Biotech Open Platform (BIOP) has begun operations at Michelin Innovation Park, Cataroux, in Clermont-Ferrand. The facility has welcomed its first advanced fermentation projects, marking the move from a venture announced in 2024 to an operating industrial biotechnology platform.
More than €20 million has been invested in its first phase. The facility includes a fermentation line with capacity of up to 15 m³, semi-industrial purification systems and process development equipment. It is open to start-ups, industrial companies and research organisations.
BIOP is designed to tackle a difficult stage in biotechnology: taking a process that works in a laboratory and testing whether it can perform reliably at a scale closer to industrial production. It can also produce volumes needed for application testing before a company commits to commercial manufacturing.
Florent Menegaux, Chairman of the Michelin Group, says: “With the inauguration of Biotech Open Platform, we are turning a strong conviction into an industrial reality: biotechnology will play a major role in the sustainable transformation of many sectors.
“By providing companies with an open infrastructure and leading expertise, we want to accelerate the transition from research to industry. For Michelin, this is an opportunity to explore new ways of replacing certain molecules currently derived from petrochemicals with more sustainable, bio-based alternatives. More broadly, this platform aims to become a catalyst for innovation in support of European competitiveness.”
Michelin is a founding partner alongside Danone, DMC Biotechnologies, Crédit Agricole Centre France, Clermont Auvergne Innovation and Greentech. Michelin says the platform offers an opportunity to explore bio-based alternatives to certain molecules currently derived from petrochemicals. That interest gives the opening relevance to future materials development, including the tyre industry.
The first projects have not been publicly identified by molecule or application, so a direct tyre-material outcome remains to be established. Michelin is also pursuing bio-based butadiene through its separate BioButterfly programme at Bassens, developed with IFPEN and Axens.
Tags: Michelin, Biotech Open Platform, BIOP, bio-based materials, advanced fermentation, industrial biotechnology, sustainable materials, Cataroux, Clermont-Ferrand, tyre materials
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