Verdezyne Inc. (Carlsbad, Calif.; www.verdezyne.com) will build a commercial-scale renewable chemicals plant in a biotechnology industrial park in Nusajaya, Malaysia. Through an agreement with Malaysian Bio-XCell Sdn Bhd (Nusajaya, Malaysia; www.bio-xcell.my), construction will commence in 2015. The plant is designed for a capacity of 30 million lb/yr of diacids, including dodecanedioc acid (DDDA), and is said to be the world’s first plant for the bio-based production of DDDA. Bio-Xcell provided a loan of around $75 million for the construction of Verdezyne’s plant.
The manufacturing facility will leverage Verdezyne’s yeaxt-fermentation technologies, using abundant, plant-based non-food feedstocks in Malaysia to produce a variety of commercial diacids. These diacids may be used in nylons or other polymers in a variety of end-use applications, including engineering resins, automotive parts and textiles.