BioAmber Inc (fka BIOAQ)

[toncatmad]

Here are a few more interesting tidbits about Bioamber’s demise and subsequent liquidation sale to LCYB.


"Likewise, the Sarnia 
plant of BioAmber was bought by Taiwan-based LYC 
Company. Later, they ramped up the plant operations 
from 8000 MT/year to 18,000 MT/year in 2021 and are 
expected to operate the plant at full capacity in the near 
future [195]. BioAmber also shared its technical know- 
how with Taiwan-based PTT–MCC, a JV of Mitsubishi 
and PTT–PLC. They are using BioAmber’s SA fermen- 
tation technology for PBS production. Presently, their 
20,000 MT/year polybutylene succinate plant in Rayong, 
Thailand, is using BioAmber’s fermentation technology 
to produce bio-based SA, which is the starting feedstock 
to produce this biopolymer." 



"In 2018, BioAm- 
ber declared bank- 
ruptcy 
• LCY Biosciences 
Inc, a Taiwan-based 
company acquired 
this plant in 2018 
and ramped up its 
production capacity 
from 8000 to 18,000 
metric tons (MT) 


"BioAmber, 
initially a JV between New York-based Diversified Natu- 
ral Products (DNP) and France-based ARD, was another 
company that began largest commercial bio-SA produc- 
tion in 2015, with proprietary acid-tolerant yeast, exclu- 
sively licensed by Cargill. Jointly with Mitsui Japan, they 
chose Canada’s Sarnia for its commercial operation, but 
unfortunately they had to file for bankruptcy in 2018. The 
failure of BioAmber’s Sarnia plant was a culmination of 
several factors; for instance, the actual cost of the SA was 
ten times higher than the predicted cost, the market of 
SA was overestimated, and falling prices of petrochemi- 
cal-based SA, the over-reliance on licensed technologies 
rather than expanding their patent portfolio and not run- 
ning the plant to its full capacity, as reviewed by Li and 
Mupondwa [168]." 



"The lesson must be 
learned from the failure of BioAmber’s Sarnia plant, 
which was primarly due to the overshooting of SA pro- 
duction cost by ten times the estimated manufactur- 
ing cost"