The company, which is a joint venture between US-based DNP Green Technology and France’s Agro-industrie Recherches et Développements, says the succinic acid produced by the plant offers higher purity than its petroleum-derived equivalent. It has the added benefit of consuming CO2 in the production process.
The industrial scale plant, based in Pomacle, near Reims, France, has an initial annual capacity of 2,000 metric tons. Succinic acid is used in a wide range of processes and applications in the chemicals and pharmaceuticals industry.
Bioamber will sell the bio-based succinic acid to a variety of customers, building market demand as it negotiates the sale of licenses for others to operate large-scale succinic acid plants.
“Since 2007, we have sampled over 50 companies in a number of applications including plastics, polyurethanes, polyesters, plasticisers, solvents and de-icers,” said Patrick Piot, General Manager of Bioamber. “This production plant is a major milestone in our development. Renewable succinic acid is no longer an R&D programme; it is a commercial reality for the chemical industry.”
Agro-Industrie Recherches et Développements is the R&D centre of an agro-industrial consortium based in Champagne-Ardenne, France, with a brief to add value to, and find new outlets for, agricultural crops. DNP Green Technology, based in Princeton, New Jersey, is a private company that specialises in renewable chemicals.
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
