RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risks and uncertainties, together with all other information in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before investing in our common stock. Any of the risk factors we describe below could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. The market price of our common stock could decline if one or more of these risks or uncertainties actually occurs, causing you to lose all or part of your investment. Certain statements below are forward-looking statements. See the section entitled “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry

We have a limited operating history, a history of losses, anticipate continuing to incur losses for a period of time, and may never achieve or sustain profitability.

We are a development stage company that has only been in existence since October 2008 and, therefore, we have a limited operating history upon which you can base your evaluation of our business. As a result, any assessments of our current business and predictions you make about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could have been if we had a longer operating history. Since our inception, we have incurred substantial net losses, including net losses of $1.9 million from October 15, 2008 through June 30, 2009, $8.1 million for the year ended June 30, 2010, $2.1 million for the six months ended December 31, 2010 and $30.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. We expect these losses to continue. As of December 31, 2011, we had an accumulated deficit of $42.5 million. We expect to continue to incur substantial costs and expenses related to the continued development and expansion of our business, including those related to the development, continuation and operation of our additional manufacturing facilities, research, testing and development of new products and the growth of our sales and marketing efforts. We will need to generate and sustain increased revenues in future periods in order to become profitable. We cannot assure you that we will ever achieve or sustain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.

The funding, construction and operation of our future facilities involve significant risks, which may prevent us from executing our expansion strategy.

We currently make use of one demonstration facility in France, have secured funding commitments to start constructing the initial phase of a manufacturing facility in Sarnia, Ontario in 2012 and have plans to build two additional facilities, one in Thailand and another in either the United States or Brazil. The large-scale demonstration facility in France was constructed by Agro-industrie Recherches et Développements, or ARD. We have limited experience constructing a manufacturing facility of the type and size required to produce commercial quantities of chemicals, and doing so is a complex and lengthy undertaking that requires sophisticated, multi-disciplinary planning and precise execution. The funding, construction and operation of manufacturing facilities are subject to a number of risks, any of which could prevent us from executing on our expansion strategy.

Construction costs associated with future facilities may materially exceed budgeted amounts, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. We expect to spend an average of approximately $200 million per plant on construction and start-up operating costs for facilities in Sarnia, Ontario and Thailand in order to bring them to their expected maximum operating capacity. We estimate the initial phase of the Sarnia, Ontario plant will cost approximately $78 million, and will be mechanically completed in 2013. However, we may suffer construction delays or cost overruns, which may be significant, as a result of a variety of factors, such as labor and material shortages, defects in materials and workmanship, adverse weather conditions, transportation constraints, construction change orders, site changes, labor issues and other unforeseen difficulties,

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any of which could delay or prevent the completion of our planned facilities. As a result, we may not be able to expand our production capacity and product portfolio as quickly as we planned. While our goal is to negotiate contracts with engineering, procurement and construction firms that minimize risk, any delays or cost overruns we encounter may result in the renegotiation of our construction contracts, which could increase our costs.

In addition, the construction of our facilities may be subject to the receipt of approvals and permits from various regulatory agencies. Such agencies may not approve the projects in a timely manner or may impose restrictions or conditions on a production facility that could potentially prevent construction from proceeding, lengthen its expected completion schedule and/or increase its anticipated cost. If construction costs, or the costs of operating and maintaining our manufacturing facilities, are higher than we anticipate, we may be unable to achieve our expected investment return, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We may also encounter new design and engineering or operational challenges as we seek to expand the range of organisms and feedstocks we use. Any design and engineering or operational issues at our future facilities may result in diminished production capacity, increased costs of operations or periods in which our facilities are non-operational, all of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. We intend to obtain and maintain insurance to protect against some of the risks relating to the construction of new projects. However, such insurance may not be available or adequate to cover lost revenues or increased costs if we experience construction problems, cost overruns or delays. If we are unable to address these risks in a satisfactory and timely manner, we may not be able to implement our expansion strategy as planned or at all. In addition, in the event that our products are defective or have manufacturing failures, we may have to write off and incur other charges and expenses for products that fail to meet internal or external specifications. We also may have to write off work-in-process materials and incur other charges and expenses associated with contamination and impurities should they occur.

We may not obtain the additional financing we need in order to grow our business, develop or enhance our products or respond to competitive pressures.

We will need to raise additional funds in the future in order to grow our business. Any required additional financing may not be available on terms acceptable to us, or at all. Our ability to secure financing and the cost of raising such capital are dependent on numerous factors, including general economic and capital markets conditions, credit availability from lenders, investor confidence and the existence of regulatory and tax incentives that are conducive to raising capital. Current turmoil and uncertainty in the financial markets has caused banks and financial institutions to decrease the amount of capital available for lending and has significantly increased the risk premium of such borrowings. In addition, such turmoil and uncertainty has significantly limited the ability of companies to raise funds through the sale of equity or debt securities. If we are unable to raise additional funds, obtain capital on acceptable terms, secure government grants or co-sponsorships for some of our projects or take advantage of federal and state incentive programs to secure favorable financing, we may have to delay, modify or abandon some or all of our expansion strategies.

The amount of any indebtedness that we may raise in the future may be substantial, and we may be required to secure such indebtedness with our assets and may have substantial interest expenses. If we default on any future secured indebtedness, our lenders may foreclose on the facilities securing such indebtedness. The incurrence of indebtedness could require us to meet financial and operating covenants, which could place limits on our operations and ability to raise additional capital, decrease our liquidity and increase the amount of cash flow required to service our debt. If we experience construction problems, cost overruns or delays that adversely affect our ability to generate revenues, we may not be able to fund principal or interest payments under any debt that we may incur.

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Any effort to sell additional securities may not be successful or may not raise sufficient capital to finance additional facilities. The issuance of additional equity securities could result in dilution to our existing stockholders, including investors in this offering, and the newly-issued securities may have rights senior to those of the holders of our common stock. If additional financing is not available when required or is not available on acceptable terms, we may need to delay, modify or abandon our expansion strategy and we may be unable to take advantage of business opportunities or respond to competitive pressures, which could have a material adverse effect on our offerings, revenue, results of operations and financial condition.

We have generated only limited sales of bio-succinic acid to date, are dependent on a limited number of customers and face significant challenges to developing our business.

To date, we have only derived revenue from sales of approximately 144,500 pounds of samples of our bio-succinic acid to more than 12 customers. These sales were made in connection with our product and market development efforts and we have not made sales of any other products. In order to generate sales of our bio-succinic acid and our future products, we must be able to reduce our production costs and produce sufficient quantities of our products, both of which are dependent on our ability to build commercial-scale manufacturing operations. If we are not successful in constructing and operating planned manufacturing facilities or otherwise increasing our manufacturing capacity, developing products that meet our customers’ specifications and further advancing our existing commercial arrangements with strategic partners, we will be unable to generate meaningful revenue from the sale of our products. In addition, we depend, and expect to continue to depend, on a limited number of customers for sales of our bio-succinic acid. In the year ended December 31, 2011, 81% of our sales of bio-succinic acid were to Mitsubishi Chemical and International Flavor and Fragrances, Inc. In the future, a small number of customers may continue to represent a significant portion of our total revenue in any given period. We cannot be certain that such customers will consistently purchase our products at any particular rate over any subsequent period. A loss of, or any credit issues related to, any of these customers could adversely affect our financial performance.

Our prior success in developing bio-succinic acid may not be indicative of our ability to leverage our bio-succinic acid technology to develop and commercialize derivatives of bio-succinic acid and other bio-based building block chemicals.

