NatureWorks + BioAmber = AmberWorks
Two leading bio-based materials makers are joining forces. NatureWorks, which is owned by Cargill and makes polylactic acid (PLA) plastic from corn sugar, has formed a joint venture with BioAmber, a bio-based chemicals company focused on making succinic acid from sugar.
PLA (pictured) joins PBS in a bioplastic venture. Credit: NatureWorks
The venture plans to blend PLA with polybutylene succinate (PBS) into a compound that would be suitable for food service ware applications that are made from thermoforming and injection molding.
Yet at this point, BioAmber – which filed for an IPO in November – has not completed a commercial-scale production plant for bio-succinic acid. For now, Bioamber’s succinic acid is produced from wheat-derived glucose at a demonstration-scale facility in Pomacle, France.
BioAmber has controlled intellectual property for making PBS from renewable sources for a while now. In 2010 DNP Green Technology – which is now BioAmber – bought a Philadelphia company called Sinoven Biopolymers that developed a modified PBS that can use renewable ingredients.
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