Amyris has announced that it has completed multiple runs of its fermentation process using Amyris engineered yeast to produce Biofene, Amyris renewable farnesene, in 100,000 and 200,000 liter capacity fermentors.

These runs were completed through contract manufacturing operations in North America and Europe. The results of these fermentation runs, including yields, were consistent with previous runs at smaller scale.

"These runs significantly de-risk our operations at industrial scale," said Jeff Lievense, senior vice president of process development and manufacturing at Amyris.

"These experiences have given us valuable insight into how our yeast will perform at commercial scale, and the fact that our yeast performance translated from lab to industrial scale is a strong testament to our technology and the capability of our scientists and engineers."

Amyris expects to commence commercial production of Biofene in the second quarter of 2011 and ramp production through manufacturing arrangements with entities including Biomin and Tate and Lyle.

In addition, Amyris and Grupo Sao Martinho, a leading sugar and ethanol producer in Brazil, have commenced site preparation on their joint venture production facility at Usina Sao Martinho. All of these facilities will utilize fermentors with capacities ranging between 100,000 and 600,000 liters.