as Cellana CEO Martin Sabarsky frequently describes the similar capability of his team\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n
In another piece of news, the 50:50 joint venture \u2014 headquartered at the DSM Biotech Campus in Delft, Netherlands \u2014 has commenced construction of a $200 million production facility at the Evonik site in Blair, Nebraska. It\u2019s DSM\u2019s largest one-off investment in biobased production capacity since the building of the commercial-scale POET-DSM cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa.<\/p>\n
The news comes amidst confirmation that Corbion is in talks to acquire Bunge\u2019s stake in SB Renewable Oils, the JV it originated several years ago with Solazyme. Corbion acquired the old Solazyme interest as TerraVia (as Solazyme was re-named) went into bankruptcy, and Corbion management reiterated its strong interest in the omega-3 segment via the AlgaPrime DHA product line. FeedNavigator is reporting that Bunge confirmed to shareholders, after dismal Q4 earnings, that it intends to exit both sugar trading and the renewable oils joint venture. \u00a0Meanwhile, Bunge has not been able to shake off the persistent rumors that ADM is aimed at an acquisition, as the rounds of agribusiness consolidation continue.<\/p>\n
All of which puts DHA and EPA under the microscope as a featured first \u201chigh margin, decent volume\u201d product for algal technologies at scale \u2014 and places Omega-3s as a minor, but noticeable, driver in the acquisition wave.<\/p>\n
The Nebraska biocluster
\nMeanwhile, let\u2019s focus for a moment on Blair as a location. It\u2019s a hub for Cargill, and Novozymes has co-located a massive enzymes plant, and Evonik makes lysine there. It\u2019s become one of the spectacular bioclusters in the United States.<\/p>\n
Commercial quantities of the algal oil rich in the essential omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA will be ready for sale in 2019. Pilot quantities for market development purposes are already available. The initial annual production capacity will meet roughly 15% of the total current annual demand for EPA and DHA by the salmon aquaculture industry.<\/p>\n
Algae, algae, algae
\nOK, so it\u2019s actually cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) and not strictly algae, and cyanobacteria are genetically more distant from most algae than you and I are genetically distinct from salad mushrooms \u2014 but you get the idea, it\u2019s commercial-scale industrial biotechnolology, and highly advanced stuff.<\/p>\n
And the technology is different than most algae ventures, too. No open ponds, for one; Veramaris uses fermentation. It\u2019s a technology that used to be independently owned, known as Martek Biosciences, and DSM acquired it several years ago. DSM and Evonik announced their intention to start this joint venture in March 2017.<\/p>\n
The market background
\nUntil recently, the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA added to animal feed have been almost exclusively from marine sources such as fish oil and fishmeal, which are finite resources. Currently, a total of 16 million metric tons of wild fish are caught for the production of fish oil and fishmeal. By using natural marine algae, Veramaris contributes to closing the omega-3 EPA and DHA supply-demand gap, while helping to conserve marine life and biodiversity in the oceans.<\/p>\n
1 kilogram of algal oil can replace 60 kilograms of wild-caught fish. And what is of particular interest here from a technical angle is that the production organism in this case makes 50 percent DHA and 50 percent EPA. Martek\u2019s main focus had been DHA. Both are important \u2013 for heart health, cognition, joint health, eye health, mood, immunity and infant eye and brain development. The US, Canada, Brazil and India are relatively short on EPA and DHA in ordinary diets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Evonik backstory
\nIn March 2016 we reported that Evonik was doing a whole bunch of corporate venturing \u2014 in all, looking to invest around $108 million in what it described as \u201cpromising start-ups with innovative technologies and in leading specialized venture capital funds as part of its venture capital activities. Regional focus areas are Europe, the USA, and Asia. Evonik currently holds shares in six start-ups and three funds. http:\/\/venturing.evonik.com\/sites\/venturing\/en\/<\/p>\n
One of the first investments from that drive was the Series A round for JeNaCell, and Bernhard Mohr, the head of Venture Capital at Evonik said at the time that \u201dJeNaCell is an outstanding strategic fit for Evonik. The company\u2019s technology supplements our competencies in biotechnology and in the area of delivery systems for active medical ingredients.\u201d The products aim at medical cosmetology, laser treatments, and skin sensitivities or to supplement aesthetic procedures such as exfoliation. As documented by current studies, they have a long-lasting moisturizing, cooling, and soothing effect on the skin and support the natural regeneration of sensitive skin.<\/p>\n
