30 Hottest Companies in Renewable Chemicals candidate profile: OPX Biotechnologies
Company name: OPX Biotechnologies, Inc
Company description:
OPXBIO is a Colorado-based company using its proprietary, leading EDGE™ (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) technology to manufacture renewable bio-based chemicals and fuels that are lower cost, higher return and more sustainable than existing petroleum-based products.
In 18 months OPXBIO developed and piloted the microbe and bioprocess that will produce its first renewable chemical product – BioAcrylic – at 25 percent lower cost than petro-acrylic and with a 75 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Today’s petro-acrylic has an $8 billion global market in applications such as paints, adhesives, diapers and detergents. In 2011, OPXBIO began collaborating with The Dow Chemical Company to develop an industrial-scale process for producing BioAcrylic. OPXBIO anticipates full commercialization within three to five years.
The company’s second product is diesel fuel bio-processed from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded OPXBIO $6 million to support this development.
Year Founded: 2007
Chief Executive Officer: Charles (Chas) Eggert
Annual Revenues: Undisclosed
Major Investors: Mohr Davidow Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Altira Group, and X/Seed Capital.
Type of Processing Technology(ies)
The OPXBIO EDGE™ (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) technology platform enables rapid, rational, and robust optimization of microbes and bioprocesses to manufacture bioproducts with equivalent performance and improved sustainability at lower cost compared to petroleum-based alternatives. Using EDGE, OPXBIO identifies the genes that control microbial metabolism and then implement a comprehensive, rational genetic change strategy to simultaneously optimize microbial production pathways and vitality as well as overall bioprocess productivity. EDGE includes a first-of-its-kind, massively parallel, full genome search technology known as SCALEs. The EDGE technology is 1,000 to 5,000 times faster than conventional genetic engineering methods, meaning OPXBIO creates optimized microbes and bioprocesses within months rather than years. The bottom line: OPX EDGE makes possible biofuels and green chemistry products that have up to 50 percent lower cost than petroleum-based alternatives.
Products: (renewable chemicals (base, fine, speciality, or platform), or bio-based materials (plastics, polymers, monomers, resins, lubricants, inks, detergents, surfactants, rubbers, adhesives, hardeners, additives, or other materials)
OPXBIO’s first products are biobased acrylic acid and bio-diesel.
Feedstocks:
OPXBIO’s EDGE (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) technology platform allows the production of a number of biochemicals and biofuels from a range of feedstocks, such as sucrose from sugarcane, dextrose from corn, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen from syngas.
Product Cost:
OPXBIO intends to produce bioacrylic acid at $0.50/lb utilizing dextrose as its feedstock at a cost of $0.14/lb, which is less than the cost to produce petroleum-based acrylic which is $0.65 – 0.75/lb based on propylene prices in the range of $0.60 – 0.75/lb.
Offtake partners
Having achived the commercial bioprocess performance and cost goals for BioAcrylic in February 2011, OPXBIO entered into a joint development agreement with The Dow Chemical Company in April 2011 to work toward developing an industrial scale process for the production of bio-based acrylic acid from renewable feedstocks including corn and/or cane sugar. Assuming success of the companies’ work in developing an industrial scale process, OPXBIO and Dow will explore opportunities to commercialize bio-based acrylic acid.
3 Top Milestones for 2009‐10
– In February 2010, after just 18 months of pilot-scale development, OPXBIO demonstrated a manufacturing process for making performance-equivalent BioAcrylic that is lower cost and more sustainable than petroleum-based acrylic. OPXBIO’s pilot process achieved 79 percent production yield generating 70 grams-per-liter bioproduct concentration in 26-hour fermentations. In demonstration phase, OPXBIO will work toward its ultimate manufacturing cost target of $.50/lb using corn sugar and less than $.40/lb using cane sugar.
– OPXBIO was awarded the largest single grant from the second round of funding of the U.S. DOE ARPA-E program – Electofuels. OPXBIO teamed with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the U.S. Subsidiary of Johnson Matthey for the development of an energy dense liquid fuel (biodiesel) for transportation made biologically through fermentation of renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
– In April 2009, completed its Series B financing, raising $17.5 million to fund biofuels and green chemistry process development and demonstration.
3 Major Milestone Goals for 2011‐13
– Secure strategic partner for the commercialization of OPXBIO’s first product, BioAcrylic. (In April 2011, OPXBIO signed a joint development agreement with The Dow Chemical Company to develop an industrial-scale process for producing BioAcrylic. OPXBIO anticipates full commercialization within three to five years.)
– Initiate and complete demonstration scale production of BioAcrylic in 2011/12 and initiate the engineering and construction of the first commercial scale BioAcrylic production for start up in 2014.
– Complete the U.S. DOE ARPA-E program by developing a pilot scale microbe and bioprocess for the production of biodiesel via fermentation of hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Business Model:
The company is focused on developing microbes and bioprocesses that can cost effectively produce bio-based chemicals and fuels. Most of this work is done at the pilot scale (laboratory or bench scale) and demonstration scale (100,000’s of lbs per year). To develop the commercial scale facilities (100,000,000’s of lbs per year), the company intends to enter into strategic partnerships and joint ventures. The company intends to participate in the commercialization of all its products as a joint venture partner. OPXBIO will fund its own technology development and the initial development of new bio-based chemicals and fuels. This strategy allows OPXBIO to concentrate on its core competencies of microbe and bioprocess development and leverage the expertise of its partners for commercialization.
Competitive Edge(s):
OPXBIO’s first product will be BioAcrylic, which will be the chemical equivalent of petroleum-based acrylic. The current market for petroleum-based acrylic is currently $8 billion and is growing at 4% per year. OPXBIO intends to produce BioAcrylic at a lower cost ($0.50/lb) than petroleum-based ($0.65 – 0.75/lb today) and will commercialize BioAcrylic through joint venture with the first plant being operational in 2014. OPXBIO’s second product is biodiesel, which it is working on through a $6 million grant from the U.S. DOE ARPA-E program. The company is partnered with NREL and Johnson Matthey to biologically produce biodiesel through fermentation from carbon dioxide and renewable hydrogen.
OPXBIO’s proprietary EDGE™ technology allows it to optimize the microbe and bioprocess 1,000 to 5,000 times faster than traditional genome or microbial engineering, and it is extremely robust allowing OPXBIO to work on multiple products and utilize numerous feed stocks. The EDGE technology has allowed OPXBIO to engineer a microbe and bioprocess that achieved over 95% of its cost reduction goals in less than 18-months, versus typical approaches that can take 7 to 10 years.
Distribution, Research, Marketing or Production Partnerships or Alliances.
In April 2011, The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) and OPXBIO signed a joint development agreement to work toward developing an industrial scale process for the production of bio-based acrylic acid from renewable feedstocks including corn and/or cane sugar. Dow and OPXBIO will work to develop a commercially robust process route that uses sugar as a feedstock (instead of propylene) to produce 3-Hydroxypropionic Acid (3-HP) to convert into acrylic acid.
If joint development work between Dow and OPXBIO is successful in developing an industrial scale process, the companies will explore opportunities to work together to commercialize bio-based acrylic acid.
Stage: Demonstration scale
Projected production volume for 2011: N/A
Category: Fuels
