The blog is wondering what’s the potential market for bio-based products and chemicals in Russia given that DSM and Purac just separately announced bio-based activities within the region.
Dutch biobased chemicals firm Purac briefly stated that it has signed a cooperation agreement with technology firm ROTEC, a subsidiary of private Russian financial firm RENOVA Group, to study the feasibility of an economical PLA bioplastic supply chain in Russia.
ROTEC will focus on a location analysis related to the availability of optimal agricultural land and feedstocks, potential production locations, and research of the Russian market. Purac will focus on the analysis of the optimal available feedstock-to-PLA (polylactic acid) technologies and defining the business case.
Dutch chemical firm DSM, meanwhile, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a strategic partnership with Rostekhnologii (Rostec), a Russian State Corporation, to explore potential cooperation in the conversion of cellulosic biomass from forestry and agriculture to fermentable sugars for the production of biofuels, biobased chemicals, bioenergy and organic acids.
DSM and Rostec will also explore the area of enhancing the performance of Russia’s fast expanding optical fiber networks using DSM’s UV-curable resins optical fiber materials. In addition, DSM Dyneema and RT-Chemcomposite, part of Rostec, will investigate a joint venture deal for the production and sales of Uni-Directional products based on Ultra High Molecular Weight PE-fibers in Russia using DSM’s technology for life protection applications.
I have no idea what Uni-Directional products are.
According to DSM, its main business areas in Russia include food and feed ingredients, pharmaceutical intermediates, biotechnology, fiber materials, resins and engineering plastics.
By the way, I saw this presentation (via googling) about a planned bioeconomy in Russia by 2030 that could be worthwhile looking into. In terms of natural resources, it seems Russia has plenty of forestry products to tap into; fertile, arable land; plenty of water resources, and of course, biomass.
[slideshare id=18650844&doc=russiabioeconomy-130411231310-phpapp01]
