Danone and Michelin’s €20M Fermentation Scale-Up Site Opens to Outside Projects in France

Danone and Michelin have opened a €20M fermentation scale-up site in Clermont-Ferrand, France, called Biotech Open Platform (BIOP). The facility, set up by the two companies along with four other partners, offers a complete fermentation line with capacity of up to 15 m³ and semi-industrial purification systems for advanced fermentation projects. The site aims to help start-ups and industrial companies develop and validate processes under conditions representative of industrial production to run application tests before committing to commercial manufacturing.

BIOP is open to companies working with yeasts, bacteria, microalgae, or fungi to produce proteins, enzymes, food ingredients, cosmetic actives, and bio-based materials. The facility operates with its own teams and infrastructure separate from its shareholders to protect client confidentiality and intellectual property. Michelin sees the site as a test bed for bio-based inputs, aiming to explore more sustainable, bio-based alternatives for certain molecules currently derived from petrochemicals. Other companies involved in BIOP, such as DMC Biotechnologies, highlight the importance of access to infrastructure and expertise in accelerating the industrialization of biology-based innovations.