Butanediol (BDO) is a 4B chemical intermediate used today to make textiles and solvents. It has the potential to be 30% lower cost than today's processes. Uses ethylene derivatives (from natural gas) as a raw material, leverages a catalyst system that is >99% selective from ethylene oxide to succinic anhydride.
Succinic acid is a chemical intermediate that was identified by the U.S. Department of Energy's biomass program as a top 12 target molecule. It is less expensive, uses the existing infrastructure and lowers the carbon footprint process. It is synthesized entirely from renewable feedstocks when the ethylene oxide is sourced from a fermentation process and the CO from the gasification of biomass. Succinic acid has a >$10B market potential in applications that include polyurethanes, and butanediol, just to name a few.