The success we have had in manufacturing bio-succinic acid using our four carbon, or C4, platform to date may not be indicative of our future ability to develop and commercialize derivatives of bio-succinic acid, including bio-based 1,4 BDO and modified polybutylene succinate, or mPBS, and bio-based six carbon, or C6, building block chemicals, including adipic acid, caprolactam and hexamethylenediamine, or HMDA. Although we expect to be able to leverage our bio-succinic acid technology for use in higher value-added products, we have never produced derivatives of bio-succinic acid or bio-based C6 building block chemicals at commercial scale employing our processes. We may find that the new chemicals that we produce using our processes are more complex than we anticipated or require processes that we are unfamiliar with or which require larger scale development facilities than expected. The development of new products has required, and will require, that we expend significant financial and management resources. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant research and development expenses. If we are unable to devote adequate resources to develop new products or cannot otherwise successfully develop new products or enhancements that meet customer requirements on a timely basis, our products could lose market share, our revenues and/or margins could decline and we could experience operating losses. Although our management team has significant experience with industrial biotechnology, purification processes and chemical catalysis, the skills and knowledge gained in these fields and in the large-scale production of bio-succinic acid does not guarantee that we will be successful in our efforts to cost-effectively produce and commercialize bio-succinic acid derivatives or bio-based C6 building block chemicals at commercial scale.

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In addition, each of the chemicals that we plan to manufacture are used in multiple and diverse end-markets and applications, each of which present unique requirements, pricing pressures and competitors. As a result, we may not be able to sufficiently serve each end-market adequately. In order to effectively compete in the chemicals industry, we will need to, among other things, be able to adapt our development and production processes to meet the rapidly changing demands of the industry and our customers and ensure that the quality, performance attributes and cost of our bio-based products compare favorably to their petroleum-derived equivalents. In each end-market, there may also be barriers to entry due to third-party intellectual property rights or difficulties forming and maintaining strategic partnerships. In addition, the products currently derived from our processes and the feedstocks we use in the production of bio-succinic acid and our future products, may not be applicable to or compatible with demands in existing or future markets. We may not be able to identify new opportunities as they arise since future applications of any given product may not be readily determinable.

If we are not able to successfully develop, commercialize, produce and sell new products, we may be unable to expand our business. Consequently, we may not succeed in our strategy to expand our product platform as expected or at all. If our ability to expand our product platform is significantly delayed or if we are unable to leverage our bio-succinic acid platform as expected, our business and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

Demand for our bio-succinic acid, bio-based 1,4 BDO and other bio-succinic acid derivatives may take longer to develop or be reduced by technological innovations in our industry that allow our competitors to produce them at a lower cost.

The development of sufficient customer demand for bio-succinic acid, bio-based 1,4 BDO and other bio-succinic acid derivatives will be affected by the cost competitiveness of our products, and the emergence of more competitive products. The market for bio-based chemicals will require most potential customers to switch from their existing petroleum-based chemical suppliers. In addition, there has been intense growth and interest in bio-based chemicals, and these industries are subject to rapid technological change and product innovation. Our products are based on our proprietary fermentation and purification process, but a number of companies are pursuing alternative processes and technologies and our success will depend on our ability to maintain a competitive position with respect to technological advances. It is possible that those advances could make bio-succinic acid, bio-based 1,4 BDO and other bio-succinic acid derivatives less efficient or obsolete, causing the renewable chemicals we produce to be of a lesser quality than competing bio-based chemicals or causing the yield of our products to be lower than that for competing technologies. These advances could also allow our competitors to produce bio-based chemicals at a lower cost than ours. We cannot predict when new technologies may become available, the rate of acceptance of new technologies by our competitors or the costs associated with such new technologies.

Technological breakthroughs in our industry or innovations in alternative sources of bio-based chemicals could reduce demand for our products. Our technologies and products may be rendered uneconomical by technological advances, more efficient and cost-effective biocatalysts or entirely different approaches developed by one or more of our competitors. If we are unable to adopt or incorporate technological advances or adapt our products to be competitive with new technologies, our costs could be significantly higher than those of our competitors, which could make our facilities and technology less competitive or uncompetitive.

We are dependent on our strategic partners, licensors, collaborators and other third parties for research and development, the funding, construction and operation of our manufacturing facilities and the commercialization of our products. The failure to manage these relationships could delay or prevent us from developing and commercializing our products.

We have built our business largely by forming technology partnerships and licensing and other relationships with market leaders in the industrial biotechnology and chemicals industries. For example, through an exclusive worldwide license from Cargill, we are developing a next-generation microorganism that we believe will further increase productivity and reduce costs in the production of

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our bio-succinic acid. In addition, we are developing a proprietary purification process that we believe will provide a key cost differentiator to our competitors by reducing the cost profile of our products and the capital intensity of our plants. We have also entered into license agreements with DuPont, entities funded by the DOE, Celexion and others. We expect that our ability to maintain and manage these collaborations will be significant factors in the success of our business.

Also, we expect that our ability to maintain and manage partnerships for the funding, construction and operation of our manufacturing facilities will be a significant factor in the success of our business. The large-scale demonstration facility we operate in Pomacle, France is owned by ARD and is available to us for our exclusive use through a toll-manufacturing agreement with ARD. We have entered into a joint venture agreement with Mitsui for the financing and construction of an additional manufacturing facility in Sarnia, Ontario scheduled to begin construction in 2012 and we intend to work with Mitsui to build and operate two additional plants, one in Thailand and another to be located either in the United States or Brazil.

We are working with strategic partners and collaborators through whom we either own or license the technology needed to develop new specialty chemical products, such as: PBS and mPBS with Mitsubishi Chemical and PTT-MCC; esterification with Lanxess and Solvay; and compounded PLA/PBS resins grades with NatureWorks. We will rely on these partners to commercialize our products and the success of these relationships will impact the market opportunity and demand for our products across our target end-markets.

Our partnering or collaboration opportunities could be harmed and our anticipated timelines could be delayed if:

If any of these events occur, or if we fail to maintain our agreements with our strategic partners and collaborators, we may not be able to commercialize our existing and future products, further develop our business or generate sufficient revenues to support our operations. Additionally, our business could be negatively impacted if any of our industry partners undergoes a change of control or assigns the rights or obligations under any of our agreements.

Our operations are dependent upon certain raw materials and utilities, principally sugars, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, steam and electricity, which make us vulnerable to supply availability and price fluctuations.

We are vulnerable to the supply availability and price fluctuations of certain raw materials and utilities, principally sugars, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, steam and electricity. In many cases, we do not

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have long-term supply agreements in place, which may result in supply problems in the future. For example, we have not yet finalized supply agreements for the required feedstock or carbon dioxide for our planned facility in Sarnia, Ontario. Our operations may also be adversely impacted by the failure of our suppliers to follow specific protocols and procedures or comply with applicable regulations, equipment malfunctions and environmental factors, any of which could delay or impede their ability to meet our demand. Our reliance on third-party suppliers also subjects us to other risks that could harm our business, including that:

In the event one or more of our suppliers are unable to meet our supply demands, we may not be able to quickly replace them or find adequate supply from a different source. Any interruption or delay in the supply of sugars, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, steam or electricity, or our inability to obtain these raw materials and utilities from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, could impair our ability to meet the demands of our customers and expand our operations, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The price of our bio-succinic acid is based in large part on the price of sugars, which can be derived from corn, wheat or other feedstocks. Fluctuations in the commodity prices of sugars or other inputs required in our production processes may reduce our profit margins, especially if we do not have long-term contracts for the sale of our output at fixed or predictable prices. The price and availability of sugars or other inputs may be influenced by factors outside of our control, including general economic, market and regulatory factors.

Our production of bio-succinic acid is currently limited to a single demonstration facility owned by a third party.

Our bio-succinic acid is currently manufactured at a single large-scale demonstration facility in Pomacle, France, which is owned by ARD and is made available for our exclusive use through a toll-manufacturing agreement. Due primarily to the high cost of certain inputs, our production costs at this plant are substantially higher than we expect to achieve in our planned manufacturing facilities. For example, during 2011 our costs of glucose from wheat used in the large-scale demonstration facility we operate in Pomacle, France were 90% higher than the expected costs of glucose from corn wet millers to be used in our planned commercial-scale facility in Sarnia, Ontario. Our costs of steam and electricity in Pomacle, France were 200% and 80% higher, respectively, than the expected costs in Sarnia, Ontario. Direct labor costs and other raw material costs in France are also higher than we expect will be the case in North America. We anticipate having access to this facility until our planned facility in Sarnia, Ontario is mechanically complete.

