DSM Bio-based Products & Services: Biofuels Digest’s 2015 5-Minute Guide

February 9, 2015 |

5-Minute-Guide-logoRoyal DSM is a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. By connecting its unique competences in Life Sciences and Materials Sciences, DSM is driving economic prosperity, environmental progress and social advances to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials. DSM’s 24,000+ employees deliver annual net sales of about €9.6 billion.

DSM is a frontrunner in creating bio-based and environmentally sound solutions within its Bio-based Products and Services unit. The company focuses on enabling technology in biofuels and bio-based chemicals and materials made from renewable biomass, and demonstrating the commercial viability of these technologies in collaboration with strategic partners along the value chain.

Rankings:

50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy: #9, 2014/15

30 Hottest Companies in Biobased Chemicals & Materials: #6, 2014/15

Biofuels Digest Awards:

2013-14: Industrial Symbiosis — POET-DSM

The Situation

It’s a big year coming up for POET=DSM. Last September, POET-DSM’s 20 million gallon cellulosic ethanol plant opened with hoopla, and heartfelt messages about the spirit of innovation, and a time for technology change and policy firmness. Now, it’s time to generate licenses with external partners, get plant number 1 up to steady state operations, and expand to other locations within the POET network of plants.

It’s a traditional corn ethanol plant with a cellulosic bolt-on, that boosts overall capacity by 20 percent. Known as Project LIBERTY, it will produce 20 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel per year – later ramping up to 25 million gallons – from corn cobs, leaves, husk and some stalk.

When operational, the facility will accept 300,000 tons of biomass which, according to POET’s released figures, can be sustainably harvested from a 468 square-mile area. By contrast, a 100 Mgy corn ethanol plant can be sustained by a 325 square-mile area using POET’s process.

The two partners will produce cellulosic ethanol from corn crop residue using enzymatic hydrolysis followed by fermentation. The initial capacity is expected to be 20 million gallons in the first year, growing to approximately 25 million gallons per year.

Where? Think China, though timing will depend on Chinese regulations, said Chief Executive Feike Sijbesma to China Daily on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Tianjin. “With our first factory in the US making it possible, we hope to bring it to China, too,” continued Sijbesma. He said that the technology will have “phenomenal” market potential in China, which is eager to reduce its dependence on traditional energy, and added that hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake if the technology is applied successfully in the Chinese market.

Business Model:

DSM focuses on enabling technology in biofuels and bio-based chemicals and materials made from renewable biomass, and demonstrating the commercial viability of these technologies in collaboration with strategic partners along the value chain.

Primarily, they see their future in the development and supply of high-value knowledge, ingredients and expertise in the field of bio-conversion technology – licensed out to bio-based entrepreneurs, to access and convert biomass in the most commercial and sustainable ways possible, rather than as an owner/operator of manufacturing facilities.

Competitive Edge:

  • DSM is the first to offer both enzyme and yeast solutions for ethanol production from ligno-cellulosic feedstock, with a >100 year track record in biotechnology and chemo-catalytic routes.
  • DSM is an early mover in this industry, prepared to take entrepreneurial risk.
  • DSM is focused on food/feed, as well as on fuel/energy/chemicals.

Research, or Manufacturing Partnerships or Alliances. 

  • With Roquette Frères (France) in JV Reverdia® for development and production of Succinic Acid, and licensing technology thereof.
  • With POET(Sioux Falls, SD) in POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels for development and production of cellulosic ethanol, and licensing technology thereof.
  • With BP Biofuels: partnership to develop a process for ‘sugar-to-diesel’ conversion technology (fermentative route).

Major Investors

DSM is a publicly listed company at the NYSE Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (ticker symbol DSM KON).

The following shareholders had disclosed that they owned between 3 percent and 10 percent of DSM’s total share capital on 1 January 2014:

  • ASR Nederland B.V.
  •  Rabobank Nederland Participatie B.V.
  • Delta Lloyd N.V.
  • Capital Research and Management Company and Capital Group International
  • Blackrock, Inc.

Top Past Milestones

In December 2014, the Finnish government granted EUR30 million to Bioethanol Finland to support the development of the company’s 90 million liter per year cellulosic ethanol plant. The facility will produce fuel from straw. Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels is collaborating with the plant to utilize the company’s technology.

In Octber 2014, Reverdia announced that it is licensing its Biosuccinium succinic acid, a building block for the production of polymers and chemicals including PBS, resins for paints and coatings, phthalate-free plasticizers and polyester polyols for polyurethanes. Reverdia’s low pH yeast fermentation process has best-in-class carbon performance as demonstrated by the published cradle-to-gate LCA by the University of Utrecht. The acid is the first non-fossil feedstock-derived chemical building block that allows customers in the chemical industry to choose a bio-based alternative with a lower eco-footprint for a broad range of applications, from packaging to footwear.

2013 – Q4: DSM and DONG Energy in Denmark demonstrated the combined fermentation of C6 and C5 sugars from wheat straw at industrial scale, resulting in a 40% yield increase per ton of biomass.

2013 – Q4: DSM is recognized by industry experts and peers in the top 10 in both the Biofuels Digest’s 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy and 30 Hottest Companies in Biobased Chemicals & Materials polls – both major movements upward versus the company’s 2012 positions.

2012 – Q4: Technical completion & start up bio-succinic acid plant Reverdia in Cassano, Italy.

2012: Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, and POET, LLC, one of the world’s largest ethanol producers, create POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels, joining forces to commercially demonstrate and license cellulosic bio-ethanol. DSM and POET each hold a 50% share in the joint venture, which will be headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The initial capital expenditure by the joint venture in Project Liberty would amount to about $250 million, the partenrs said at the time.

2011: DSM strengthens its leadership position in advanced yeast and enzyme technologies for cellulosic biofuels by the acquisition of C5 Yeast Company from Royal Cosun, becoming the first industrial biotechnology company to offer both enzyme and yeast fermentation technologies.

Future Milestones

2015: More sales of technology licenses by joint ventures POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels and Reverdia.

Website

Bio-based Products & Services website

Category: 5-Minute Guide

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