Profile: Photanol – Cyanobacteria for the next generation of biobased chemicals
I would like to retake the topic of algal CO2
conversion technologies with which I start the year (see post about the Canada’s
first algal biorefinery project). And what better way to do it than introducing
a leading company on the production of clean chemicals from cyanobacteria. Most
of the algae companies are primarily focused on biofuels whereas Photanol, main actor of this profile, is
specialized in biobased chemicals. Let us know more about its technology,
facilities and future plans.
Technology and
activities
Photanol is a renewable chemicals company that
utilises proprietary cyanobacteria to process carbon dioxide and sunlight into
valuable chemical products. Its technology and patents are based on the genetic
modification of cyanobacteria to produce a broad range of biochemicals. These
bacteria are natural photosynthesizers, drawing energy from sunlight and carbon
from CO2.
Photanol core activities include the development
of strains (construction of biosynthetic pathways for a non-native product; optimisation
of metabolic fluxes through relevant biosynthesis pathways) and the scale-up of
bioconversion processes (optimisation of culture conditions and feeding
strategies; performance of batch, fed-batch and continuous cultures; evaluation
of production performance; scale-up of photobioreactors). Downstream processes
improvement (separation; purification) is carried out by partners. All these
activities are repeated in the iterative design and construction of the strains.
Products
Biobased chemicals face challenges in their
penetration in the global chemicals market: low fossil fuel prices, land
issues, food chain conflicts… Cyanobacteria have the potential to emerge as the
sustainable production platform for next-generation clean chemicals overcoming
those challenges. They are competitive where feedstock costs are a significant
part of the production cost, reducing drastically the needs for land and water
and increasing the CO2 capture capacity. Moreover, they do not
produce large amount of wastes (cellulose, roots…) and avoid conversion losses
of sugar.
Figure 1. Photanol conversion pathway versus
current technologies (courtesy of Photanol)
Photanol has a portfolio of 17 compounds, produced
through direct conversion with cyanobacteria, divided into four categories: organic
acids, terpenes, polyols and alcohols/others. Three of these compounds are
being co-industrialised. Organic acids are the most developed category of
Photanol’s portfolio. In fact, lactic acid for bioplastics has been the first
pathway to be commercialized and the benchmark has been validated by three
market players independently.
Facilities
The laboratory development equipment of
Photanol comprises a whole range of bioreactors from 10 ml to 40 l. And, its
pilot plant zone is equipped with 3 photobioreactors (PBRs) which have a total
volume between 200 and 1,000 l. Two products has been tested between 2012 and
2016 in this pilot plant.
Figure 2. Photanol’s pilot plant (courtesy of
Photanol)
Future plans
Photanol is working to bring new products of
its portfolio to market. The most advanced project is a confidential compound
developed together with AkzoNobel. This compound has both bulk and fine
chemical uses and a total market of more than UDS 1 billion. Other future
chemicals to commercialise are polyols sugar (erythritol, for instance) and
terpenes for fragances and flavours.
Regarding to the scale-up of its facilities, in the near future (2018-2019), Photanol is planning the construction of a multi-use demonstration plant with a surface of 0.5 ha, a total PBR length of 58 km and a total PBR volume of 173 m3. The downstream processes would be outsourced and the production capacity could reach 20 ton per year. In the medium term (from 2021 on), Photanol intends to release a commercial facility with a surface of 100 ha, an industrially viable size for D –Lactic Acid production. The downstream processes would integrate on the plant that could have a production capacity of 20 kton per year.
Acknowledgements: I would like to express my appreciation to Ross Gordon (Business Development Director) for his kind collaboration.
