Bio-acrylic acid

01Overview and value chain

Markers: [EC: REACH chemical registration (EC 1907/2006) | OECD: Industrial biotechnology | Regulator: REACH (EU), EPA (US)]

Acrylic acid is a C3 unsaturated carboxylic acid produced globally at multimillion-tonne annual scale, almost entirely from fossil propylene via two-step catalytic oxidation through acrolein, and used downstream for superabsorbent polymers in hygiene products, polymer emulsions for paints and coatings, and acrylate ester monomers for adhesives, textiles and pressure-sensitive films. Two competing renewable routes are now commercialising in parallel. Arkema launched bio-based Ethyl Acrylate produced entirely from bioethanol at its Carling (France) acrylic monomer facility in October 2024, achieving 40% bio carbon content and up to 30% reduction in product carbon footprint, and BASF switched its entire ethyl acrylate portfolio to a bio-based grade in August 2024 followed by a 2026 collaboration with Avery Dennison on renewable-attributed butyl acrylate and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate. A separate value chain aims at the molecule itself rather than its esters: Cargill’s long-running 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HPA) platform, advanced in a January 2026 Nature Communications paper on the acid-tolerant yeast Issatchenkia orientalis SD108 engineered through the β-alanine pathway with up to eight copies of the PAND gene, would convert fermentatively produced 3-HPA to acrylic acid by catalytic dehydration; Genomatica’s March 2026 paper in Microbial Cell Factories established Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a host for direct acrylic-acid fermentation, identifying the β-alanine route as most promising and achieving around 30 mg/L AA in batch shake-flask experiments after ACH1-knockout work. No Chinese commercial bio-acrylic-acid originator cleared source confirmation as of 2026.

The key directions of bio-acrylic acid are:

1. 3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3-HPA) fermentation route (3-Hydroxypropionic Acid Fermentation): microbial production of the direct AA precursor 3-HPA via engineered acid-tolerant yeast, followed by catalytic dehydration to acrylic acid — Cargill’s I. orientalis SD108 β-alanine-pathway platform.
2. Direct acrylic-acid fermentation (Direct Acrylic Acid Fermentation): engineering yeast to excrete acrylic acid itself rather than a precursor, bypassing the chemical dehydration step — Genomatica’s S. cerevisiae host with ACH1-knockout tolerance mechanism.
3. Bioethanol-derived acrylate esters (Bioethanol-to-Acrylate Route): replacing fossil propylene with bioethanol as the upstream feedstock for the conventional acrolein-oxidation route, producing drop-in bio-based acrylate esters — Arkema (Carling) and BASF (Ludwigshafen / Freeport).
4. Pilot-to-commercial scale-up (Bio-Acrylic Acid Scale-Up): moving fermentative AA routes from milligram-per-litre laboratory titres toward the volumes and economics required to displace propylene-derived acrylic acid — the common bottleneck across Cargill and Genomatica’s programmes.

Sectoral value chain

[sugars / bioethanol / glycerol feedstock] ──> [microbial fermentation or bioethanol-to-acrolein conversion]
                                                            │
                                              (intermediates: 3-HPA, acetaldehyde, acrolein)
                                                            │
                                                            ▼
[bio-based acrylate ester] <─── [esterification] <─── [catalytic dehydration to acrylic acid]
                                                            │
                                                            ▼
                                [superabsorbent polymers, coatings, adhesives]

Value chain levels

Cross-cutting technologies of the sector:

• β-alanine biosynthetic pathway (3-Hydroxypropionic Acid Fermentation): the metabolic route identified as optimal for both 3-HPA and direct AA production, converting aspartate through PAND (aspartate decarboxylase), BAPAT and YDFG to the target C3 acid.
• Acid-tolerant yeast host engineering (Direct Acrylic Acid Fermentation): use of low-pH-tolerant yeasts (I. orientalis SD108, ACH1-knockout S. cerevisiae) to enable product accumulation in acid form rather than as a neutralised salt.
• Bioethanol-to-acrylate drop-in chemistry (Bioethanol-to-Acrylate Route): integration of bioethanol feedstock into the conventional acrolein-oxidation process to produce molecularly identical, drop-in bio-based acrylate esters.

