September 2010 Archives

Despite the lower-than-expected initial public offering (IPO) price of $16/share as opposed to between $18-$20/share, Amyris, the California-based synthetic biology start-up did pretty well as it raised nearly $85m on the first day and its stock closed at $16.85/share on the second day of trading at NASDAQ.

As Amyris is one of the first advanced biofuel/renewable chemical startup company that went public, the company is kind of a bell wether on how this industry will turn out in the financial world. So how did its venture backers fared with this initial trading? Here's a very interesting analysis from Fortune.com. The author noted that the company's series A investors, Khosla, Kleiner Perkins and TPG Biotech did pretty good with their investments with Amyris.

I have not really covered Amyris that much in the past so here's some pertinent info about this company.

Amyris started out as a non-profit venture with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to engineer microbes to produce artemisinin, an anti-malarial drug which was turned over to pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi-Aventis in 2008. Using its technology platform of tweaking microbes, the company focused on producing fermentation-based fuels and chemicals instead starting with its first soon-to-be-commercialized product, beta-farnesene, a 15-carbon hydrocarbon sesquiterpene. (Does this molecule ring a bell? Hello Allylix!)

According to Wikipedia (sorry, no time to scour the web scientific journals), the isomer part of beta-farnesene is a constituent of various essential oils or could also be from an aphid pheromone. Several plants, including potato species, have been shown to synthesize this pheromone as a natural insect repellent.

Amyris' beta-farnesene, under the trademark Biofene, is being created as a cost-economic chemical building block to replace petroleum-based materials (and higher-priced natural-based materials) initially focusing on emollients, flavors and fragrances, surfactants for various consumer and commercial purposes, isoprene, industrial and automotive oils and lubricants, and transportation fuels.

Like any other sesquiterpenes in the market right now, volume of beta-farnesene currently being sold is very small, hence prices are high.

According to Amyris' IPO prospectus, the company expects to soon produce 600 million liters of farnesene production and high value product sales annually using Brazilian sugarcane as feedstock. Their strategy is to work with Brazilian sugar and ethanol producers to build new, bolt-on facilities. Their first such arrangement is their joint venture with Usina São Martinho, a subsidiary of São Martinho S.A., one of the largest sugar and ethanol producers in Brazil.

Amyris said it needs access to 12 million tons/year of sugarcane crush capacity. Of course the biggest risk the company has to face is when sugar price becomes to high! According to Amyris, Brazil crushes over 600 million tons of sugarcane annually to provide feedstock to approximately 400 sugar and ethanol mills.

Amyris started its 5,000 liter demonstration facility in Brazil in September 2009 and was also able to produce farnesene in a 60,000 liter fermentor at a contract manufacturing facility in the U.S. The company is in the process of establishing and implementing contract manufacturing capabilities in Brazil and North America.

Commercialization of their first farnesene-based specialty chemical products are expected next year using contract manufacturers, Their first capital light production facility via the Usina São Martinho is expected to start in the second quarter of 2012. Amyris already entered development and commercialization deals with Procter & Gamble, Cosan, M&G, Soliance and Total:

• Cosan : a term sheet with Cosan for the formation of a joint venture to
develop and commercialize farnesene-based specialty chemicals for industrial
and automotive applications.

• M&G : a collaboration agreement with M&G Finanziaria S.R.L. that establishes
the terms under which M&G may purchase our farnesene for use in M&G's
polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, resins to be incorporated into
containers for food, beverages and other products.

• P&G : a supply agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company that establishes
terms under which P&G may purchase our farnesene for use in its products.

• Soliance : an agreement with Soliance for the development and
commercialization of farnesene-based squalane for use as an ingredient in
cosmetics products.

• Total : a collaboration agreement with Total Gas & Power USA Biotech, Inc.,
an affiliate of Total S.A., that covers the research, development and
commercialization of chemical and fuel products.

Sorry for the delay on this post. The last day at Biobased Chemicals East held in Boston two weeks ago saw familiar presentations from DSM, OPX Biotechnologies, Verdezyne, and Rivertop Renewables. Rennovia also formally introduced itself to the green chemicals community in one of the morning sessions.

