Unfortunately, the blog was not able to get any other information from both OPX Biotechnologies and Evonik Industries about their recent collaboration announcement.
The two companies said they have entered an agreement to jointly develop certain bio-based specialty chemicals which will use OPXBIO’s EDGE (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) technology. The companies did not disclose the specific types of chemicals or market applications the companies are looking to enter. OPXBIO said it will be able to market bio-based products resulting from the Evonik collaboration.
OPXBIO said both will contribute to the bioprocess technology development, which will accelerate their development timelines and reduce risk.
“It’s a multi-year agreement where the two parties will work together to develop bio-processes but each party will be able to commercialize products independently. Some of these products will be sustainable versions of products that all of us use everyday. That means we will have the potential to introduce these sustainable products in some attractive and sizeable markets.” – OPXBIO
OPXBIO is currently working on developing biobased acrylic acid in partnership with Dow Chemical but the company also mentioned on their website that it is working on its second product fatty acids using sugar feedstock or carbon dioxide and hydrogen generated from biomass, solid waste, industrial off-gas or natural gas.
It will make sense if Evonik and OPXBIO are working on specialty chemicals based on fatty acids since Evonik is a big player in the oleochemical-based specialty ingredients markets such as those used in household cleaning products, personal care, paints and coatings, etc.
Speaking of fatty acids, there were definitely some new technology developments that were talked about in this field during the ICIS Surfactants conference held last week. I will definitely need to revisit the fatty acids market with new players coming in such as Kiverdi, Ovation Biotech, Synthezyme, and familiar players working on this field such as Solazyme, Elevance Renewables, LS9 and of course OPXBIO.