As a result of our current dependence on a single large-scale demonstration facility, our operations and the growth of our business would be severely disrupted in the event of any material interruption at that facility. In addition, our dependence on ARD could also result in severe disruptions in our operations if ARD does not meet its contractual duties, provide quality services, meet expected

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deadlines or otherwise perform as expected under our toll-manufacturing agreement. Material interruptions may result from, among other things, operational difficulties, including equipment failures, contaminated fermentations, labor disputes, human error and cost overruns as well as disagreements with ARD. If operations at the Pomacle, France facility were significantly disrupted or if we were to incur additional costs associated with engineering or operational difficulties, it would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be successful in expanding our production capacity to produce the quantities of bio-succinic acid contemplated by our supply agreements.

Although our bio-succinic acid is currently being produced in a large-scale demonstration facility in Pomacle, France, we cannot provide any assurance that we will achieve our target performance rates in the future. In addition, pursuant to the renewal terms for our use of the facility, we are only guaranteed 60% of its capacity beginning on July 1, 2013, at or about which time we expect our planned manufacturing facility in Sarnia, Ontario to be mechanically complete. We expect to expand our bio-succinic acid production capacity by building a facility in Sarnia, Ontario, which has a projected full capacity of 34,000 metric tons of bio-succinic acid and 23,000 metric tons of bio-based 1,4 BDO, or some other reasonably equivalent combined production capacity of bio-succinic acid and bio-based 1,4 BDO. There is no guarantee that this facility will produce at full capacity, and even if we do meet these goals, we may encounter operational challenges for which we are unable to devise a workable solution or which may result in additional costs. In addition, our technology may not perform as expected when applied at our planned scale and any resulting adjustments to our process may result in additional costs or may cause us to change our projections. To date, we have entered into agreements that contemplate, but do not obligate, us to supply 139,000 metric tons of bio-succinic acid, contingent on meeting the customers’ price and other requirements and we are actively seeking to enter into additional supply agreements. Without increasing our production capacity with future facilities, we will not be able to produce sufficient amounts of bio-succinic acid to deliver the full amounts contemplated by these agreements and execute on our growth strategy.

We may not be able to successfully introduce new organisms and feedstocks into our processes.

We intend to introduce new organisms and feedstocks into our processes and are working to increase our conversion yields, feedstock flexibility, manufacturing efficiency and product range through our research and development efforts and strategic partnerships. We have partnered with Cargill and Mitsubishi Chemical to develop organisms that will potentially have higher yields and less contamination risk than E. coli , which is the organism we are currently using in our manufacturing processes. We may not, however, succeed in adopting a new organism for use in our manufacturing process for a number of reasons, including our inability to adapt our purification process for such organisms, the failure of the organisms to produce products that meet the quality standards of our customers and a higher than expected production cost as a result of using these organisms. We expect to adopt one or more new organisms in the future. When we do, the transition may not be as seamless as we expect, and the organism or organisms may require different operating conditions or otherwise differ from our expectations. We also plan to expand the range of feedstocks we use from the wheat-based sugar used in our demonstration facility in France to corn-based sugar in our planned manufacturing facility in Sarnia, Ontario and sugar cane and tapioca-based sugars in our planned Thailand facility. Although our processes are feedstock flexible, we may encounter unexpected difficulties as we expand the range of feedstock we use.

We may face unexpected challenges when we run our second generation purification process and fermentation process at a single facility.

We are piloting a second generation purification process through our agreement with a strategic technology partner. We have tested this purification process at our partner’s facility in conjunction with

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our fermentation processes in France. However, engineering issues, additional costs or other unforeseen obstacles may arise and create delays when we implement the two processes together at a single manufacturing facility. In addition to the second generation purification process, we are also working to improve the purification process that we currently use in order to reduce capital expenditures and other purification-related costs, but we cannot assure you that these efforts will be successful.

If we are unable to manage our growth and expand our operations successfully, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be harmed.

We have significantly expanded our business since our inception and have grown to 28 full-time employees and 46 full-time equivalents as of December 31, 2011. We currently conduct our business in several countries, including the United States, Canada and France, and we expect to continue to expand geographically in the future. In addition, certain key members of our management have recently joined our company. We expect our growth to continue and accelerate in connection with our expansion strategy and as we transition to operating as a public company. As our operations continue to expand, we will need to continue to manage multiple locations and additional relationships with various third parties. We may not be able to maintain or accelerate our current growth rate, manage our expanding operations effectively or achieve planned growth on a timely or profitable basis. Managing our anticipated growth and expanding our operations will require us to do, among other things, the following:

These enhancements and improvements will require significant capital expenditures and allocation of valuable management and employee resources, which will place a strain on our operational, financial and management infrastructure. Our future financial performance and our ability to execute on our business plan will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth and expansion. There are no guarantees we will be able to do so in an efficient or timely manner, or at all. Our failure to effectively manage growth and expansion could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have entered into certain non-binding letters of intent, memoranda of understanding and other arrangements with future customers and others, and cannot assure you that such arrangements will lead to definitive agreements, which could harm our commercial prospects.

We have entered into non-binding letters of intent, memoranda of understanding and other arrangements with future customers and others. For example, we have entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Tereos Syral S.A., a European producer of starch-based products, for joint construction of two plants that would be located in France and Brazil. We have also entered several other non-binding memoranda of understanding with third parties related to our development of

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products such as de-icing solutions. We cannot assure you that we will be able to negotiate final terms and enter into definitive agreements with any of our future customers or others in a timely manner, or at all, and there is no guarantee that the terms of any final, definitive, binding agreement will be favorable to us or reflect the terms currently contemplated under the letters of intent, memoranda of understanding and other arrangements we have. Delays in negotiating final, definitive, binding agreements could slow the development and commercialization of the products in our pipeline, which could prevent us from growing our business, result in wasted resources and cause us to consume capital significantly faster than we currently anticipate.

We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet the product specification requirements of our customers or that our products will be accepted by our target customers.

We are currently selling samples of our bio-succinic acid to customers today after having met their quality, purity, performance and cost requirements and intend to sell our product to other customers in the chemicals industry. These sales were made in connection with our product and market development efforts. We also intend to expand our market reach with the new products that we are developing as alternatives to the chemicals currently in use. Our potential customers include large specialty chemical companies that have well-developed manufacturing processes for the chemicals they use or pre-existing arrangements with suppliers for the chemical components they need. These potential customers frequently impose lengthy and complex product qualification procedures on their suppliers during which time they test and certify our products for use in their processes and, in some cases, determine whether products that contain the chemicals produced using our processes satisfy additional third-party specifications. Meeting these suitability standards could be a time-consuming and expensive process and we may invest substantial time and resources into such qualification efforts without ultimately securing approval by our customers. If we are unable to convince our potential customers that our products are equivalents of or comparable to the chemicals that they currently use or that using our products is otherwise beneficial to them, we will not be successful in expanding our market and our business will be adversely affected.

In addition, agreements for the sale and purchase of our products are customarily subject to the satisfaction of certain technical, commercial and production requirements. These agreements contain conditions that we and our counterparties agree on product specifications for our chemical products and that our products conform to those specifications. If we do not satisfy these contractual requirements, demand for our products and our reputation may be adversely affected.

A significant decline in the price of petroleum and petroleum-based succinic acid and other chemicals may reduce demand for our products.