DSM's presentation was about having an open innovation within the industry by using internal and external ideas, and to profit from outside R&D and other's IP. An example is their industrial park/campus Chemelot in Europe where different companies and R&D institutions/schools are sharing infrastructure, costs, knowledge and networks to innovate.

DSM also noted that they are developing/moving products within the next 5 years that will fit within the "cradle-to-cradle" concept using lifecycle analysis (LCA). Another project is focusing on cellulosic-based feedstock for chemical manufacture.

As noted in other previous DSM blog posts, the company is working on bio-succinic acid in collaboration with Roquette and has several venturing investments in green chemicals companies such as Novomer, Segetis, Tianjin Green Biosciences (for PHA plastic) and the latest was in Microbia. DSM also introduced this year its bio-based engineering plastic EcoPaxx and biobased composite resin Palapreg Eco.

OPX Biotechnologies' Chas Eggert talked about its plans to advance its bio-acrylic acid manufacture to demo scale next year, and to commercial-scale via joint venture by 2014. OPX noted current global capacity of acrylic acid at 43m tonnes and global value of acrylic acid at $8bn. Eggert said they have achieved 95% of cost reduction goals toward commercial target of 50 cents/lb within 12 months only, which is faster than what they have anticipated.

For bio-adipic acid producers Verdezyne and Rennovia, I actually wrote an article about their presentations, which was just published this Monday on ICIS Chemical Business. Unfortunately, it's for subscribers only.  The gist of the article was that both companies are aiming for commercialization within 2014. Verdezyne and Rennovia estimated the global adipic acid market at 4.8bn pounds as of 2009 with growth rate of around 4-5%. Verdezyne noted that the market pull for adipic acid are in polyurethane (20%) and polyamide (70%). Eng'g plastics are the strongest of all potential markets, according to Damien Perriman.

Pls. read recent blog posts on Rennovia and Verdezyne for further updates on the companies.

Last but not the least, Rivertop Renewables' Jim Stoppert talked about their glucaric acid as the company readies to begin customer shipments (for detergent applications) by mid-2011. Stoppert said the quickest way for their glucaric acid to get into market is via detergents application as alternative to phosphate.

A panel consists of Weyerhauser, Bayer MaterialScience, DSM and Dow Chemical, also discussed partnerships and investment strategies, pros and cons of drop-in chemicals vs novel green molecules (most prefer drop-in chemicals by the way); and intellectual property (IP) headaches - and how this is sometimes unnecessary.

Dow, DSM and Bayer actually have their own venturing businesses which are currently on the lookout for companies that (usually) will fit within their strategic chemical portfolio.Bayer noted by the way that they are interested in looking for partnerships around biobased feedstock.

From ICIS News (requires subscription):
OPX plans to start commercial bio-acrylic acid production in '14

GlycosBio develops biochems from fatty acid fermentation

US Rennovia to start commercial bio-adipic acid production in '14

Here are this week's [late] news roundup. Pls. also read the blog's first Opinion post from our guest blogger Sam Nejame of Promotum. I hope we'll get more of these types of articles for the blog.

Bioplastic producer Novamont signed a deal with Thantawan Industry for the distribution of its Mater-Bi bioplastic in Thailand. If a positive market will result, Novamont said it is willing to establish a plant manufacturing starch-based Mater-Bi bioplastics made from cassava starch in Thailand.

LPP Combustion, LLC demonstrated their conversion of biodiesel and other liquid fuels into inert gas creating a substitute natural gas (LPP Gas™), which is then used to power combustion device. LPP Combustion installed a demonstration unit in Columbia, MD.

Rhodia has joined with the UK's Carbon Trust in a £4.5m ($7.1m) equity offering of the solar energy start-up Eight19 to develop "organic photovoltaic" technology. Eight19, which was spun out of Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory, is now moving to a commercial phase to develop, manufacture and sell high performance, low-cost printed solar modules for high-growth volume markets.

