Condensation and purification

The target materials obtained in our bioprocesses have a wide variety of physical properties.
Water solubility, boiling point, and stability vary greatly among substances. Advanced condensation and purification methods (downstream technology) that can flexibly handle these physical properties are required to achieve high-purity target substances.

In addition, the reaction solution produced through bioconversion contains impurities such as unreacted raw materials and byproducts. Some of them include colorants that spoil the appearance of the product. These impurities pose a challenge to the replacement of petroleum-derived chemicals by green chemicals.

Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. is developing proprietary condensation and purification technologies for various target substances. The developed technologies can be used to purify various useful substances derived from non-food biomass to a high level of purity. The left figure shows highly purified 4-Hydroxybenzoic acid from the reaction solution by the technologies.