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Focal Topic Supplement

JUNE 2018

MAGAZINE

Biotechnology or chemistry?

or the longest time this was a question of principle when it came to producing

fne chemicals, polymers or fuel. In the bioeconomy the best of both worlds

is used – anything goes if it is technically feasible. To bring a process from

feasibility to reality takes a lot of technical equipment and at ACHEMA

2018 you can fnd it all. From laboratory furnishings to huge stainless steel tanks

to engineering companies who assemble the parts, ACHEMA brings technology

into bio-technology. To visit every one of the 150+ companies who have assigned

themselves to the focal topic would mean a tour through almost every hall. Just

follow the ‘Biotech for Chemistry’ icon on the hall foor, which marks the stand of

every associated exhibitor. If you accept this challenge, I salute you.

Give your feet a break every now and then, too and lend an ear to the extensive

congress programme. Room ‘Harmonie 3’ in CMF is the place to be on Tuesday and

Wednesday to listen to talks that go with the focal topic.

This magazine is your guide to ACHEMA 2018 focal topic ‘Biotech for Chemistry’ so

make good use of it and enjoy the trade show.

Dr. Thomas Scheuring

CEO DECHEMA Ausstellungs-Gmb

WELCOME

Dr. Thomas Scheuring,

© DECHEMA

Follow the focal topic: #BioForChem

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Amsterdam +310 613 711 239 | Glasgow +44 141 570 0029

IN THIS ISSUE

CORE TEAM

Editor’s note

4 Looking for the bio-based

holy grail

6 #BioForChem

8 Find your way

10 Follow the vitamin journey

12 Q&A with Adeel Aslam of

Bouygues

14 Insight from Sugimat

Editor | Iain Robertson

Partnerships | Susan Robertson

Digital | Ryan McFadyen

Design | Blair Carrick

News & Features | Carlotta De Toni

Operations | Gillian Greig

This magazine was produced as a special edition for the focal topic, ‘Biotech for Chemistry’ at ACHEMA 2018 in partnership with the organisers at DECHEMA Society for

Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. This edition is printed on carefully sourced paper from sustainable sources. We ensure the highest quality standards at all times

however, we cannot accept responsibility for efects from any unlikely errors or omissions. All material is copyright, however we are happy for you to share this edition online

and you’ll fnd digital versions of our recent publications on our website. If you would like to fnd out more about working with us, or showcasing your business through our

channels, we would love to hear from you.

elcome to ACHEMA’s ofcial Biotech for Chemistry

focal topic supplement.

Dr Marlene Etschmann, ACHEMA communications,

labelled us the ‘perfect match’ to produce it.

“Always on the forefront of technology and covering a

broad range of topics, the magazine is just like our trade

show,” she said.

And the feeling is mutual. The organisers have been great

to work with - it is easy to see why they are behind one of the

biggest and most impactful trade shows on the planet.

The triennial exhibition for the process industries will provide

a great platform for the best of the global biotechnology

industry this week – something Innovators Magazine is

passionate about.

Enjoy your time in Frankfurt.

Iain

Robertson

Editor

etroleum is a limited resource and

if we keep using it global warming

will accelerate. Since this realization

has fltered in the quest for alternatives has

begun. Shale gas and natural gas are only

pseudo solutions as those supplies are fnite

and fossil, too. The only way out are fossil-free

resources, bio-based ones that is. Industry and

academia are developing bio-based processes

fervently and with the prerequisite that the

products must not be more expensive than

conventional ones. However, in late 2014 the

price for crude oil dropped below $70 per

barrel and has not recovered as of early 2018.

The prices for the chemical building blocks

ethylene and propylene have roughly halved

from 2014 to 2016. The dismal prospects have

made big players such as Braskem and Dow

Chemical shelve their bio-based propylene

development. Thyssen Krupp Industrial

Solutions sent its multipurpose plant for

organic acid fermentation in Leuna, Germany

into hibernation in 2015 until better times,

selling it subsequently to EW Biotech.

All around the world times are hard for bio-

based chemicals as they can rarely compete

with their fossil counterparts pricewise and

cannot even play a trump card in the matter of

climate change. Of the total energy demand

worldwide the chemical industry uses 30%

and it is responsible for 20% of the industrial

greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, the

amount of ‘C’ that ends up as part of products is

marginal. Consequently energy consumption

is the main area to target if CO2 emissions shall

be signifcantly reduced. Nonetheless, support

for bio-based products is frmly anchored in

the policies of many governments and the

targets they have set are ambitious.