The bio-succinic acid we produce is a renewable alternative to petroleum-based succinic acid. Based on our current financial modeling with respect to our planned facility in Sarnia, Ontario, we anticipate that if the price of oil falls below $35 per barrel for a sustained period of time, we may be unable to manufacture bio-succinic acid at that facility as a cost-competitive alternative to competing petroleum-based succinic acid products, which would adversely impact our operating results. The large-scale demonstration facility we operate in Pomacle, France has higher production costs due to higher raw material and utility costs and limited economies of scale due to labor and other fixed costs. For example, during 2011 our costs of glucose from wheat used in the large-scale demonstration facility we operate in Pomacle, France were 90% higher than the expected costs of glucose from corn wet millers to be used in our planned commercial-scale facility in Sarnia, Ontario. Our costs of steam and electricity in Pomacle, France were 200% and 80% higher, respectively, than the expected costs in Sarnia, Ontario. We also expect direct labor costs and other raw material costs to be lower in North America. In addition to the higher costs of good sold at the large-scale demonstration facility we operate in Pomacle, France, we continue to conduct research and development at the facility which

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reduces the efficiencies of our production runs and leads to higher fixed cost charges against our manufactured products. World prices for oil have fluctuated widely in recent years. For example, during 2008, the market price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil ranged from a low of $30.81 to a high of $145.66 and was $108.84 as of March 1, 2012. We expect that prices will continue to fluctuate in the future. Declining oil prices, or the perception of a future decline in oil prices, may adversely affect the prices we can obtain from our potential customers or dissuade potential customers from entering into long-term agreements with us to buy our products.

Some of our competitors have significantly more experience and resources than we do and technology developed by our competitors could become more commercially successful than our technology, which could negatively impact our results of operations and market share.

Competition in the bio-based chemicals business from other chemicals companies is well established, with many substantial entities having well-financed multi-national operations. Our products will compete against those produced by both start-ups, including Genomatica, Inc. and Myriant Corporation, and established companies, including a collaborative venture between DSM and Roquette Frères S.A. and a collaborative venture between BASF SE and Purac. Competition in the bio-based chemicals business is expanding with the growth of the industry and the advent of many new technologies. In addition to competing with new technologies, we also compete against traditional petroleum-derived chemicals, many of which are produced by large companies that have greater financial and other resources than we do. Larger companies, due to their better capitalization, will be better-positioned to develop and commercialize new technologies, build new production facilities and to install existing or more advanced equipment, which could reduce our market share and harm our business. Our ability to compete successfully will depend on our ability to develop proprietary technologies that cost effectively produce renewable alternatives to petroleum-based chemicals. Some of our competitors are developing new technologies that may be more successful than our technology. These competitors may also have substantially greater production, financial, research and development, personnel and marketing resources than we do or may benefit from local government programs and incentives that are not available to us. As a result, our competitors may be able to compete more aggressively and sustain that competition over a longer period of time than we could. Our technologies and products may be rendered less competitive by technological advances or entirely different approaches developed by one or more of our competitors. As more companies develop new intellectual property in our markets, the possibility increases of a competitor acquiring patent or other rights that may limit our products or potential markets, which could lead to litigation. In addition, we may be subject to aggressive competitive tactics from our competitors, who may use their strong positions in the market and established relationships with existing suppliers and customers to take measures that negatively affect our ability to compete effectively in this industry. Our inability to maintain our competitiveness and grow our market share may, adversely affect our results of operations and financial position, and prevent us from achieving or maintaining profitability.

Failure to obtain regulatory approvals or permits could adversely affect our operations.

While our business currently has all necessary operating approvals material to our current operations, we must obtain and maintain numerous regulatory approvals and permits in order to build and operate our planned manufacturing facilities, including our planned facility in Sarnia, Ontario. We may not always be able to obtain modifications to existing regulatory approvals and we may not always be able to maintain all required regulatory approvals. Obtaining necessary approvals and permits could be a time-consuming and expensive process, and we may not be able to obtain them on a timely basis or at all. In the event that we fail to ultimately obtain all necessary permits, we may be forced to delay operations of the facility and the receipt of related revenues or abandon the project altogether and lose the benefit of any development costs already incurred, which would have an adverse effect on our results of operations. In addition, governmental regulatory requirements may substantially increase our

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construction costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. If there is a delay in obtaining any required regulatory approvals or if we fail to obtain and comply with any required regulatory approvals, the operation of our facilities or the sale of our bio-based chemicals could be delayed. For example, many countries require registration of chemicals before they can be distributed in the country, and a failure to register our chemicals would limit our ability to expedite sales into these markets. In addition, we may be required to make capital expenditures on an ongoing basis to comply with increasingly stringent federal, state, provincial and local environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and permits.

We face risks associated with our international business.

We currently operate one large-scale demonstration facility located in Pomacle, France, and plan to build and operate additional manufacturing facilities in Sarnia, Ontario, in Thailand and in either the United States or Brazil. Our international business operations are subject to a variety of risks, including:

We expect that we will begin expanding into other target markets, however there can be no assurance that our expansion plans will be realized, or if realized, be successful. We expect each market to have particular regulatory, feedstock sourcing and funding hurdles to overcome and future developments in these markets, including the uncertainty relating to governmental policies and regulations, could have a material adverse effect on us. If we expend significant time and resources on expansion plans that fail or are delayed, our business, reputation and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.

Natural or man-made disasters, political, social or economic instability, or occurrence of a catastrophic or disruptive event in any of the areas where our existing or planned manufacturing facilities are located may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We currently operate a large-scale demonstration facility in Pomacle, France and plan to build and operate manufacturing facilities in Canada, Thailand and either in the United States or in Brazil. The operation of facilities may be harmed by natural or man-made disasters,

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including, without limitation, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, fires, tsunamis, epidemics and nuclear disasters. Our facilities and the manufacturing equipment we use would be very costly to replace and could require substantial lead time to repair or replace. In addition, telecommunications failures or other systems interruptions, such as computer viruses or other cyber-attacks, at any of the locations in which we do business could significantly disrupt our operations, laboratory processes and delay shipments to our customers. Even in the absence of direct damage to our operations, large disasters, terrorist attacks, systems failures or other events could have a significant impact on our partners’ and customers’ businesses, which in turn could result in a negative impact on our results of operations. Extensive or multiple disruptions in our operations, or our partners’ or customers’ businesses, due to natural disasters or other unanticipated catastrophes could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

In the event any of our facilities are affected by a disaster, we may:

Our precautions to safeguard our facilities, including insurance and health and safety protocols, may not be adequate to cover our losses in any particular case. Although we possess insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business from casualties, this insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. Moreover, our facilities may experience unscheduled downtime or may not otherwise operate as planned or expected, which could have adverse consequences on our business and results of operations.

We may incur significant costs complying with environmental laws and regulations, and failure to comply with these laws and regulations could expose us to significant liabilities.

We use biological materials and genetically-modified organisms, or GMOs, in our production processes and are subject to a variety of federal, state, and local laws and regulations governing the use, generation, manufacture and disposal of these materials. For example, the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, and analogous state laws and regulations impose requirements on the production, importation, use and disposal of chemicals and GMOs in the United States. In Canada, similar regulatory programs exist under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. In particular, a regulatory program similar to TSCA requires that Environment Canada to approve the manufacture of any chemical not already included on the Domestic Substances List, or DSL. At least one of our future products is not currently included on the DSL and we are working with Environment Canada to secure approval for its manufacture. If Environment Canada requires our product to undergo extensive further testing, which we currently do not anticipate, securing approval to manufacture the product could potentially be subject to significant delays or costs. In the European Union, we are subject to a chemical regulatory program known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemical Substances). Under REACH, we are required to register our products with the European Commission. The registration process requires the submission of information to demonstrate the safety of chemicals as used and could result in significant costs or delay the manufacture or sale of our products in the European Union.

We have currently obtained requisite regulatory approvals for use of E. coli in the large-scale demonstration facility we operate in Pomacle, France as well as in our research and development operations in the United States and Canada. In addition, Cargill, our strategic partner, has obtained regulatory approval to use their next generation yeast in the United States. Although we have implemented safety procedures for the disposal of these materials and waste products to comply with these laws and regulations, we cannot be sure that our safety measures are compliant or capable of

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eliminating the risk of accidental injury or contamination from the use, generation, manufacture, or disposal of hazardous materials. In the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our insurance coverage. There can be no assurance that violations of environmental, health and safety laws will not occur as a result of human error, accident, equipment failure or other causes.

Compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations may be expensive, and the failure to comply with past, present or future laws could result in the imposition of fines, regulatory oversight costs, third party property damage, product liability and personal injury claims, investigation and remediation costs, the suspension of production, or a cessation of operations, and our liability may exceed our total assets. We expect to encounter similar laws and regulations in most if not all of the countries in which we may seek to establish production capabilities, and the scope and nature of these regulations will likely be different from country to country. Environmental laws could become more stringent over time, requiring us to change our operations, or imposing greater compliance costs and increasing risks and penalties associated with violations, which could impair our research, development or production efforts and harm our business. Similarly, our business may be harmed if initiatives to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which tend to improve the competitiveness of our products relative to petrochemicals, do not become legally enforceable requirements, or if existing legally enforceable requirements relating to greenhouse gases are amended or repealed in the future. The costs of complying with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and any claims concerning noncompliance, or liability with respect to contamination in the future could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or operating results.

We use hazardous materials in our business and any claims relating to improper handling, storage or disposal of these materials or noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We use chemicals and biological materials in our business and are subject to a variety of federal, regional/state and local laws and regulations governing the use, generation, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these materials. Although we have implemented safety procedures for handling and disposing of these materials and waste products, we cannot be sure that our safety measures are compliant with legal requirements or adequate to eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination. In the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our insurance coverage. There can be no assurance that we will not violate environmental, health and safety laws as a result of human error, accident, equipment failure or other causes. Compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations is expensive and time consuming, and the failure to comply with past, present, or future laws could result in the imposition of fines, third-party property damage, product liability and personal injury claims, investigation and remediation costs, the suspension of production, or a cessation of operations. Our liability in such an event may exceed our total assets. Liability under environmental laws can be joint and several and without regard to comparative fault. Environmental laws could become more stringent over time, imposing greater compliance costs and increasing risks and penalties associated with violations, which could impair our research, development or production efforts and harm our business. Accordingly, violations of present and future environmental laws could restrict our ability to expand facilities, or pursue certain technologies, and could require us to acquire equipment or incur potentially significant costs to comply with environmental regulations.

Loss of key personnel or our inability to attract and retain additional key personnel could harm our research and development efforts, delay launch of new products and impair our ability to meet our business objectives.

Our business involves complex operations spanning a variety of disciplines that demands a management team and employee workforce that is knowledgeable in the many areas necessary for our operations. While we have been successful in attracting experienced, skilled professionals to our company, the loss of any key member of our management team or key research and development or

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operational employees, or the failure to attract and retain additional such employees, could slow our development and commercialization of our products for our target markets and executing our business plans. We may not be able to attract or retain qualified employees due to the intense competition for qualified personnel among biotechnology and other technology-based businesses and the scarcity of personnel with the qualifications or experience necessary for our business. Hiring, training and successfully integrating qualified personnel into our operation is a lengthy and expensive process. The market for qualified personnel is very competitive because of the limited number of people available with the necessary technical skills and understanding of our technology and anticipated products. If we are not able to attract and retain the necessary personnel to accomplish our business objectives, we may experience staffing constraints that will adversely affect our ability to support our internal research and development programs or satisfy customer demands for our products. In particular, our product development and research and development programs are dependent on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled scientific, technical and operational personnel. Competition for such personnel from numerous companies and academic and other research institutions may limit our ability to do so on acceptable terms, or at all. All of our employees are at-will employees, which means that either the employee or we may terminate their employment at any time.

In the ordinary course of business, we may become subject to lawsuits or indemnity claims, including those related to product liability, which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

From time to time, we may, in the ordinary course of business, be named as a defendant in lawsuits, claims and other legal proceedings. These actions may seek, among other things, compensation for alleged personal injury, worker’s compensation, employment discrimination, breach of contract, infringement of the intellectual property rights of others, property damages or civil penalties and other losses of injunctive or declaratory relief. In the event that such actions or indemnities are ultimately resolved unfavorably at amounts exceeding our accrued liability, or at material amounts, the outcome could materially and adversely affect our reputation, business and results of operations. In addition, payments of significant amounts, even if reserved, could adversely affect our liquidity position.

In addition, the development, production and sale of our products involve an inherent risk of product liability claims and the associated adverse publicity. Our products may contain undetected defects or impurities that are not discovered until after the products have been used by customers and incorporated into products for end-users. This could result in claims from our customers or others, which could damage our business and reputation and entail significant costs to correct. We may also be sued for defects resulting from errors of our commercial partners or unrelated third parties, but any product liability claim brought against us, regardless of its merit, could result in material expense, divert management’s attention and harm our business and reputation. Insurance coverage is expensive, may be difficult to obtain or not available on acceptable terms and may not adequately cover potential claims or losses. If claims or losses exceed our liability insurance coverage, we may go out of business. In addition, insurance coverage may become more expensive, which would harm our results of operations.

Adverse conditions in the global economy and disruption of financial markets may prevent the successful development and commercialization of our products, as well as significantly harm our results of operations and ability to generate revenue and become profitable.

As a global company, we are subject to the risks arising from adverse changes in global economic and market conditions. The worldwide economy has been experiencing significant economic turbulence, and global credit and capital markets have experienced substantial volatility and disruption. These adverse conditions and general concerns about the fundamental soundness of domestic and international economies could limit our partners’ or potential partners’ ability or willingness to invest in new technologies or capital. Moreover, these economic and market conditions could negatively impact our current and prospective customers’ ability or desire to purchase and pay for our products, or

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negatively impact our feedstock prices and other operating costs or the prices for our products. Changes in governmental banking, monetary and fiscal policies to address liquidity and increase credit availability may not be effective. Significant government investment and allocation of resources to assist the economic recovery of various sectors which do not include the bio-based chemical industry may reduce the resources available for government grants and related funding that could assist our expansion plans or otherwise benefit us. Any one of these events, and continuation or further deterioration of these financial and macroeconomic conditions, could prevent the successful and timely development and commercialization of our products, as well as significantly harm our results of operations and ability to generate revenue and become profitable.

If we engage in any acquisitions, we will incur a variety of costs and face numerous potential risks that could adversely affect our business and operations.

If appropriate opportunities become available, we may acquire additional businesses, assets, technologies, or products to enhance our business in the future. In connection with any future acquisitions, we could:

Acquisitions involve numerous risks, including problems integrating the purchased operations, technologies or products, unanticipated costs and other liabilities, diversion of management’s attention from our core businesses, adverse effects on existing business relationships with current and/or prospective collaborators, customers and/or suppliers, risks associated with entering markets in which we have no or limited prior experience and potential loss of key employees. We do not have experience in managing the integration process and we may not be able to successfully integrate any businesses, assets, products, technologies or personnel that we might acquire in the future without a significant expenditure of operating, financial and management resources, if at all. The integration process could divert management time from focusing on operating our business, result in a decline in employee morale and cause retention issues to arise from changes in compensation, reporting relationships, future prospects or the direction of the business. Acquisitions may also require us to record goodwill and non-amortizable intangible assets that will be subject to impairment testing on a regular basis and potential periodic impairment charges, incur amortization expenses related to certain intangible assets, and incur large and immediate write offs and restructuring and other related expenses, all of which could harm our operating results and financial condition. In addition, we may acquire companies that have insufficient internal financial controls, which could impair our ability to integrate the acquired company and adversely impact our financial reporting. If we fail in our integration efforts with respect to any of our acquisitions and are unable to efficiently operate as a combined organization, our business and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

As of December 31, 2011, we had approximately $36.9 million of federal tax net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs. In general, under Section 382 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” (as defined in Section 382 of the Code) is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs to offset future taxable income. We have not performed a detailed analysis to determine whether an ownership change has occurred after each of our previous issuances of common stock and warrants. In addition, if we undergo an ownership change in connection with or after this public offering, our ability to utilize NOLs could be limited by Section 382 of the Code. Future changes in our stock ownership, some of which

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are outside of our control, could result in an ownership change. Furthermore, we operate both in the United States and in certain jurisdictions outside the United States. Our non-U.S. operations may in the future generate taxable income that is subject to income or other taxes in the jurisdictions in which those operations are conducted. Each jurisdiction in which we operate may have its own limitations on our ability to utilize NOL or tax credit carryovers generated in that jurisdiction. Also, we generally cannot utilize NOLs or tax credits generated in one jurisdiction to reduce our liability for taxes in any other jurisdiction. Accordingly, we may be subject to tax liabilities in certain jurisdictions in which we operate notwithstanding the existence of NOLs or tax credits in other jurisdictions.

