Consultant on preliminary design of $120 million brownfield succinic acid fermentation plant in Ontario. Key member of core engineering team that developed conceptual design of second generation plant. Reviewed and guided development of process flow diagrams and equipment specifications. Recommended fermentation and recovery process technologies based on current industry practices. Reviewed and commented on order of magnitude cost estimate and recommended cost savings opportunities. Provided guidance on regulatory approach to manufacturing plant design and operation.
| Unit operations: Fermentation, Succinic acid biosynthesis, Carbon dioxide dosing, Centrifugation, Monoammonium succinate formation, Evaporation, Crystallization, Dissolution, Activated carbon decolorization, Electrodialysis, Ion exchange separation, Drying, Continuous media sterilization, Sterile nutrient dosing, Ammonium bicarbonate formation, Ammonia stripping |
| Product: Succinic acid from recombinant E. coli or yeast fermentation |
| Company: BioAmber Inc. |
| Location: Sarnia, Ontario |
| Total installed cost: $120 million (preliminary design) |
I worked with BioAmber early in the development of the conceptual design of their Sarnia, Ontario plant. At that time, they had a first-generation demonstration plant in Pomacle, France and site-selection and process development was underway for their second-generation plant in North America.
Contents
Preliminary Plant Design
As part of the design development of what would become the Sarnia plant, I traveled to their Pomacle, France plant. There, I spent four days in a conference room with a microbiology consultant, the engineering company’s lead process engineer and BioAmber’s vice president of engineering working out a conceptual plant design on dozens of easel pad sheets.
I then worked closely with the vice president of engineering and the engineering group that was developing the preliminary design. This included developing a design basis for the fermentors and bioconversion reactors and reviewing process flow diagrams and equipment specifications. I also attended their project review meetings and meetings with equipment vendors to develop the downstream recovery process. This included novel technology to first convert the diammonium succinate from the bioconversion reactors into monoammonium succinate by distillation. The monoammonium succinate was then converted to succinic acid by electrodialysis.
Once the preliminary design was complete, I reviewed and commented on the cost estimate. I also assisted BioAmber with the selection of their engineering company for detailed design and participated in the kickoff meetings with this engineering company in Sarnia.
Alternate Strain
The first generation BioAmber process used a genetically engineered E. coli. However, as E. coli grows at a near neutral pH, the accumulated succinic acid had to be neutralized with ammonia, resulting in the accumulation of diammonium succinate. This then had to be converted back to succinic acid in the downstream process and the ammonia either recovered and concentrated for reuse or treated as a waste product. Cargill faced a similar problem with their lactic acid process, and had reduced the need for neutralization by developing a yeast strain that produced lactic acid at a lower pH. I had previously worked on a project for Cargill to retrofit their lactic acid fermentation plant for this new yeast strain.
BioAmber had licensed this technology from Cargill and Cargill was doing the strain development work. During development of the preliminary plant design, we met with the Cargill staff to understand the requirements of this yeast-based process and incorporate them into the design.
Regulatory Guidance
The Canadian Environmental Protection Act requires that Environment Canada be notified of any new substances, which include new microorganisms, that are to be brought into Canada. The predecessor company to BioAmber had filed the required notice for their current production strain, in anticipation of manufacturing succinic acid in Canada. However, this filing committed the company to importation, cell bank storage, and manufacturing containment restrictions that were unnecessary for the well-characterized organism, inconsistent with how they intended to operate, and expensive.
I reviewed the original new substances notice and the relevant Canadian regulations. Based on this review, I provided BioAmber a memo detailing how the original filing would be unnecessarily restrictive and providing alternative recommendations for a revised filing based on the specific regulations and the details of construction of the production strain.
Epilogue
The process of designing and building a new manufacturing plant is a major undertaking for even a large company, let alone a startup company. As my one-year contract with BioAmber was coming to an end, they were building their engineering project team and I had a full plate with my work on the Valent BioSciences biopesticides fermentation plant. I therefore decided not to renew my contract with BioAmber. They completed the plant in Sarnia and started in up in 2015, but in 2018 the company went bankrupt and was liquidated.