Michelin, Danone setting up ‘biotech open platform’

Clermont-Ferrand, France - Michelin has started a collaborative project for the development of biomaterials at its Parc Cataroux centre for sustainable materials, Clermont-Ferrand.

The French group said 13 July that it had partnered with Danone, US-based startup DMC Biotechnologies and investor Crédit Agricole Center France.

The first phase of the project represents an investment of €16 million and will seek to create an 'open platform' to scale up advanced fermentation processes - in particular 'precision fermentation'.

Precision fermentation, according to Michelin, is a “revolutionary biotechnological process” for the production of bio-sourced materials and ingredients.

It uses microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast or fungi to produce proteins, enzymes and other molecules to produce bio-based materials.

The open platform aims to accelerate the development of precision fermentation by enabling the transition to “the pre-industrial scale of innovative products and processes already tested in the laboratory.”

The project plans to install a first demonstrator-scale manufacturing line in 2025, including a fermenter and a purification line.

Other additional equipment will be installed in the following years, including a second line.

The facilities will be primarily used to meet the specific needs of its founders, said Michelin.

At a later stage, it will be "gradually opened" to other companies facing challenges of scaling up in the industrial fermentation sector.