Genomatica making progress on pretreatment technology for biochemicals

In California, Genomatica announced significant progress in harnessing cellulosic biomass for commercial production of high-quality chemicals rather than just fuels. Genomatica’s work sets the stage to increase the range of feedstock choices for making chemicals using biotechnology. Through advances in strain engineering and process design, Genomatica has developed clear guidance for biomass pretreatment technology developers to enable their technologies to work better with commercial bioprocesses for chemicals.

An extended series of trials by Genomatica confirmed major improvements in process performance and the qualification of multiple types of biomass sugars as suitable feedstock. The results advance the prospects for economical production of polymer-grade chemicals from biomass as pretreatment technologies mature toward reaching their cost targets.

As part of the current work, Genomatica developed a ‘sugar specification’ for biomass pretreatment technologies to produce sugars compatible with commercially-proven GENO™ processes; assessed ten technologies against that standard; and demonstrated that at least four can currently produce sugars suitable for commercial production of chemicals from a quality standpoint.