Canadian government awards funding to BioAmber sugar-based nylon research
In Canada, five projects have been selected for funding in Round 8 of the Genomic Applications Partnership Program, for a total investment of C$24.5 million ($8.1 million from Genome Canada and $16.4 million from co-funding partners including provincial governments, private sector and not-for-profit organizations). These project include a project led by Krishna Mahadevan (BioZone) & Kit Lau (BioAmber).
BioAmber, an industrial biotechnology company located in Sarnia, Ontario, is successfully manufacturing succinic acid (used in producing polymers, resins and solvents) from sugar streams, which materially decreases the carbon footprint. These same principles could be used to develop a process for the manufacture of adipic acid, used in producing nylon.
A genomics-driven bioengineering approach has been developed by the University of Toronto’s team at BioZone led by Dr. Radhakrishnan Mahadevan to convert sugars into value-added industrial chemicals such as adipic acid. Adipic acid alone has a market of 2.2 million tonnes; chemicals that can be derived from it have similarly large markets. As an industrial biotechnology company, BioAmber is positioned to apply the results from this research program to the development of next generation chemicals.
Category: Fuels
