The Health and Nutrition markets include our pharmaceutical work in aiding new
drug development and developing alternative cell lines to mammalian cell cultures,
nutraceuticals, such as vitamins, and food ingredients. This is a fairly new area
for Amyris and most of our work in these areas is still under development and
have not been commercialized yet.
During 2016, we announced the signings of our first ingredient supply agreement
and collaboration agreement for the global nutraceuticals market. Under the supply
agreement, we source Biofene to our partner, which is then further processed into
a nutraceutical product. In 2016, we made the first large scale shipments of Biofene
to our partner, who successfully produced and sold a nutraceutical product to
its customers. The availability of large volumes of Biofene as starting material
enables a significant reduction in the production time, complexity and cost of
producing end-use nutraceutical products. Under the collaboration agreement, we
are working to create and develop additional nutraceutical compounds and, in the
event we and our partner can achieve certain specified development targets, we
and our partner would establish and implement a worldwide manufacturing and commercialization
plan relating to such compounds.
Personal Care
The Personal Care markets include F&F ingredients, skin care ingredients and
cosmetic actives. To date, we have successfully brought two F&F ingredients
to market with a collaboration partner and have several other ingredients for
all three areas under development.
Our technology allows us to cost-effectively produce natural oils and aroma chemicals
that are commonly used in the F&F market. Many of the natural ingredients
used in the F&F market are expensive because there is limited supply and the
synthetic alternatives require complex chemical conversions. We offer F&F
companies a natural route to procure these high-value ingredients without sacrificing
cost or quality.
In late 2013, we commenced commercial production of our first F&F ingredient
for a range of applications, from perfumes to laundry detergent, which is marketed
by a collaboration partner which is a global F&F leader. In 2014, we completed
our first production campaign of this ingredient at our Brotas biorefinery and
shipped it to this collaboration partner. In late 2015, we commenced production
and initial sales of our second F&F ingredient to the same collaboration partner.
We are currently working to develop and commercialize a variety of F&F ingredients
that are either direct fermentation products or derivatives of fermentation products.
Two of our Personal Care collaboration partners launched new products in 2016
using ingredients supplied by Amyris via our proprietary fermentation process.
Both of these products have generated significant interest for use in consumer
products. In addition, during 2016 we also completed R&D on two other ingredients
and began scale-up work for commercialization.
Performance Materials
The Performance Materials markets consist consists of specialty chemicals used
to produce products such as polymers, lubricants, solvents and transportation
fuels.
Solvents
We have developed a best-in-class renewable solvent produced from farnesene. In
addition to addressing regulatory and safety concerns over Volatile Organic Compounds
(VOCs), our solvent product, which we market under the brand Myralene®, offers
strong performance and environmental attributes. In 2015, we received approval
from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA) to market and began commercializing Myralene®-based cleaning products
as industrial cleaners for the auto service industry and other industrial applications.
Polymers
Our partners are developing applications for our farnesene that include high-performance
polymers used in tires and other end-uses. In 2011, we began collaborating with
Kuraray with an initial focus on using farnesene-based polymers to replace petroleum-derived
additives in tires. During the collaboration, Kuraray developed farnesene-based
liquid rubber (LFR), a tire additive that has superior cold and wet-grip properties
for better performance. LFR reacts with tire rubber more easily than traditional
materials and strengthens adhesion of rubber components to improve tire shape,
stability and performance. In connection with our collaboration with Kuraray,
multiple leading tire manufacturers have conducted and are continuing to conduct
performance tests of this liquid rubber in tire formulations, and one such manufacturer,
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd., has adopted LFR as a performance enhancing additive
for use in the production of certain of its tires. Also, during this period, Kuraray
produced and began customer sampling and product evaluation for a new category
of elastomer, Hydrogenated Styrenic Farnesene Copolymer (HSFC), which has demonstrated
performance attributes that open opportunities for vibration-dampening product
applications.
Cray Valley, a division of Total, has developed a new farnesene-based addition
to its line of Wingtack ® hydrocarbon resins. This product not only represents
their first such product based on a renewable feedstock, rather than traditional
petroleum based hydrocarbons, but also offers unique performance attributes. These
attributes expand the scope of the product line’s applications as tackifying
additives to enhance the properties of a broad range of elastomers, including
SIS, SBS, polyisoprene, butyl rubber, EPDM and SBR materials, as well as hot melt
and hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives.