Bio-based policies in Europe

and the US

There is consensus in Europe and the US

that guidelines on how to switch over to a

bio-based economy need to be stipulated;

the approaches to implement the change

are quite diferent regarding the strategies

of the diferent governments and the

legislative conditions.

The European Union has agreed upon

a 40% greenhouse gas reduction by 2030

(compared to 1990 levels)

at least a 27% share of renewable energy

consumption

at least 27% energy savings.

More explicitly 20% of the chemicals and

materials in the European Union will be bio-

based by 2020, rising to a quarter in 2030.

In the United States the Biomass R&D board

envisions a billion ton bioeconomy. By 2030

one billion tons of biomass is projected to be

sustainably produced. It is supposed to be the

base for emerging bioproducts industries, but

mainly to target “a potential 30% penetration

of biomass carbon into US transportation

market by 2030”. Plainly spoken this means

biofuel in the forms of biodiesel or the

addition of ethanol to gasoline.

Looking for the bio-based ‘holy grail’ – will the result in

Europe be the same as in the US?

What’s the

new normal?

ACHEMA TREND REPORT

Which is the most promising bio-

based chemical?

When new processes and products enter the

market it’s human nature to ask who does

best in the competition. For the uninvolved

observer it may be simple curiosity, for

investors it’s a matter of money – and lots of

it - to decide whether to jump on the bio-

based bandwagon and which car to take.

In 2004 the US National Renewable

Energy Laboratory (NREL) defned 12 top

value added chemicals from biomass. These

products seemed to be the most promising

at that time but a lot has happened in

the last decade. In the follow-up report of

2016 there is again a list of 12 promising

chemicals. The overlap between the two lists

is moderate and consists of glycerol, succinic

acid and para-xylene.

The European Union, too, strives to

identify the chemicals that are predestined

to be made from biomass. RoadToBio is an

EU-funded project set up in mid-2017 to

deliver a roadmap by 2019 illustrating the

‘sweet spots’ for Europe’s chemical industry.

In a frst step, a long list with 120 chemicals

at technology readiness level (TRL) of 6 or

higher was compiled that show potential for

the chemicals market. In parallel, the value

chains of 500 petrochemicals were analyzed

from a purely technical point of view. 85%

of the value chains ofer entry points where

a petrochemical could be replaced by a

bio-based one. The chemicals that were

cited most often as replaceable are ethylene,

propylene and methanol.

RoadToBio analyzes the interface

between bio-based and petro-

chemical

The NREL report and RoadToBio project

have in common that they both examine

products with a TRL 6 or higher meaning

that the production process has reached

pilot scale. Furthermore the studies so

far both work along the value chain of

petrochemical products. A typical product

tree starts from a low value feedstock like

ethylene and branches into many higher

value intermediates like polyethylene,

ethylene oxide and vinyl acetate. The

intermediates again have multiple uses;

vinyl acetate can end up in an adhesive as

well as in paint.

Whenever a chemical can in theory be

replaced by a bio-based one this is called

an entry point in RoadToBio. Overall, of

the 120 chemicals identifed in the long

list for further analysis, only 49 have entry

points into existing petrochemical value

chains, while the other 71 are dedicated

chemicals. Dedicated chemicals are those

which have no fossil-based counterpart and

thus ofer unique production routes. Lactic

acid as base for the bioplastic polylactic

acid is a prominent example for a dedicated

chemical. In contrast, drop-in chemicals are

bio-based versions of existing chemicals.

A third group, smart drop-in chemicals,

are also chemically identical to their fossil

counterparts but provide an additional

advantage compared to ordinary drop-ins.

This can be a faster and simpler production

pathway or less energy use.

In the NREL analysis some products such

as ethylene and methanol were consciously

excluded as they would compete with

chemicals derived from natural gas, which

is not realistic. It remains to be seen if

RoadToBio researchers take a similar route

in the next step, in which they will analyze

drop-ins and dedicated chemicals for their

market potential.

Four chemicals that appear on both

the top 12 NREL list and among the 49

RoadToBio chemicals with potential entry

points are succinic acid, para-xylene,

1,2-propanediol and glycerol.

And the winner is…cooperation

If predicting the success of a bio-based

product were easy governments worldwide

would not employ legions of scientists

and commission studies to do so. Only

time will tell which of the cited bio-based

chemicals will become a blockbuster

and whether RoadToBio will come to

the same conclusions as the NREL study.

The petroleum price and governmental

interventions are only two of the more

unpredictable factors in the multi-

parameter matrix which determines the

economic success of a bio-based product.

