Landmark in biobased acrylic acid

Industrial Microbes (iMicrobes) has succeeded in scaling up production of biobased, high-purity acrylic acid from gram-scale to 20-kilogram production batches, while expanding fermenter volume from 2L to 1,500L reactors. This was done in collaboration with the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Lab (IBRL).

“By engineering our process with cost as an uncompromising design constraint, we've built a solution that can compete on economics and produce net-zero materials,” said Noah Helman, CEO and co-founder of iMicrobes. The company claims to have secured multiple Letters of Intent “from commercial partners across the value chain”.

iMicrobes described the latest advance as “a significant step toward decarbonising one of the chemical industry's most ubiquitous materials”. Acrylic acid is used in hundreds of applications, paint, superabsorbent polymers for diapers, adhesives for electronics and military optics. The market is projected to reach $18 billion by 2030. 

The company’s approach is based on ethanol as a renewable feedstock and its proprietary engineered microorganisms, combining multiple chemical reactions in a single reactor at mild temperatures. The purification method eliminates toxic solvents and complex extraction steps. It is also said to be applicable to acrylonitrile.