Ethical, legal and social concerns about genetically engineered products and processes, and similar concerns about feedstocks grown on land that could be used for food production, could limit or prevent the use of our products, processes and technologies and limit our revenues.

Some of our processes involve the use of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, such as AFP 184, the bacteria we licensed from entities funded by the DOE, and further modified. The use of GMOs is subject to laws and regulations in many countries, some of which are new and some of which are still evolving. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates the commercial use of GMOs as well as potential products from the GMOs. Public attitudes about the safety and environmental hazards of, and ethical concerns over, genetic research and GMOs could influence public acceptance of our technology and products.

While our bacteria licensed from entities funded by DOE has been approved for commercial use in France, the United States and Canada, and has been given the lowest classification in terms of risk, our ability to commercialize this bacteria in other countries and to develop and commercialize new organisms such as the Mitsubishi Chemical bacteria or the yeast licensed from Cargill could be limited by the following factors:

Any of the risks discussed below could result in increased expenses, delays or other impediments to our programs or the public acceptance and commercialization of products and processes dependent on our technologies or inventions. In addition, the subjects of genetically engineered organisms and food versus fuel have received negative publicity, which has aroused public debate. This adverse publicity could lead to greater regulation and trade restrictions on imports of genetically engineered products or feedstocks grown on land suitable for food production.

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Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our inability to adequately protect, or any loss of our intellectual property rights, could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our success will depend, in part, upon our ability to maintain patents and other intellectual property rights to protect our products from competition. We rely principally on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, confidentiality agreements, and physical security measures to establish and protect the intellectual property rights relevant to our business. We own or have rights in issued patents and pending patent applications in the U.S. and in certain other jurisdictions. These patents and patent applications cover various aspects of our technologies, including the microorganism (biocatalyst) we use in our fermentation processes, methods of producing our products, and the use of our products in specific applications. In addition, we generally enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees, consultants, contractors, collaboration partners and scientific and other business advisers. These measures, which seek to protect our intellectual property from infringement, misappropriation or other violation, may not be effective for various reasons, including the following:

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Our patent rights may not protect us against competition.

An important part of our business strategy is to obtain patent protection in the U.S. and in other countries from patent applications that we own or in-license from others that cover certain technologies used in, or relating to, our products and processes.

Interpreting the scope and validity of patents and success in prosecuting patent applications involves complex legal and factual questions, and the issuance, scope, validity, and enforceability of a patent cannot be predicted with any certainty. Patents issued or licensed to us may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. Moreover, third parties could practice our inventions in secret and/or in territories where we do not have patent protection. Such third parties may then try to sell or import resulting products in and into the United States or other territories. We may be unable to prove that such products were made using our inventions or infringed our intellectual property rights. Additional uncertainty may result from recent changes in the U.S. patent laws under the America Invents Act, which was signed into law on September 16, 2011 and from legal precedent handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court and the courts of other countries, as they determine legal issues relating to the scope, validity and construction of patent claims. Because patent applications in the U.S. and in many foreign jurisdictions typically are not published until 18 months after filing, if at all, and because the publication of discoveries in the scientific literature often lags behind the actual discoveries, there is additional uncertainty as to the priority dates of our inventions compared to inventions by others, and uncertainty as to the patentability of the claims in our pending patent applications and the validity and enforceability of claims in our issued patents. Accordingly, we cannot be certain that any of our or our licensors’ patent applications will result in issued patents, or if issued, the validity and/or enforceability of the issued patents. Although the patent applications we have in-licensed claim an earlier priority date, we cannot guarantee that our licensors’ patent applications will be granted, that the competing patent application will not be granted with claims that cover our proposed organism or processes, or that the competing patent applications will not be the subject of an interference proceeding.

Moreover, we cannot be sure that any of our or our licensors’ patent rights will be broad enough in scope to provide commercial advantage and prevent circumvention. Furthermore, patents are enforceable only for a limited term, and some of the U.S. patents that we have in-licensed exclusively relating to our biocatalyst will start to expire in 2015.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, or lawsuits asserted by a third party, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.

The success of our business is highly dependent on protecting our intellectual property rights. Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our products and/or technology. Policing the unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights is difficult, expensive, time-consuming

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and unpredictable, as is enforcing these rights against unauthorized use by others. Identifying unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights is difficult because we may be unable to monitor the processes and/or materials being employed by other parties. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a patent of ours or our licensors may be found invalid, unenforceable, anti-competitive or not infringed. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing.

Third parties may challenge our or our licensors’ patents via reexamination proceedings in the United States, opposition or cancellation proceedings in Europe, or similar proceedings in other jurisdictions. The outcome of these proceedings can be unpredictable and may result in the claims being substantially narrowed or cancelled altogether. As a result of the changes in U.S. patent law under the America Invents Act, third parties will, in the near future, be able to challenge our licensors’ patents with an effective filing date after March 16, 2013 by certain new procedures, including post-grant review and inter-partes review, which could result in the claims of the challenged patents being narrowed or even cancelled. Furthermore, in the United States, patents currently are awarded to the first person to make an invention rather than to the first person to file a patent application. Although the United States is transitioning to a first to file system under the America Invents Act, interference proceedings will still be conducted by the USPTO for the foreseeable future to determine which party was the first to create an invention. As result, interference proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by the USPTO may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications or those of our collaborators or licensors. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights from the prevailing party. As a result, our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Litigation or interference proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may take several years to resolve, result in substantial costs, and distract our management and other employees, and otherwise interfere with the running of our business. We may be unable to prevent, alone or with our licensors, infringement or misappropriation of our proprietary rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the U.S. Furthermore, because of the amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation.

We may be unable to enforce our intellectual property rights throughout the world, which could negatively affect our rights, competitive position and business.

We may in the future decide to build, or partner with others in building, manufacturing facilities using our technologies in countries other than the United States such as Thailand. We may not have sufficient patent or other intellectual property rights in those countries to prevent a competitor from using our or competing technologies. Furthermore, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Many companies have encountered problems in protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights in certain foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection. This could make it difficult for us or our licensors to prevent or stop any infringement of our or our licensors’ patents or misappropriation of the subject matter of our other proprietary or intellectual property rights. Proceedings to enforce our and our licensors’ patents and other proprietary rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or in-license.

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We may be unable to operate our business without infringing the intellectual property rights of others, which could subject us to costly litigation or prevent us from offering certain products which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Although we are currently unaware of any claims or threatened claims, our ability to manufacture and commercialize our proposed technologies, processes and products depends upon our and our licensors’ ability to develop, manufacture, market, license and/or sell such technologies, processes and products without violating the proprietary rights of third parties. Numerous U.S. and foreign patents and pending patent applications owned by third parties exist in fields that relate to our proposed technologies, processes and products and our underlying methodologies and discoveries. In addition, many companies actively police and enforce their intellectual property rights, including their patent rights, to gain a competitive advantage. Third parties may allege that our existing or proposed technologies, processes and products or our methods infringe their intellectual property rights. It is possible that the number and frequency of law suits alleging infringement of intellectual property rights may increase as the number of products and competitors in our market increases. In addition, to the extent that we gain greater visibility and market exposure as a public company, we face a greater risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims. We cannot be certain that the conduct of our business does not and will not infringe intellectual property or other proprietary rights of others. If the making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing of our proposed products or practice of our proprietary technologies or processes are found to infringe third party intellectual property rights, including patent rights, we could be prohibited from manufacturing and commercializing the infringing technology, process or product unless we obtain a license under the applicable third party patent and pay royalties or are able to design around such patent.

