Amyris, an integrated renewable alternate products company, recently announced an extension of the collaboration time period with Kuraray, a pioneer in global chemical products. Kuraray has an ongoing collaboration with Amyris to leverage Amyris’ Biofene renewable farnesene, a long-chain hydrocarbon to develop high performance farnesene based polymers. The research and development division for the collaboration has been extended for a minimum of two years.
John Melo, president and CEO of Amyris, said, "Kuraray has been a strong collaboration partner over the last two years, and I welcome our expanding work together in developing and commercializing high performance materials from Biofene. Based on the positive feedback from tire manufacturers for Liquid Farnesene Rubber (LFR), we remain confident that Biofene will play a critical role in improving the sustainability of the tire industry. We are also encouraged that with Kuraray in Japan we are launching a new category of elastomers made from Biofene."
According to the terms of the agreement, Kuraray can expand its Biofene based product offerings by types and fields of use and Amyris will receive more funding for its research and development for the next two years. Amyris focuses on developing alternatives to petroleum-sourced products using synthetic biology platform to convert plant sugars into a variety of molecules. Further, Kuraray is set to purchase approximately USD 4 million of Amyris' common stock in April 2014.
The expanded product offerings will include new polymer products such as viscosity index improvers, sealants and adhesives. The project was started in 2011 to study replacement of petroleum-based feedstocks in tires with Biofene-based polymers using Kuraray’s Biofene-based liquid rubber LFR. LFR was designed to strengthen adhesion of rubber components in order to improve tire shape, stability and performance.
Kuraray, a pioneer in polyvinyl alcohol synthetic fiber, focuses on developing and commercializing a wide range of resins, chemicals, fibers and textiles, among other materials. Using its proprietary technology in polymer chemistry and synthetic chemistry, Kuraray has recently completed development, extensive product tests and customer sampling on a new category of elastomers, Hydrogenated Styrenic Farnesene Copolymer (HSFC). The elastomers have improved flow properties, reduced residual strains and increased vibration dampening applications.
Edited by Cassandra Tucker