In Pennsylvania, Total subsidiary Cray Valley has launched tackifying resins using biobased farnesene produced by Amyris.
Tackifying resins are traditionally derived from trees, citrus fruit sources, or petroleum-based feedstocks. Thus, they are subject to cost and supply instabilities, in the case of petroleum-based sources, or natural variabilities, in the case of pinene and limonene.
Cray Valley’s Wingtack family of tackifying resins is manufactured with piperylene, a volatile hydrocarbon that is a byproduct of ethylene production. New technology has enabled the company to swap 30% of the piperylene with farnesene while maintaining comparable performance, particularly in hot melt and hot melt pressure-sensitive adhesives.
“According to independent market research firm, MarketsandMarkets.com, the global tackifier market is projected to reach $3.56 billion by 2020,” Amyris says. “This poses a large opportunity for renewable farnesene-based tackifiers and Amyris believes it can access a large market share as its product applications within the space achieve commercial scale.”