Latest / The Manufacturing Podcast with Fexingo: Factories, Supply Chains, and Industrial Business
How a Japanese Factory Is Turning Food Waste into Industrial Chemicals
Episode 107 of The Manufacturing Podcast dives into a specific case: how the Japanese chemical company Mitsubishi Chemical is building a commercial-scale plant in Kasaoka, Okayama Prefecture, that converts unsold bento boxes, vegetable trimmings, and other food waste into succinic acid — a platform chemical used to make biodegradable plastics, resins, and pharmaceuticals. Lucas explains the technology: the waste is fermented by a genetically engineered strain of the bacterium Actinobacillus succinogenes, which produces succinic acid at high yield. The plant targets 5,000 tons of input per…
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