Multiple moves in biosurfactants

Oregon-based AGAE Technologies has officially opened a 1,000 tonnes/year manufacturing plant for rhamnolipid biosurfactants, which it said is the largest retrofitted plant complex in Asia. There is space to add further production lines if demand rises.

AGAE said that this was made possible by extensive interdisciplinary work at the custom modular fermentation pilot plant it opened in the US  2020 to solve some of the long-standing challenges in rhamnolipid production: foam control, low yields and the high cost of downstream processing. Since then, it had been looking for partners to scale up domestically and internationally. 

“Completing this plant complex was only possible because of the cutting-edge foam control technologies and the data we gathered from years of trial and error at our benchtop bioreactor and fermentation pilot plant,” said Garrett Holzwarth, a fermentation scientist at AGAE. “With our proprietary technologies, we have the competence and confidence needed to build a full-scale manufacturing plant complex in the US.”

The scale-up challenges included managing the flow of thousands of m3 of compressed air, recycling dozens of m3 of foam and safely controlling the corresponding pressure. In addition, the filters, valves, sealings, tubes, pipes and pumps had to engineered to withstand these issues.

Meanwhile, Canadian cleantech start-up Dispersa has closed on C$5.8 million in seed funding led by Nàdarra Ventures. The company said that this will accelerate the commercial scale-up of its flagship product, PuraSurf M, which is claimed to be the world's first fully waste-derived biosurfactant.

Dispersa developed PuraSurf M using its proprietary technology, BioEterna. This combines synthetic biology and precision fermentation from waste oils and sugars in a way that is said to “unlock significant cost reduction” as well as boosting surfactant sustainability. The product is being used by some of the largest companies in the North American household, industrial and institutional (HI&I) sector.

In addition, personal care ingredient manufacturer Hallstar has invested an unspecified amount to acquire a minority stake in BioReNuva, a biotechnology developer based in Austin, Texas. The company said that this will “enable it to explore novel approaches in the biosynthesis space, leveraging BioReNuva's expertise and manufacturing capabilities”.

BioReNuva has a full range of glycolipids including sophorolipids, rhamnolipids and a ready-made surfactant blend. “We see a future where biotech excipients – biosurfactants, for example, where BioReNuva already excels – will be a large portion of total growth in the beauty and personal care market,” said Hallstar CEO John Paro.