The
Michigan Biotechnology Institute (MBI) recently announced a successful pilot campaign for the BioAcrylic process. This process was created by OPX Biotechnologies, and the successful scale-up of the fermentation process was achieved at the 3,000 liter scale. This brings the renewable alternative to petroleum-based acrylic acid closer to being used in products such as diapers, detergents, paints and adhesives. A $10 billion market exists for the new biotechnology.
“The scale-up from bench-scale to 3000 liter scale can be fraught with technical risks,” says MBI President and CEO Bobby Bringi. “The fact that these risks have been addressed successfully provides confidence to OPXBIO and its partners and other investors to accelerate their efforts to drive BioAcrylic to commercialization.”
MBI helps companies advance their technologies from early stage toward commercialization. OPXBIO is partnering with Dow Chemical Company to bring BioAcrylic to the market. According to Bringi, MBI’s success validates the local company as a go-to place to access world class expertise and facilities for bioprocess derisking and scale-up.
“We are delighted that a cutting edge innovative company like OPX chose to collaborate with us,” he says, “and we are equally satisfied with the outcome.”
The next step for OPXBIO is to continue working on other aspects of commercialization, such as demonstrating that BioAcrylic is equivalent in quality to petro-based acrylic.
MBI has recently increased its workforce by approximately 20 percent, with 37 people now employed at the firm. According to Bringi, many other projects are currently in the derisking pipeline at MBI.
While more work needs to be done, today’s milestone gives OPXBIO and its partners the momentum to continue to drive toward progress.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.