LANXESS, a Germany-based specialty chemicals business, has declared the formation of a strategic partnership with BioAmber, a Minneapolis, USA-based company, for the manufacture of phthalate-free plasticizers from biomaterials based on succinic acid from the year 2012. The companies will jointly develop and produce plasticizers as a sustainable substitute to formulations that contain phthalate with a safe profile cost-effectively.
LANXESS Office. Credit: LANXESS
LANXESS presently has production capabilities and a worldwide distribution network for phthalate-free plasticizers, which includes products such as Unimoll, Ultramoll, Adimoll and Mesamoll. The company has recently acquired Greensboro, North Carolina-based UNITEX to augment its production capability by 50,000 t and to add phthalate-free plasticizers such as trimellitates, citrates and benzoates to augment its portfolio. The phthalate-free plasticizers presently estimated to have a global market valued around €1.3 billion with an estimated annual growth level of 7%. The current legal initiatives and the restrictions against the use plasticizers with phthalate content in consumer products such as cables, food packaging and toys has increased the demand for phthalate-free plasticizers all over the world in markets such as Japan, Western Europe and North America and growth is also anticipated in Latin American markets.
BioAmber manufactures succinic acid utilizing renewable raw materials through a fermentation process that consumes relatively less quantity of energy than the manufacture of succinic acid by utilizing fossil fuels. The cost-effective process significantly has reduced the level of carbon generation. The company has plans to utilize sugarcane processing and agricultural waste as start up materials.
The other bio-sourcing initiatives of LANXESS include its usage of renewable raw materials to manufacture synthetic rubbers and it will manufacture the first ever bio-based EDPM rubber from its factory in Brazil. The raw material ethylene needed for the manufacture produced from sugarcane will be supplied by Braskem, a Brazilian company. Earlier, the company had invested in Gevo, a biofuel and biochemical producer from the USA, which utilizes renewable source such as corn for the manufacture of isobutanol. The company has plans to change the isobutanol into isobutene an important raw material utilized in the production of butyl rubber.