Amyris adds flexible new line at Barra Bonita as Brazil fermentation hub expands commercial reach

Amyris has expanded its flagship precision fermentation plant in Barra Bonita, Brazil, with a new production line designed to give the company greater flexibility as demand rises for commercial-scale specialty molecules across multiple industries.

• Amyris completed construction of a new 2x 80m3 production line at its Barra Bonita precision fermentation plant in Brazil, adding capacity alongside the site’s three existing 2x 200m3 lines.
• The company said the line was built to improve scale-up, operational flexibility, and production efficiency for high-value specialty molecules serving customers at different commercialization stages.
• Amyris said the new line combined advanced automation, instrumentation, and process controls to support customized molecule production across sectors including food and beverage, agriculture, health, and flavor and fragrance.

The March 10 announcement marked another step in the evolution of Barra Bonita, which has become the centerpiece of Amyris’ manufacturing footprint and a key asset in its push to serve customers requiring tailored ingredients at commercial volumes. The new line has added a smaller 2x 80m3 configuration to the plant’s three existing 2x 200m3 lines, giving the company a broader production setup for different product and customer needs.

Rather than simply adding more of the same capacity, Amyris presented the investment as a move toward greater agility. The company said the line had been designed to accelerate scale-up and make it easier to produce high-value specialty molecules more efficiently, particularly for customers at different stages of commercialization. That mattered in markets where partners often moved from early development into larger-volume production on varying timelines, and where manufacturing flexibility could be as important as absolute scale.

Amyris described the Barra Bonita site as its flagship state-of-the-art precision fermentation plant and said the expansion came in response to growing demand for sustainable, resilient, and custom ingredients across a wide range of industries. Those sectors included flavors and fragrances, agriculture, health, food and beverage, and other markets where specialty molecules can command strong demand but also require consistent quality and process control.

Kathy Fortmann, Chief Executive Officer at Amyris, linked the expansion directly to customer demand and the company’s long-term manufacturing strategy. “Our plant in Barra Bonita is a truly world-class facility, and this exciting expansion is an important milestone as Amyris embraces growing customer needs and ensures our capabilities remain agile in the long-term,” she said. “As we create ingredients that hundreds of millions of people use every day, we hold ourselves to the same high standards of performance, quality, and sustainability that our partners seek. Our new line enables Amyris to say yes to more customers.”

That emphasis on agility ran throughout the announcement. In practical terms, the smaller configuration could give the company more room to handle molecules that did not require the scale of its larger lines, while also supporting smoother progression from development to commercial production. For a company operating across several end markets, that kind of flexibility could help it match infrastructure more closely to customer requirements.

Amyris also put heavy emphasis on automation and process intelligence in describing the new line. The company said the installation included advanced instrumentation, process controls, and state-of-the-art automation, presenting the new setup not just as additional hardware but as an upgrade in operational sophistication.

Adam Blaziak, Chief Operations Officer at Amyris, said those systems would sharpen the company’s ability to run fermentation processes with tighter control and efficiency. “The automation in our new line is unmatched and enables Amyris to create molecules with superior precision and control,” he said. “It maximizes efficiency, flexibility, and reliability through advanced engineering solutions and in-depth analysis of process performance using our data science capabilities. Together, these components make Amyris the go-to partner to create and produce customized molecules for industries from flavor and fragrance to agriculture, health, food and beverage, and more.”

The language reflected a broader theme in industrial biotechnology, where scale alone no longer defines competitiveness. Customers increasingly want manufacturing partners that can move between products, manage variability, and support different commercialization pathways without compromising quality. Amyris’ description of the new line suggested it saw that mix of flexibility, automation, and data-driven performance as central to its offer.

The company also cast the investment as a resilience play. It said the new line would improve operational resilience today while enabling future growth across markets for years to come. That point carried weight in a manufacturing environment where supply chain stability, production reliability, and the ability to respond quickly to customer demand have become increasingly important.

Founded in 2003, Amyris said it had built its business around renewable biological chemistry and advanced fermentation, first with a humanitarian goal of transforming drug access through biotechnology and later by expanding into a broader portfolio of specialty molecules. It now serves markets spanning flavors and fragrances, advanced materials, beauty and personal care, food, and other sectors.

The Barra Bonita expansion showed how that strategy continued to hinge on physical production assets as much as platform capability. By adding a more flexible line to an already substantial fermentation site, Amyris signaled that it wanted to widen the kinds of commercial programs it could support from Brazil, while reinforcing the plant’s role as a cornerstone of its manufacturing network.