We may be unable to obtain a license on terms acceptable to us, if at all, and we may be unable to redesign our products, biocatalysts or processes to avoid infringement. Even if we are able to redesign our products, biocatalysts or processes to avoid an infringement claim, our efforts to design around the patent could require significant effort and expense and ultimately may lead to an inferior or more costly product and/or process. Any claim of infringement by a third party, even one without merit, could cause us to incur substantial costs defending against the claim, could distract our management and employees, and generally interfere with our business. Furthermore, if any such claim is successful, a court could order us to pay substantial damages, including compensatory damages for any infringement, plus prejudgment interest and could, in addition, treble the compensatory damages and award attorney fees. These damages could be substantial and could harm our reputation, business, financial condition and operating results. A court also could enter orders that temporarily, preliminarily or permanently prohibit us, our licensees and our customers from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing one or more of our products or practicing our proprietary technologies or processes, or could enter an order requiring us to undertake certain remedial activities. Any of these events could seriously harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We also rely in part on trade secret laws, confidentiality agreements, and security procedures, which can be difficult to protect and enforce, and which may not adequately prevent disclosures of trade secrets and other proprietary information; our failure to obtain or maintain such protections could adversely affect our competitive position.

We rely in part on trade secret laws and contractual agreements to protect some of our confidential and proprietary information, technology and processes, particularly where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. We have taken various measures to protect our trade secrets and other confidential or proprietary information, including requiring new employees and consultants to execute confidentiality agreements upon the commencement of employment or consulting engagement with us. However, trade secrets are difficult to maintain and protect and our security procedures may be insufficient to prevent disclosure of our trade secrets. In addition, discussions with our business partners, including our licensors, may require us to share confidential

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and proprietary information with them and other third parties. Our business partners’ employees, consultants, contractors or scientific and other business advisers may unintentionally or willfully breach their confidentiality and/or non-use obligations, including by disclosing our confidential or proprietary information to our competitors. Such agreements may be deemed unenforceable, fail to provide adequate remedies, or become subject to disputes that may not be resolved in our favor. Enforcement of claims that a third party has illegally obtained and is using trade secrets is expensive, time consuming and uncertain. In addition, foreign courts are sometimes less willing than U.S. courts to protect trade secrets. Our failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position. Furthermore, trade secret laws do not prevent our competitors from independently developing equivalent knowledge, methods and know-how that could be used to compete with us and our products.

We may lose our competitive advantage if our competitors develop similar, analogous or alternative organisms that produce biosuccinic acid or other competing chemical products.

We currently use proprietary microorganisms (biocatalysts) in our production of bio-succinic acid and other cellular metabolites such as C6 compounds. If our organisms are stolen, or misappropriated, they could be used by third parties for their own commercial gain, even though they may be in breach of our intellectual property rights. Furthermore, third parties may use similar or analogous organisms in jurisdictions where we or our licensors do not have patent protection. Third parties may also independently develop similar, analogous or alternative organisms that can also produce bio-succinic acid or other metabolites without infringing our intellectual property rights. If any of these were to occur, it could be difficult for us to discover, challenge or prevent the third party from using their organisms and competing with us in the production of bio-succinic acid or other metabolites.

Our rights to key intellectual property are in-licensed from third parties, and the limitation or termination of these and related agreements would be highly detrimental to us and our business.

We are a party to certain license agreements that provide us with the right to practice key technology used in our business. For example, we have entered into license agreements with UT-Battelle and UChicago Argonne for the organism we use to produce bio-succinic acid, Cargill for a yeast that is being developed to produce succinic acid, DuPont for catalysts and methods for converting succinic acid into 1,4 BDO, and Celexion for a procedure to make C6 compounds, such as adipic acid. All of these license agreements impose various obligations on us, including royalty payments and, in certain instances, milestone payments. If we fail to comply with these or other obligations, certain agreements provide that the licensors may have the right to terminate the license or convert the exclusive license to a nonexclusive license, in which case our competitors may gain access to these important licensed technologies, and we may be unable to develop or market products, technologies or processes covered by the licensed intellectual property. Often our licensors have the right to control the filing, prosecution, maintenance and defense of the licensed intellectual property and, if a third party infringes any of the licensed intellectual property, some of our licensors may control the resulting a legal or other proceeding against that third party to stop or prevent such infringement. As a result, our licensors may take actions or make decisions relating to these matters that could harm our business or impact our rights.

Certain key inventions in-licensed by us were made with funding received from U.S. government agencies, which could negatively impact our rights .

Some of the research undertaken on E. coli bacteria we have in-licensed from entities funded by the DOE was funded by grants from certain U.S. government agencies. As a result of U.S. government funding, the government obtained certain rights in any resulting patents and technical data, generally including, at a minimum, a nonexclusive license authorizing the government to practice or have practiced

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the invention or technical data pertaining to microbial production of bio-succinic acid using E. coli for or on behalf of the U.S. government. In the United States, government funding must be disclosed in any resulting patent applications, and our rights in such inventions are and will be subject to government license rights, periodic progress reporting, foreign manufacturing restrictions and march-in rights. March-in rights refer to the right of the U.S. government, under certain limited circumstances, to require us to grant a license to technology developed under a government grant to a responsible applicant, or, if we refuse, to grant such a license itself. March-in rights can be triggered if the government determines that we have failed to work sufficiently towards achieving practical application of a technology or if action is necessary to alleviate health or safety needs, to meet requirements of federal regulations or to give preference to U.S. industry. If the terms of a funding agreement are breached, the government may gain rights to the intellectual property developed in related research.

Furthermore, the terms of a research grant from a U.S. government agency may prohibit the use of new technologies developed using those grants in non-U.S. manufacturing plants, which could adversely affect our business. Under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, a party that acquires an exclusive license for an invention that was funded in whole or in part by a federal research grant is subject to the following government rights:

If we fail to meet these guidelines, we could lose our exclusive rights to patents and patent applications in-licensed from UT-Battelle, LLC and UChicago Argonne, LLC that are directed to the E. coli biocatalyst used in our process for manufacturing bio-succinic acid. Loss of these exclusive rights could be detrimental to our business because we may be required to convert our bio-succinic acid production process to a yeast-based, or other, process for manufacturing bio-succinic acid, and such conversion may interrupt our ability to manufacture bio-succinic acid and require further capital expenditures to adapt our manufacturing facility. We believe that our proposed manufacture and sale of bio-succinic acid using the in-licensed E. coli biocatalyst will be in compliance with requirements of the Bayh-Dole Act. In particular, we have received a waiver from the DOE, as to requirements to manufacture products in the United States, for our planned facility in Sarnia, Ontario. We may need to request additional waivers from the DOE as we expand our manufacturing capabilities.

Risks Related to this Offering and Our Common Stock

Our stock price may fluctuate significantly and the market price of our common stock following this offering may drop below the price you pay.

Prior to this offering, you could not buy or sell our common stock publicly. An active public market for our common stock may not develop or be sustained after the completion of this offering. We will negotiate and determine the initial public offering price with the underwriters based on several factors. This price may vary from the market price of our common stock after this offering. You may be unable to sell your shares of common stock at or above the initial offering price. The market price of our common stock could fluctuate significantly after this offering. In recent years, the stock market has experienced significant volatility, including with respect to technology stocks. The volatility of technology stocks often does not relate to the operating performance of the companies represented by the stock. These and other factors may cause the market price and demand for our common stock to fluctuate substantially, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their shares of common stock and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of our common stock. In addition, in the past, when the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have instituted securities class

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action litigation against the company that issued the stock. If any of our stockholders brought a lawsuit against us, we could incur substantial costs defending the lawsuit. Such a lawsuit could also divert the time and attention of our management from other business concerns.

Our principal stockholders will exercise significant control over our company.

After this offering, our two largest stockholders will beneficially own, in the aggregate, shares representing approximately     % of our outstanding capital stock. Although we are not aware of any voting arrangements that will be in place among these stockholders following this offering, if these stockholders were to choose to act together, as a result of their stock ownership, they would be able to influence our management and affairs and control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and approval of any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. This concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company and might affect the market price of our common stock.

