Biochemical benchmark BioAmber helps biorefining industry take a big step forward BIOMASS CANADIAN Volume 15 No. 4 Editor -Andrew Macklin (905) 713-4358 [email protected] Editor -Andrew Snook (905) 713-4301 [email protected] Contributors -Gordon Murray, Jen Hedrick Editorial Director/Group Publisher -Scott Jamieson (519) 429-3966 ext 244 [email protected] Market Production Manager Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] National Sales Manager Ross Anderson Ph: (519) 429-5188 Fax: (519) 429-3094 [email protected] Quebec Sales Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] Western Sales Manager Tim Shaddick [email protected] Ph: (604) 264-1158 Fax: (604) 264-1367 Director of Soul/COO -Sue Fredericks Media Designer -Emily Sun Canadian Biomass is published six times a year: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Published and printed by Annex Business Media. Printed in Canada ISSN 2290-3097 Circulation Carol Nixon e-mail: [email protected] P.O. Box 51058 Pincourt, QC J7V 9T3 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $49.50; 2 Yr $87.50; 3 Yr $118.50 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $60 US; Foreign – 1 Yr $77 US Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’ s written permission ©2015 Annex Business Media, All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’ s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca T he grand opening of the BioAmber bio-succinic acid facility in Sarnia, Ont. was an important benchmark for Canada’s biochemical and biorefining industry. The company, which chose Sarnia over approx-imately 100 other sites throughout North America, created the largest succinic acid production plant in the world. What made the pro-posed project so solid in the beginning was the fact that it was a rare business opportunity where a bio-based version of a chemi-cal was actually cheaper to build than the petroleum-based version. But that was when oil was around $100 per barrel and gas prices in the Greater To-ronto Area hovered around the $1.40/litre mark. Now oil sits in the $45 per barrel range and gas near $1.00/litre. Certainly, the business model for BioAmber has seen some wild fluctuations since the project got off the ground just a few years ago. Granted, all businesses have been im-pacted in one way or another by the vol-atility in the oil and gas sector. But when a project that costs over $140 million to build is reliant on a model that has oil prices at or near the peak conditions of a few years ago, the impact is even greater. It would have been easy for BioAmber to pack its bags and shutter the project until the oil and gas market once again settles in at a higher price point. But they didn’t. They kept building, and that de-serves our recognition. BioAmber has forged ahead and, in August of this year, officially opened its bio-succinic acid facility. The acid, which is transported in a crystalline form, is used as a building block chemical with applica-tions in the making of plastics, automo-tive parts, electronics and lubricants just to name a few. The bio-production of the product is based on fermentation tech-nology and, at the end of the day, is arguably a better quality succinic than its pe-troleum-based counterpart. Then there is the envi-ronmental impact to take into account. According to information provided by the company, the production of bio-succinic acid versus pe-troleum-based succinic acid, at the capacity volume that BioAmber will produce in Sarnia, produces 210,000 tons less greenhouse gas emissions or the equivalent of taking 45,000 cars off the road. On the business side, the company had already established take-or-pay con-tracts for over 50 per cent of its produc-tion, and additional supply agreements will cover the majority of the outstanding production volumes. The BioAmber model, from the finan-cial structure utilizing government fund-ing to the establishment of a solid cus-tomer base before the first crystal of acid is produced, has become the example for other biochemical and biorefining oper-ations to follow. Companies in Canada looking to commercialize their products at a national or global scale now have the example they need to build a successful gameplan for moving forward with ex-panded operations. BioAmber has done the legwork on this one, and now others can, in theory, follow their lead. • 4 Canadian BIOMASS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
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