Lubricants
Base oils are the building blocks of lubricating oils and are currently derived
from the crude oil refining process. Additives are materials added to base oils
to change their properties, characteristics and/or performance (e.g., anti-foam,
anti-wear, corrosion inhibitor, detergent, dispersant, pour point depressant,
anti-oxidant, or friction modifier). Lubricants are manufactured by combining
a base oil with additives required by lubricant product applications, including
engine oils, gear oils, hydraulic oils and turbine oils. Farnesene may be chemically
modified to serve as a base oil, additive and/or lubricant. The high-purity synthetic
base oil and additive molecules that can be made from Biofene enable lubricant
products to perform in harsh environments under extremes of temperature, moisture,
dirt and/or wear.
We are pursuing the base oils and lubricants market through our joint venture
Novvi. Additional details regarding Novvi are provided below under “Business-Joint
Ventures.”
Solvents
We have developed a best-in-class renewable solvent produced from farnesene. In
addition to addressing regulatory and safety concerns over Volatile Organic Compounds
(VOCs), our solvent product, which we market under the brand Myralene®, offers
strong performance and environmental attributes. In 2015, we received approval
from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA) to market and began commercializing Myralene®-based cleaning products
as industrial cleaners for the auto service industry and other industrial applications.
Transportation Fuels
We have partnered with Total to develop renewable transportation fuels from farnesene.
Under such partnership, we produce renewable diesel (a farnesene derivative referred
to as farnesane) and jet fuel that delivers energy density, engine performance
and storage properties comparable to the best petroleum fuels today.
• Jet Fuel. Our drop-in, renewable jet fuel is compliant with Jet A/A-1
fuel specifications and outperforms conventional petroleum-derived fuel in a range
of performance metrics, including fit for purpose and greenhouse gas emission
reduction potential, without compromising on performance or quality. Our renewable
jet fuel is approved for use at a 10% blend level with petroleum jet fuel globally
and for use by the US military.
• Diesel. Our renewable diesel’s properties are superior to those
of petroleum diesel, allowing it to be used as a drop-in replacement practically
in any diesel engine today. Our renewable diesel is approved for use in the US
at up to a 35% blend with petroleum diesel and in Brazil at up to a 30% blend.
The US Maritime Division and U.S. Department of Transportation have validated
our diesel as a renewable blend with maritime diesel fuel.
In the future, as our development efforts with Total allow us to produce fuels
at lower costs, we expect that our farnesane-based fuels business will be conducted
through a joint venture we have established with Total (described in more detail
below under “Business-Joint Ventures”). We have been limiting jet
fuel and diesel sales in recent periods as sales of our fuels products have not
been cost-effective given the current costs of producing farnesene and current
market prices for petroleum fuels.
Amyris Branded Product Markets
Through basic chemical finishing steps, we are able to convert our farnesene molecule
into squalane, which is used today as a premium emollient in cosmetics and other
personal care products. We believe that our Neossance squalane offers performance
attributes equal or superior to those of squalane derived from conventional sources.
The ingredient traditionally has been manufactured from olive oil or extracted
from deep-sea shark liver oil, which requires that the shark be killed in order
to harvest its liver oil. The relatively high price and unstable supply of squalane
in the past meant that its use was generally limited to luxury products or small
quantities in mass-market product formulations. With our ability to produce a
reliable supply of low-cost squalane that eliminates the need to harvest shark
liver oil, we offer this ingredient at a price that we believe will drive increasing
adoption by formulators. In addition to Neossance squalane, we offer a second,
lower-cost emollient, Neossance hemisqualane, for the cosmetics market. In December
2016, we formed a joint venture for our Neossance business with Nikko, in which
we hold a 50% interest. See below under “Business-Joint Ventures”
for more information regarding our Neossance joint venture. The joint venture
currently has Neossance emollient supply agreements with several regional distributors,
including those with locations in Japan, South Korea, Europe, Brazil and North
America, and, in some cases, directly with cosmetics formulators, which we transferred
to the joint venture during the formation process.
In addition, in 2015 we launched our own consumer brand, BiossanceTM skin care
products, featuring our Biofene-derived squalane. Under our BiossanceTM brand,
we market and sell our products directly to retailers and consumers, initially
in the United States. Biossance was initially sold solely through our ecommerce
branded website and in 2016, we expanded the product line to include an expansive
line of high-performance skin care products and opened up sales through Home Shopping
Network (HSN). In October 2016, we announced our Biossance product line would
begin to be carried at Sephora in 2017. In February 2017, we launched a full squalane
based consumer cosmetic line at participating Sephora stores and Sephora online.
All of the products are based on Amyris’s commitment to No CompromiseTM.
Since the launch, sales have grown, and with Sephora’s partnership, we are
looking to expand to more stores.
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