It was announced today that Cargill and Novozymes will jointly develop technology to produce acrylic acid using the fermentation of a renewable resource (glucose or other readily-available carbohydrate sources). The project is supported by $1.5 mio matching funds from the US Department of Energy.
The work involves the fermentation of sugar in the presence of a bio-engineered micro-organism to produce 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HPA). The 3-HPA can then be converted into a range of valuable chemicals including acrylic acid, which is a valuable, high volume chemical used in plastics, fiber, coatings, paints, inks and super-absorbent diapers (disposable nappies). In paper chemicals it finds use in water soluble polymers, flocculants, retention aids, coating binders etc
Currently, most acrylic acid is produced in the petrochemical industry by oxidation of propylene, a C-3 fraction from the refining of crude oil. More than half of the produced acrylic acid is used to make glacial acrylic acid for superabsorbents used in products such as diapers. This new approach from Cargill and Novozymes will not rely on crude oil but will move into the hotly debated area of using what is potentially a food source to generate chemicals (using food materials to generate bio-fuels is where most of the current debate exists as although it is an option to move away from the reliance on non-renewable crude oil, there has been an impact on world food prices).
