Under the agreement, Amyris and Michelin will partner to contribute funding and technical resources to develop Amyris’ technology to produce isoprene from renewable feedstocks. Amyris expects to begin commercializing this isoprene in 2015 for use in tire and other specialty chemical applications such as adhesives, coatings and sealants. Michelin is committed to off-take volumes on a ten-year basis. In addition, Amyris retains the right to market its renewable isoprene to other customers.

Amyris’s technology, currently used to produce at commercial scale a 15-carbon molecule called farnesene, can also convert plant-based sugars into isoprene, a 5-carbon molecule and main ingredient in the production of synthetic rubber. Isoprene has traditionally been produced as a by-product of the thermal cracking of naphtha to produce ethylene or via C₄ refinery stream synthesis. As the petrochemical industry adjusts to lighter cracking slates with the advent of shale gas, new sources of isoprene have become necessary.