DuPont and Royal DSM is forming a 50-50 joint venture named Actamax Surgical Materials LLC to develop, manufacture and commercialize advanced surgical biomedical materials addressing the market for surgical sealants, adhesion barriers and tissue adhesives. The JV will build a biomedical product portfolio based on several patent-protected biodegradable hydrogel technologies.

Royal DSM acquired US-based industrial biotechnology R&D firm Microbia, Inc. from Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Microbia's technology platform focuses on production of natural carotenoids (including β-carotene and canthaxanthin), nutritional products and other specialty materials and chemicals from renewable resources.

BlueFire Renewables made an off-take agreement with Tenaska BioFuels for the purchase and sale of all ethanol produced at BlueFire's planned cellulosic ethanol facility in Fulton, Miss. Pricing of the 15-year contract follows a market-based formula structured to capture the premium allowed for cellulosic ethanol compared to corn-based ethanol.

Cereplast has partnered with Sezersan Ambalaj (Sezersan), a subsidiary of Asc Group in Turkey, to produce bio twist films made from Cereplast Compostables resins, which will serve as wrap packaging for a variety of food products distributed throughout Europe. Cereplast will begin monthly shipments of 100 to 150 metric tons of bio resin in December 2010.

Several homeowners living next to a bioplastics plant in Iowa have sued their neighbour, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), accusing it of running a loud, smelly operation.

Groups and associations are debating changes to Mexico City's law regulating plastic bags, which went into effect about a month ago. Confusion ensued about its implementation, bringing complaints from all sectors of the plastic industry.

Germany's chemical industry wants the EU to significantly simplify its directive on permitting biocides in the €1.5bn ($2.0bn) EU market.

I am encouraging the green blog readers to submit their views and opinions about what is going on in the green chemical space. Here's our first one from Sam Nejame, founder of Promotum.

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Doris is a great voice for green chemicals and it's an honor to be able to contribute to her blog. I always like reading about what she thinks is interesting. Here are some of my recent takes on what's going on (in three little green pieces).

What's in a name? 
A number of things strike me these days as I read the trade press, attend conferences, and pour over the recent spate of S1 filings. For one, the shift in how companies identify themselves is telling. Biofuels used to be cool. Everyone was a biofuels company. No more.

Now, many identify as chemical companies first and biofuels companies second. Startups Gevo and Amyris have made the switch in their literature, while Cobalt Biofuels recently changed its name to Cobalt Technologies and Aurora Biofuels mutated to Aurora Algae. Overall, there's been a lot of rebranding since we've failed to meet those pesky cellulosic ethanol mandates. Are investors getting impatient, is it the start of another industry shakeout or have companies realized higher margins are to be had in chemicals? Stay tuned for more rough weather, it's probably all of the above.

Free Money
One thing that hasn't changed in the last year is the appetite for government grants, loans and loan guarantees. Attend any green conference and there's bound to be at least one panel that could be titled "How to Squeeze More Money Out of the Feds."

As someone who has helped companies apply for DOE, ARPA-E, USDA and other grants, I've had an interesting seat at this lottery. And lottery it is. While, I've helped companies win grant money I've done so with mixed feelings. Without a doubt the application process consumes significant time and resources. And I've seen more companies than I care to mention applying for grants outside their core competence, either trying to use it for branding or to establish themselves as thought leaders.

Of course it sounds great - hey, who doesn't like "free" non dilutive capital - Unfortunately, free can quickly become something else when the check arrives and you actually have to execute. If it's pure R&D that's one thing, guys clinking test tubes are guys clinking test tubes, but scaling up or building capacity? That's hard work if you've never done it before. Actually, it's hard work even if you have done it before. Not to mention the reporting requirements. So, note to self, make sure it's in your critical path and you have a true competitive advantage. More runway is always good, but the odds are not in your favor. Those applying should think carefully.