02US

The US hosts both the precursor-fermentation and direct-fermentation research programmes targeting acrylic acid itself, anchored in Minnesota and California.

Cargill 3-HPA platform, Genomatica direct-fermentation, EPA

• Cargill (Minnetonka, Minnesota): advances a long-running 3-hydroxypropionic acid platform whose January 2026 Nature Communications paper engineered the acid-tolerant yeast Issatchenkia orientalis SD108 through the β-alanine pathway, balancing PAND (aspartate decarboxylase, up to eight integrated copies), pyruvate carboxylase (PYC) and aspartate aminotransferase (AAT) to push carbon flux toward 3-HPA at low pH; 3-HPA is the direct precursor dehydratable to acrylic acid, positioning Cargill as the US anchor of the precursor-route value chain.
• Genomatica (San Diego, California): established Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a direct acrylic-acid fermentation host in a March 2026 Microbial Cell Factories paper, identifying the β-alanine route as most promising, linking AA tolerance to the mitochondrial genes ACH1 and ETR1, and achieving around 30 mg/L AA in batch shake-flask experiments after ACH1-knockout work that reduced AA degradation — an early-stage, foundational platform for renewable AA production.
• EPA framework: bio-based acrylic acid and its esters produced or placed on the US market fall under standard EPA industrial-chemical (TSCA) review, alongside renewable-fuel-linked feedstock accounting where bioethanol-derived; commercial acrylate esters already on the market (Arkema/BASF bio-based EA) are processed through conventional TSCA chemical inventory channels.

03CN

No Chinese company cleared source confirmation as a dedicated bio-acrylic-acid commercial originator as of 2026; the two leading Chinese candidates queried (Jilin Boda Biochemistry, a bio-based chemicals firm, and Zhejiang Realsun Chemical) returned only generic bio-based-ABS market reports and unrelated supplier listings — no company-specific bio-acrylic-acid or bio-acrylate product coverage was confirmed.

research gap, NDRC/MIIT petrochemical policy

• Research gap: Chinese industrial-biotechnology reporting in this period emphasises fermentation-derived long-chain dicarboxylic acids, lactic acid and bio-based polyamide (Cathay Biotech’s Taijin pentanediamine project) rather than a dedicated bio-acrylic-acid originator; conventional propylene-oxidation acrylic acid production remains the confirmed domestic pathway.
• Regulatory pathway: to the extent a bio-based acrylic acid or acrylate product reached the Chinese market, industrial chemical registration would run through standard MIIT/NDRC petrochemical-sector channels rather than a dedicated biotech pathway, consistent with the broader petrochemical cluster.

04EU

Europe hosts the only commercial bio-based acrylate production at industrial scale, anchored in France and Germany, with drop-in bioethanol-derived ethyl acrylate already replacing its fossil-derived counterpart at two major chemicals sites.

Arkema, BASF, REACH

• Arkema (Colombes, France; production at Carling): launched bio-based Ethyl Acrylate produced entirely from bioethanol at its Carling acrylic monomer facility in October 2024, achieving 40% bio carbon content (BCC) and up to 30% reduction in product carbon footprint (PCF) per IPCC 2021 GWP100 assumptions; the launch builds on a 2023 investment to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions at the Carling site by around 20%.
• BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany): switched its entire ethyl acrylate portfolio to a bio-based grade in August 2024, followed by a March 2026 collaboration with Avery Dennison launching renewable-attributed Butyl Acrylate RE and 2-Ethylhexyl Acrylate RE produced at BASF’s Freeport (Texas) site using renewable electricity, and a July 2026 expansion of its certified biomass-balanced additives portfolio for architectural coatings.
• REACH framework: bio-based acrylic acid and acrylate esters manufactured or placed on the EU market fall under REACH chemical registration, evaluation and authorisation, the same regime governing their fossil-derived counterparts.

05Leading companies and research institutes

06Tech stack and innovations

The stack spans two distinct renewable-AA value chains: microbial fermentation toward the molecule itself (still pre-commercial) and bioethanol-fed drop-in acrylate ester production (already commercial).

