Adipic acid can be found in many everyday products such as nylon, furniture, coatings, bedding and automobile parts. It is a valuable chemical intermediate for well-established downstream markets like automotive, footwear, and construction. The current market for adipic acid is approximately $5.2 billion. Current petrochemical processes for the production of adipic acid generate as much as 4.0 tons of CO2 equivalents per ton of adipic acid produced.
At Verdezyne, we are developing cost-advantaged, environmentally-friendly fermentation processes for the production of adipic acid. We have demonstrated production and recovery of adipic acid by a yeast microorganism from alkane and vegetable-based oil feedstocks.
We have identified proprietary pathways that enable the production of this important chemical from a variety of feedstocks. This feedstock flexible platform allows the microorganism to utilize sugar, plant-based oils or alkanes. The benefit of a feedstock flexible process is the ability to maintain a sustainable cost advantage regardless of future energy volatility. We are currently the only company developing a feedstock flexible process for the production of adipic acid via fermentation.
In parallel, we are continuing to make metabolic pathway improvements to utilize renewable feedstocks such as sugar. Regardless of the feedstock, our fermentation process will be cost advantaged and will reduce green house gas emissions compared to the traditional petrochemical production of adipic acid.
In the next year, we will be engineering the metabolic pathway to boost organism performance at lab scale and seeking partners for commercialization.
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