Tax v. Mandates
While it's often discussed that there is no RFS equivalent (get out your hockey stick) mandate for the chemical industry and the feds should do more to push for green routes to chemicals, I'd argue that their relative lack of involvement is a good thing. The reality is that giving out money - a few hundred million dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to the size of the chemicals markets. If you really want to get cash to the companies and projects that can best use it, we need a carbon tax. It's simple, it's elegant, and while a tax never sounds good, it's the right thing to do. No one doubts that chemicals made from green (read carbon neutral) routes will have to perform as well or better than their petroleum counterparts and that they'll have to do it at similar cost. So, doesn't it make sense to include the true cost to the environment in all materials? Even right leaning University of Chicago economists agree. We need a carbon tax.

Sam Nejame is the Founder of Promotum, a management consulting firm specializing in technology commercialization and business development.

The green blog has been noticing constant new chemical introductions focusing on the photovoltaics market and today, DuPont confirmed in a webcast the profitability of this sector to their electronics and communications business.

DuPont said it expects this year to achieve $1 billion in revenue from sales into the photovoltaic (PV) market -- one year ahead of schedule, driven by new market-driven innovations that improve solar module efficiency and performance, bringing costs down in line with other forms of energy. The company expects to exceed $2bn in sales by 2014.

"Several notable new product launches this year have helped us to accelerate growth above market. We also are investing in greater production capability and partnering with our customers to help keep pace with the fast-rising global demand," said Dave Miller, president of DuPont Electronics and Communication.

This month, DuPont announced the expansion of its Solamet® PV metallization pastes production in Manati, Puerto Rico; Dongguan, China; and Taoyuan, Taiwan. The investment, which is expected to be completed next year, will more than double DuPont's total Solamet® production capacity.

The PV metallization pastes are made from silver and other materials, which collect electricity produced by the solar cell and transport it out of the cell. They play a critical role in how efficiently PV modules turn sunlight into electricity.

In late August, DuPont started its newly expanded polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) polymer resin capacity in Fayetteville, N.C. The resin is a critical raw material used to make DuPont's Tedlar® PVF film, which is a component of PV backsheets. The company is also increasing its Tedlar® film production production, which is expected to start up at Circleville, Ohio, in September 2011.

In June, DuPont opened its North American PV applications lab in Wilmington, Del., to support PV materials development. The lab is expected to accelerate introduction of new PV materials and engineering innovations by linking DuPont science and engineering with full-size module fabrication and state-of-the-art testing capabilities.

Here is Miller's webcast presentation which showed where growth of PV installations are coming from between 2010 and 2014 (USA at the top followed by Germany). PV growth is forecasted between 25-30% between 2010 and 2015.

Honeywell Announces New Materials for Increased Efficiency of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells

Arkema's plastics aid photovoltaics boom

Dow Solar to Begin Hiring For Midland Plant

Ferro Expands Photovoltaic Technology Center Capability in Asia

Suntech Solar Panels Certified for Ammonia Resistance

JA Solar and ECN Join Efforts to Introduce High Efficiency Photovoltaic Modules

Solutia Completes Acquisition of Etimex Solar

Saint-Gobain to Build a Second Plant to Produce High-Efficiency Photovoltaic Modules

Clariant sets new limits in solar heating

Solar Photovoltaics: Opportunities for Manufacture and Use

Major Investments Drive Growth of German Solar Industry

Emergence of New Photovoltaics Products Enables Widespread Use of Solar Power

Frito-Lay Modesto Powers Facility With Help From the Sun

Underwriters Laboratories Expands Its Global Photovoltaic Footprint to Japan

Intertek Doubles Its North American Solar (PV) Testing Capacity

My second day at the Biobased Chemicals East conference in Boston last week saw familiar companies such as Allylix, Avantium, Elevance, Novomer, Purac, DNP Green, Genencor, Myriant, and Metabolix. However, there are two companies that were new to me: Anellotech and Arzeda. We'll get to those two later in another post.

I was finally able to meet Carolyn Fritz, CEO of Allylix, in person as well as get to hear other interesting information about the company's technology from VP of R&D Richard Burlingame. If you recall from my recent post about Allylix, the company specializes in the cost-economic production of fermentation-based sesquiterpenes for flavors and fragrance application (among others).