One of the commonalities of the four

chemicals discussed above is that they are

drop-in chemicals. They are chemically

identical to their fossil counterparts and

for further processing it doesn’t play a role

whether they are made from petroleum or

from biomass.

On closer inspection the production

processes of promising drop-in chemicals

are an eclectic mix of chemical and

biotechnological. Fermentation steps are

followed by chemical transformations;

whether a metal catalyst or an enzyme is

used is just a matter of what works best.

Anything goes as long it is technically

feasible. A process is no longer either

chemical or biotechnological, cooperation

is the new normal. Winners in the quest for

the holy grail of bio-based chemicals are

defnitely the scientists from all the diferent

disciplines involved. They have learned to

look past the boundaries of their own sector

and gained a whole new perspective.

ACHEMA 2018 focal topic “Biotech for

Chemistry” puts the spotlight on the fact

that biotechnology and chemistry are

growing together. The congress program

features presentations about novel

processes and products while the exhibition

shows equipment of every scale for both

biotechnological and chemical techniques.

ACHEMA TREND REPORT

Focal topic presentations

Room: CMF - Harmonie 3

Tuesday

12.06.2018,

15:00 – 17:30

Biotech for chemistry -

Developing processes

Tuesday

12.06.2018,

10:30 – 13:00

Biotech for chemistry -

Organisms

Your guide to when and

where it’s all happening

A High-Throughput Single Cell

Screening for Expression and

Secretion of

Recombinant Proteins in E. coli

J. Eichmann, University of

Applied Sciences Mittelhessen

(THM), Giessen, Germany

Enhanced production of

rhamnolipid biosurfactant

by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

microorganism in fed batch

cultivation

B. Mokhtarani, Chemistry and

Chemical Engineering Research

Cente of Iran, Teheran, Iran

Use of a Aspergillus terreus

fructosyltransferase expressed

within Kluyveromyces lactis

for the production of

short-chain

fructooligosaccharides

J. Burghardt, University of

Applied Sciences Mittelhessen,

Giessen, Germany

Lipase catalyzed solvent

free esterifcation

Y. Satyawali,

Vito NV, Belgium

Production of the microbial

glycolipid mannosyleryth-

ritol lipid from renewable

resources

A. Beck, University of Stuttgart

c/o Fraunhofer IGB, Germany

Photobiocatalytic whole-cell

biotransformations

R. Kourist, Technical University

Graz, Austria

Evaluation of Streptomyces

sanyensis and Micromono-

spora chalcea as biological

control agents against

Collaria scenica

J. Parra Melo, Universidad

Nacional de Colombia,

Bogota, Columbia

Process optimization for the

production of cellobiose

lipids from lignocellulose

hydrolysates

A. Oraby, University of

Stuttgart, Germany

11:00

11:30

15:00

16:00

12:00

12:30

16:30

17:00

10:30

11:00

12:30

13:00

11:30

12:00

16:00

16:30

Wednesday

13.06.2018,

10:30 – 13:00

Biotech for chemistry -

Developing processes II

Wednesday

13.06.2018,

15:00 – 17:30

Biotech for chemistry

- Methane, metals and

metabolites

Design of experiment (DoE)

