Purac starts project to produce lactic acid from papermaking waste streams

GORINCHEM, The Netherlands, July 12, 2010 (Press Release) - Purac has signed a contract to participate in a consortium that will develop a process to produce feedstock from cellulosic waste derived from the pulp and paper industry. This feedstock is expected to be usable for production of lactic acid. The other partners in the program are Crown Van Gelder N.V., a paper producing company, and Bumaga B.V., a development center in the paper and board industry. The project is part of the Dutch Biorefinery program and partially funded by the Dutch Ministries of Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

Purac is a partner in this consortium as it develops new sustainable building blocks for the chemical industry. Purac already has some important initiatives in this area such as Lactides for Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) and Succinic Acid. This initiative will also speed up Purac's program to use alternative non-food substrates such as agricultural byproducts instead of sugars, glucose and tapioca starch as substrates for its fermentation processes.

Fabrizio Rampinelli, CEO of Purac comments: "The participation of Purac in this project fits the program of Purac in the area of sustainable chemistry. This program gives us a considerable opportunity together with our partners, to grow the market for bio-based chemicals and contribute to a sustainable economy."