Future sales of shares by existing stockholders could cause our stock price to decline.

If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intent to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after the 180-day contractual lock-up and other legal restrictions on resale discussed in this prospectus lapse, the trading price of our common stock could decline significantly and could decline below the initial public offering price. We cannot predict the effect, if any, that future public sales of these shares or the availability of these shares for sale will have on the market price of our common stock. Based on              shares outstanding as of                     , 2012, upon the completion of this offering, we will have outstanding             shares of common stock. Of these shares,              shares of common stock, plus any shares sold pursuant to the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, will be immediately freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market. Our officers, directors and certain stockholders have executed lock-up agreements preventing them from selling any stock they hold for a period of 180 days from the date of this prospectus, subject to certain limited exceptions and extensions described under the section entitled “Underwriting.” Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC may, in their sole discretion, permit our officers, directors and current stockholders to sell shares prior to the expiration of these lock-up agreements.

After the lock-up agreements pertaining to this offering expire, an additional              shares will be eligible for sale in the public market in accordance with and subject to the limitation on sales by affiliates as provided in Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. In addition,              shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans will become eligible for sale in the public market in the future, subject to certain legal and contractual limitations. Moreover, 180 days after the completion of this offering, holders of 242,469 shares of our common stock will have the right to require us to register these shares under the Securities Act pursuant to a shareholders’ agreement. If our existing stockholders sell substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, or if the public perceives that such sales could occur, this could have an adverse impact on the market price of our common stock, even if there is no relationship between such sales and the performance of our business.

Our financial results could vary significantly from quarter to quarter and are difficult to predict.

Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly in the future. As a result of these fluctuations, we may fail to meet or exceed the expectations of research analysts covering the company or of investors, which could cause our stock price to decline. Future quarterly fluctuations, many of which are beyond our control, may result from a number of factors, including but not limited to:

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Based on the above factors and other uncertainties, we believe our future operating results will vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year. As a result, quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year comparisons of operating results are not necessarily meaningful nor do they indicate what our future performance will be.

We will have broad discretion in how we use the net proceeds of this offering. We may not use these proceeds effectively, which could affect our results of operations and cause our stock price to decline.

We will have considerable discretion in the application of the net proceeds of this offering. We currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to construct additional facilities and for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including the expenses and costs of being a public company and possible investments in, or acquisitions of, complementary businesses, services or technologies. We also expect to continue to expend significant funds for research and product development. As a result, investors will be relying upon management’s judgment with only limited information about our specific intentions for the use of the balance of the net proceeds of this offering. We may use the net proceeds for purposes that do not yield a significant return or any return at all for our stockholders. In addition, pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from this offering in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value.

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Provisions of Delaware law and our charter documents could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company and could make it more difficult for you to change management.

Provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated by-laws, which will be effective upon the completion of this offering and provisions of Delaware law, may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions may also prevent or delay attempts by stockholders to replace or remove our current management or members of our board of directors. These provisions include:

The affirmative vote of the holders of at least 75% of our shares of capital stock entitled to vote, and not less than 75% of the outstanding shares of each class entitled to vote thereon as a class, is generally necessary to amend or repeal the above provisions that are contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Also, absent approval of our board of directors, our amended and restated by-laws may only be amended or repealed by the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 75% of our shares of capital stock entitled to vote.

In addition, upon the closing of this offering, we will be subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits business combination transactions with stockholders of 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock that our board of directors has not approved. These provisions and other similar provisions make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirers to acquire us without negotiation. These provisions may apply even if some stockholders may consider the transaction beneficial to them.

As a result, these provisions could limit the price that investors are willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. These provisions might also discourage a potential acquisition proposal or tender offer, even if the acquisition proposal or tender offer is at a premium over the then current market price for our common stock.

We do not intend to pay cash dividends. We have never paid dividends on our capital stock and we do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. Consequently, any gains from an investment in our common stock will likely depend on whether the price of our common stock increases.

We have not paid dividends on any of our capital stock to date and we currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future. Consequently, in the foreseeable future, you will likely only experience a gain from your investment in our common stock if the price of our common stock increases.

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No public market for our common stock exists and an active trading market for our common stock may not develop, which could limit your ability to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for shares of our common stock. Although we have applied to have our shares of common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, in connection with this offering, an active trading market for our shares may never develop or be sustained following this offering. The initial public offering price of our common stock will be determined through negotiations between us and the underwriters. This initial public offering price may not be indicative of the market price of our common stock after this offering. In the absence of an active trading market for our common stock, investors may not be able to sell their common stock at or above the initial public offering price or at the time that they would like to sell.

We will incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a public company and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

We will face significant legal, accounting, administrative and other costs and expenses as a public company that we did not incur as a private company. As a public company, we will be subject to rules and regulations that regulate corporate governance practices of public companies, including the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended, and rules promulgated by the NYSE. We expect that compliance with these public company requirements will increase our costs and make some activities more time consuming and may result in a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities. For example, we will create new board committees, adopt new internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures, and devote significant management resources to our Securities and Exchange Commission reporting requirements. A number of those requirements will require us to carry out activities we have not done previously. For example, beginning with our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed after our fiscal year ending December 31, 2013, we will need to document and test our internal control procedures, our management will need to assess and report on our internal control over financial reporting and our registered public accounting firm will need to issue an opinion on the effectiveness of those controls. Furthermore, if we are unable to build our internal controls and accounting capabilities or subsequently identify any issues in complying with those requirements (for example, if we or our registered public accounting firm identify a material weakness or significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting), we could incur additional costs rectifying those issues, and the existence of those issues could adversely affect us, our reputation or investor perceptions of us. We expect that the additional reporting and other obligations imposed on us by these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and the costs of our related legal, accounting and administrative activities significantly. These increased costs will require us to divert a significant amount of money that we could otherwise use to expand our business and achieve our strategic objectives.

If we fail to augment and maintain an effective system of internal controls, we might not be able to report our financial results accurately or prevent fraud. In that case, our stockholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which would harm our business and could negatively impact the price of our stock.

Although we are augmenting our internal controls and related staff in anticipation of becoming a public company, we are not currently required to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or to make an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. After becoming a public company, management will be required to deliver a report that assesses the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Additionally, Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may require our auditors to deliver an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting in conjunction with their opinion on our audited financial statements as of December 31 subsequent to the year in which this registration statement becomes effective.

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The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls and procedures, and expanding our internal accounting capabilities, is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to establish and maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company. The standards that must be met for management to assess the internal control over financial reporting as effective are complex, and require significant documentation, testing and possible remediation to meet the detailed standards. We cannot be certain at this time whether we will be able to successfully complete the implementation of controls and procedures or the certification and attestation requirements of Section 404. In connection with our most recent audit, our auditors identified two significant deficiencies related to segregation of accounting duties and formalization of costing methods to capture expenses to be presented as cost of goods sold. In the future we may have additional significant deficiencies, which could cause us to fail to meet the periodic reporting obligations that we will be subject to under Section 404 or result in material misstatements in our financial statements. If we identify and report a material weakness or any additional significant deficiencies, it could adversely affect our stock price.

Investors in this offering will pay a much higher price than the book value of our common stock and will experience immediate and substantial dilution.

If you purchase common stock in this offering, you will pay more for your shares than the amounts paid by existing stockholders for their shares. You will incur immediate and substantial dilution of $             per share, representing the difference between our pro forma net tangible book value per share after giving effect to this offering and an assumed initial public offering price of $             per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus. Any exercise of outstanding options and warrants will result in further dilution. For a further description of the dilution that you will experience immediately after this offering, see “Dilution.”

If securities or industry research analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about our business or if they issue unfavorable commentary or downgrade our common stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will rely in part on the research and reports that securities and industry research analysts publish about us, our industry and our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. Our stock price and trading volumes could decline if one or more securities or industry analysts downgrade our common stock, issue unfavorable commentary about us, our industry or our business, cease to cover our company or fail to regularly publish reports about us, our industry or our business.

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