In July 2016, we reported that Evonik had commissioned a new plant for the biotechnological production of Biolys\u00ae in the Brazilian town of Castro in the state of Paran\u00e1. It has annual production capacity of around 80,000 metric tons. Biolys is an efficient source of the amino acid L-lysine and is used as a feed additive in modern animal nutrition \u2014 it\u2019s what they produce in Blair (which has a 280,000 metric ton capacity).<\/p>\n
But Evonik also has ventured into gas fermentation as well as algae fermentation. We reported back in 2013 that Evonik Industries and LanzaTech signed a three year research cooperation agreement which will see Evonik combining its existing biotechnology platforms with LanzaTech\u2019s synthetic biology and gas fermentation expertise for the development of a route to bioprocessed precursors for specialty plastics from waste derived synthesis gas.<\/p>\n
We published this look at Evonik\u2019s Strategic Intent in 2016, here.<\/p>\n
The DSM backstory
\nAmyris found a new deep-pocketed champion in DSM Nutrition in recent months, and DSM purchased the 40 million liter capacity Brotas production plant for $96 million, while Amyris focuses on completing its Brotas 2 plant, where it has not yet revealed the capacity.<\/p>\n
The two companies announced a product development and production agreement for Vitamin A on a cost-advantaged basis utilizing Amyris\u2019s and DSM\u2019s capabilities. Once scaled, DSM will take the product to market utilizing its global channel and market access for animal and human nutrition and health.<\/p>\n
DSM had previously made a $25 million equity investment in Amyris \u00a0and the two companies in July last year inked an agreement to focus on a number of short- to medium-term product development & production opportunities in vitamins and other nutritional ingredients.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the biobased space, DSM is actively working on the POET-DSM cellulosic ethanol technology, reporting last fall that they had achieved a major breakthrough in cellulosic biofuels production at its Project LIBERTY plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The company has solved the critical challenge in pretreatment, overcoming what has been the No. 1 hurdle to commercialization for producers around the world, according to their news release. Project LIBERTY is now running pretreatment at 80 percent uptime.<\/p>\n
POET-DSM and other producers have identified the pretreatment stage in the past as the major chokepoint in commercial production. With a newly installed pretreatment system, designed by POET engineers, POET-DSM is now able to direct its attention to fine-tuning downstream processes and prepare for future licensing efforts that will spread this technology around the world.<\/p>\n
Reaction from the principals
\n\u201cOur algal oil, rich in both EPA and DHA, is our response to the industry\u2019s call for a sustainable and traceable source of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Veramaris will now enable our partners along the value chain to grow in a responsible way and meet the demand for healthy animal protein rich in both EPA and DHA for consumer health,\u201d says Kurmaly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to establish the industry standard. We are committed to delivering consistent high-quality of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Drawing on our expertise in supply chain and logistics, we are able to transition customers to Veramaris as smoothly as possible,\u201d says Beissmann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DSM and Evonik have given a name to their joint venture to produce omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA from natural marine algae for animal nutrition \u2014 something that\u2019s been traditionally been made from wild-caught fish oil. They\u2019re calling it Veramaris \u2014 and they\u2019re cutting out the middlefish, more or less, as Cellana CEO Martin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[7190,12575],"supplier":[2389,12205,43,4191,12050,14223],"class_list":["post-50356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-algae","tag-nutrition","supplier-amyris","supplier-dsm","supplier-evonik-industries-ag","supplier-poet-dsm","supplier-terravia","supplier-veramaris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50356"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=50356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}