1. β-alanine-pathway 3-HPA fermentation (3-Hydroxypropionic Acid Fermentation):
   • Cargill’s January 2026 Nature Communications paper engineered Issatchenkia orientalis SD108 with a genetic toolbox (episomal plasmids, promoter/terminator library, multiplex CRISPR deletion, landing-pad multi-copy integration) and identified the β-alanine pathway as optimal, with PAND (aspartate decarboxylase) rate-limiting at up to eight integrated copies and balanced PYC (pyruvate carboxylase) and AAT (aspartate aminotransferase) pushing flux toward 3-HPA at low pH.
2. Direct acrylic-acid yeast fermentation (Direct Acrylic Acid Fermentation):
   • Genomatica’s March 2026 Microbial Cell Factories paper established Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a host for direct AA production, identifying the β-alanine route as most promising, linking AA tolerance to mitochondrial genes ACH1 and ETR1, and achieving around 30 mg/L AA in batch shake-flask experiments after ACH1 knockout reduced AA-CoA accumulation and AA degradation.
3. Bioethanol-derived drop-in acrylates (Bioethanol-to-Acrylate Route):
   • Arkema’s October 2024 Carling launch and BASF’s August 2024 portfolio switch both produce drop-in bio-based ethyl acrylate by replacing fossil-derived propylene feedstock with bioethanol, yielding a molecularly identical ester with verifiable bio carbon content (40% BCC at Arkema) and quantified carbon-footprint reduction (up to 30% PCF).
4. Pilot-to-commercial scale-up (Bio-Acrylic Acid Scale-Up):
   • Across Cargill and Genomatica, the shared technical challenge is moving from milligram-per-litre laboratory titres toward the tonne-scale production volumes and cost positions required to displace fossil propylene in commodity acrylic acid markets, a gap that the commercial drop-in acrylate producers (Arkema, BASF) have already bridged via the bioethanol route.

07Value chains and production pipelines

Industrial pipeline of bio-acrylic acid (REACH / EPA)

┌───────────────────────────┐      ┌───────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Feedstock sourcing     │ ───> │ 2. Fermentation /         │
│    (sugars, bioethanol)   │      │    bioethanol conversion  │
└───────────────────────────┘      └───────────────────────────┘
                                                   │
                                                   ▼
┌───────────────────────────┐      ┌───────────────────────────┐
│ 4. Purification           │ <─── │ 3. Catalytic dehydration  │
│                             │      │    (3-HPA → AA)            │
└───────────────────────────┘      └───────────────────────────┘
              │
              ▼
┌───────────────────────────┐      ┌───────────────────────────┐
│ 5. Esterification         │ ───> │ 6. Downstream              │
│    (AA → acrylate ester)  │      │    polymerisation          │
└───────────────────────────┘      └───────────────────────────┘

Stage 1: Feedstock sourcing

Plant sugars (sugar cane, corn, beet), bioethanol, or bio-glycerol as a biodiesel by-product are sourced as the renewable carbon feedstock, replacing fossil propylene in the conventional acrylic-acid value chain.

Stage 2: Fermentation / bioethanol conversion

Engineered acid-tolerant yeast (Cargill’s Issatchenkia orientalis SD108 via the β-alanine pathway, Genomatica’s ACH1-knockout Saccharomyces cerevisiae) converts sugars to 3-HPA or directly to AA; alternatively, bioethanol is dehydrogenated to acetaldehyde and oxidised to acrolein via the conventional two-step route (Arkema, BASF).

Stage 3: Catalytic dehydration

3-HPA broth is catalytically dehydrated to acrylic acid over a heterogeneous dehydration catalyst, or acrolein is oxidised to acrylic acid — the stage at which the precursor-route (Cargill) and direct-fermentation route (Genomatica) converge on the same target molecule.

Stage 4: Purification

Crude acrylic acid is purified to glacial, polymer-grade acrylic acid suitable for downstream esterification or direct polymerisation into superabsorbent polymers.

Stage 5: Esterification

Polymer-grade acrylic acid is esterified with ethanol (Arkema Carling bio-based EA, BASF bio-based EA), butanol or 2-ethylhexanol to produce the corresponding acrylate ester monomers for the coatings and adhesives markets.

Stage 6: Downstream polymerisation

Acrylate monomers are polymerised into superabsorbent polymers for hygiene products, polymer dispersions for paints and coatings, and pressure-sensitive adhesives — the value-chain end where Arkema and BASF’s commercial bio-based acrylates already meet downstream customers.