Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits (LBDS), headquartered in Montreal, and Brazil-based Braskem, with North American headquarters in Philadelphia, have introduced a bio-acetone production platform designed to allow corn ethanol producers to generate renewable acetone alongside ethanol.

According to the companies, the platform combines LBDS' fermentation technology with Braskem's acetone recovery process to create an additional coproduct without affecting ethanol production performance. The companies said the technology has been under development and validation for five years and is now available to U.S. ethanol producers.

The process uses an engineered yeast strain that produces bio-acetone during fermentation. Braskem developed a bolt-on separation system to recover the bio-acetone from ethanol and will manage sales and market development for the renewable chemical.

According to the companies, bio-acetone is a drop-in replacement for fossil-based acetone and can be used in products including paints and coatings, adhesives, acrylics, cosmetics and personal care products. The companies said the product is derived from renewable feedstocks and is free of benzene and phenol.

The announcement expands Braskem's portfolio of renewable feedstock initiatives. In 2025, the company announced a collaboration with Norsk e-Fuel to evaluate integrating renewable e-naphtha into plastics production through carbon capture utilization technologies. That effort is intended to support the production of renewable and circular plastics by incorporating synthetic feedstocks into existing manufacturing value chains.