BASF and Acies Bio Announce Groundbreaking Partnership

BASF, the renowned German chemicals giant, has teamed up with Slovenian biotechnology firm Acies Bio to revolutionize fermentation technology for producing fatty alcohols from methanol. This exciting collaboration, unveiled in a joint press release on Tuesday, aims to harness Acies Bio’s cutting-edge synthetic biology expertise alongside BASF’s extensive resources and market reach.

Fatty alcohols are crucial components in the home and personal care sectors, especially for surfactant production. Acies Bio has developed the innovative OneCarbonBio platform, which efficiently transforms renewable methanol, derived from captured CO2 emissions, into various chemical raw materials.

The partnership will see BASF’s care chemicals division and Acies Bio working together to utilize specialized microbes to scale up the fermentation process for producing fatty acids and their derivatives. BASF will leverage its vast experience in process development, integrated value chain solutions, and global market access to drive this initiative forward.

Gregor Kosec, Acies Bio’s Director of R&D, emphasized the partnership’s importance, stating, “By combining our advanced microbial production strains and the OneCarbonBio platform with BASF’s proven process development and supply chain expertise, we are poised to bring our technologies to a global scale.” For BASF, this collaboration is expected to enhance production scale and flexibility, diversify its renewable feedstock portfolio, and bolster the resilience of its global supply chain in the care chemicals sector. This partnership marks a significant leap forward in developing sustainable biotechnology solutions within the industry.