The 40 Hottest Technologies of 2018 – as voting gets underway, the nominees in depth

Amyris Semisynthetic Vitamin E, combining the power of synthetic biology with classical chemical synthesis.  

What does it do, how does it work, who is it aimed at?

Starting from a complex biologically-produced precursor, they have created a new process for the cost-effective production of a key vitamin for animal nutrition. This technology produces a low-cost, high quality, sustainable route to a high-demand vitamin. By volume, the majority of vitamin E produced is used in animal feed as it is an essential vitamin for animal health and growth. Amyris makes farnesene, a precursor to vitamin E, using a highly engineered yeast strain that transforms sugar into a single stereoisomer of farnesene at the kiloton scale.   Their partner, the Chinese vitamin producer Nenter, then uses a simplified chemical process to convert farnesene to vitamin E. A critical attribute of  Their Vitamin E and all Amyris products is  Their promise of No Compromise-   Their technology enables us to make products with best in class performance, high purity, competitive cost, and sustainable source – sugarcane.

Competitively, what gives this technology an edge?

Semisynthetic vitamin E is a step-change in process simplicity and cost over the traditional chemical synthesis technology.  By starting from the 15-carbon precursor, farnesene, the semisynthetic process eliminates as many as half of the chemical conversion steps, reducing wasteful byproducts, and reducing cost by as much as 35%.  This is a disruptive technology in the vitamin business, and a paradigm for the future production of vitamins in a more sustainable fashion. In the end, it comes down to commercial results. For commercialization, they partnered with DSM, the world s largest vitamin producer – a clear indicator that  Their products meet regulatory,  performance and cost expectations for the global vitamin market.

What stage of development is this technology at right now?

DSM is using the product in vitamin pre-mixes sold into the animal feed market.

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