supported upstream

optimization and column-free

downstream strategy enables

automation of recombinant

production process for an

antimicrobial peptide in

Escherichia coli

M. Joachim, University of

Applied Sciences Mittelhessen,

Giessen, Germany

Process development and

process intensifcation for the

production of polyketides

and non-ribosomal peptides

via multifunctional

mega-synthases

A. Oestreich, University of

Applied Sciences Mittelhessen,

Giessen, Germany

Process development for

cultivation of planctomycetes

as new bioresource

O. Kruppa, University of

Applied Sciences Mittelhessen,

Giessen, Germany

(-)-Menthol-based DES as

substrate and solvent for the

lipase-catalysed

esterifcation of (-)-menthol

M. Hümmer, DECHE-

MA-Forschungsinstitut, Frank-

furt am Main, Germany

Biological Metal Recovery

from Ores and Wastes

W. Keller, EKATO Rühr- und

Mischtechnik GmbH,

Schopfheim, Germany

Bioprocess Platform Design

for Kefran Production: From

Tibet to Tablet

H. Elenshasy, Universiti

Teknologi Malaysia

Extraction of Bioactive

Solutes with Non-Ionic Deep

Eutectic Solvents

Y. Marcus, Hebrew University of

Jerusalem, Israel

Infuence of diferent process

parameters on microbial

synthesis of Cellobiose- and

Mannosylerythritollipids

with Ustilago maydis

F. Haitz, Fraunhofer Institute for

Interfacial Engineering and Bio-

technology, Stuttgart, Germany

Nursery supplementation

with Narigenin-Chalcone

afects long term wood for-

mation, gene expression and

metabolite composition of

full grown Eucalyptus trees

J. Lepikson-Neto, Instituto Senai

de Inovação em Biomassa, Três

Lagoas, Brasil

Xylonic acid from hemicellu-

lose hydrolysates

T. Hahn, Fraunhofer IGB,

Stuttgart, Germany

Development and simulation

of bioreactors for the

conversion of methane into

value added products

M. Stier, Universität Stuttgart,

IGVP / Fraunhofer IGB,

Stuttgart, Germany

10:30

11:00

12:30

13:00

16:30

17:00

11:30

12:00

15:30

16:00

17:00

17:30

12:00

12:30

16:00

16:30

11:00

11:30

15:00

15:30

17:00

17:30

8

Company

VOGELBUSCH Biocommodities GmbH

Location

Hall 9.2 D9

ith longstanding experience

in industrial biotechnology,

we bridge the gap between

biology, chemistry and engineering

science. Share our unique expertise

in the implementation of microbial

production techniques and

downstream processes.

www.vogelbusch-biocommodities.com

Company

SUGIMAT

Location

Hall 5.1 D73

ith 40 years of experience,

Sugimat is a specialist in the

design, manufacture, and

commissioning of energy saving and

generation solutions with thermal-oil

boilers using fossil fuels, biomass,

and waste.

www.sugimat.com

Vitamin B2: better

the biotech way

10

f yes, some milligrams of vitamin B2 or

ribofavin were fzzing in it to make your

skin soft and your hair shiny. Furthermore,

the vitamin makes for the sunny yellow of

the healthy water.

The ribofavin example illustrates

how industrial biotechnology changes

production processes in the chemical

industry. For the sake of the environment,

but for the sake of the manufacturers as well

- ‘green’ processes only have a chance if they

are economically competitive.

Isolated for the frst time in the 1920s,

the vitamin was produced by an eight-step

chemical synthesis well into the 1980s. The

rising environmental consciousness of the

1970s led to attempts in reducing waste,

avoiding toxic substances and cleaning

wastewater. A really clean production of

ribofavin was only possibly with the microbial

production process with the flamentous

fungus. The process is so efcient that part

of the product starts crystallizing in the

bioreactor in high purity. Thus, the ecobalance

is non-ambiguous: The microbiological

process beats the chemical one in every

criterion, starting with 30% savings in CO2

emissions up to 95% for the amount of waste

generated. Consequently, the market leader,

BASF, discontinued chemical production in

1996 and has been focusing on biotechnology

ever since. Competitor, DSM, uses a microbial

process too, albeit based on the bacterium

Bacillus subtilis.

Silent heroes of biotechnology

Vitamin production on an industrial scale

means that bioreactors can reach a size of

100 m³ but who is building these giants?

The silent heroes of biotechnology can be

found at ACHEMA, the trade show that puts

the technology into bio-technology.

Even bioprocesses that end up in the

multi-cubic-meter magnitude start small

on laboratory scale, usually as a shake

fask culture.

The next step is a bench-top fermenter that

can range from 100 milliliters to 5 liters.

These and the whole lab infrastructure can

be found in the laboratory and analytical

techniques exhibition group in hall 4.

Upscaling a process to pilot and then

production size is the task of the companies

in the engineering exhibition group in hall

9. Their service starts long before stainless

steel sheets are bent into cylindrical vessels.

Is it more economic to use wheat starch as a

substrate for the process or glucose syrup?

In the pre-engineering, raw materials and

capacities are compared, which are the

basis for the decision-making of investors.

These numbers are also important for

regulatory approval. The detailed planning

gets down to the nitty-gritty. No tube may

be overlooked, no welding seam neglected.

Also, precise process control is a must for

biotechnological processes and can be

found in the instrumentation, control and

automation techniques group in Hall 11. If

temperature and pH value are only slightly

of the optimum, Ashbya, Bacillus and

colleagues quickly fail to perform.

As soon as the microorganisms have

accomplished their mission, it’s on to

Did you plunge an effervescent

multivitamin in a glass of water this morning?

Ashbya gossypii © BASF

microbial cultures © DECHEMA

bench-top fermenter © DECHEMA

fermenter © Sanofi Pasteur

process control © DECHEMA

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