Their recent commercialized products are valencene, an orange flavor and fragrance; and nootkatone, a grapefruit flavor and fragrance. According to Burlingame, one fully-developed commercial scale fermentation based on their technology will produce as much valencene as 1.2m tonnes of oranges!

He also noted that the biobased market today already holds 10-20% of the global specialty chemicals sector, and is expected to grow to 45-50% by 2025. Biobased market potential within the $200bn fine chemicals market is expected to grow by 45-50% as well from today's 20-25% range. The fine chemicals sector is already familiar with biotechnology products after all such as flavors and fragrances, vitamins, food ingredients, enzymes, nutraceuticals, pharmaceutical intermediates and cosmetic chemicals.

Not much new information from bio-succinic acid producers DNP Green and Myriant. I have yet to sit face-to-face with Alif Saleh, senior director of Myriant's global specialty chemicals business but I'm sure there will come a time soon. Meanwhile, Saleh noted the company's ongoing project in building their 30m lb/year commercial succinic acid plant in Lake Providence, Louisiana, funding courtesy of the Department of Energy ($50m) and the Louisiana state ($10m).

The plant is expected to start-up in Q4 2011. Saleh said several supply agreements were already signed for the first production train coming from the plant, and that over 50 customers have already sampled their succinic acid. The company does not expect any green premium for their products.

Myriant's feedstock is based on starch although Saleh said they will be able to transition to cellulosic sugars once the economics are there.

I'm sure you've already read about my recent posts regarding Purac's lactic acid/lactide activities although it is interesting to note that the global lactic acid market is currently estimated at 250,000 tons excluding the volume used to produce polylactic acid (PLA).

According to Edward Ludwig, Purac's business development manager, the company is aiming to create superior heat resistant PLA based on L and D lactides for its second generation PLA product. The third generation PLA will be based on a gypsum-free lactic acid process that are carbon neutral, while the 4th generation PLA will use biomass as substrate.

By the way, in case our good readers forget, Purac is working on bio-succinic acid as well in joint development with BASF. Ludwig estimated global sales of biobased chemicals were at EUR 49bn ($66bn) in 2007 and is expected to grow to EUR 135bn in 2012.

Not much updates on bioplastic developer Metabolix and bio-isoprene producer Genencor as well. Metabolix reiterated that their joint venture Mirel bioplastic plant with Archer Daniels Midland is already operating in Clinton, Iowa.

Metabolix is also developing specialty C4 chemicals via fermentation with initial focus on GBL and pyrrolidones. Scale-up activities and customer evaluations are already underway for these two chemicals. The specialty C4 chemicals market is estimated at $800m.

For more on Genencor's bio-isoprene, read this recent article from ICIS Chemical Business.

I have also posted in the blog my recent interview with Elevance. The company's chief scientific officer Steve DiBiase explained at the Biobased Chemicals conference how they were able to manipulate plant oil molecules into the desired compounds they are looking to produce such as 9-decenoic acid methyl ester and 9-dodecenoic/9-octadecenedioic acid methyl esters using metathesis reaction.

Here is a flowchart of their biorefining process:

As for Novomer, received a $20.6m DOE funding for its carbon dioxide-based polymers development last July. The company has two platforms, one to produce chemicals and polymers using carbon monoxide catalyst, and the other to produce high performance plastics, coatings, composites and surfactants using CO2 catalyst.

One example from the CO2 platform is the production of polypropylene carbonate polyol containing more than 40% by weight of CO2. Business potential for this platform is estimated at $20bn (or greater than 8.5m tons), according to Novomer VP of business development Peter Shepard.

The Novomer polyol also has the potential to replace bisphenol-A in epoxy lining of a can. Shepard said 1.4 grams of CO2 per can  can also be avoided with the use of this polyol.

I mentioned Avantium last year with their development of furanics-based polymers. Avantium's furanics are made from C6 sugars using the company's catalytic biomass conversion.

An interesting information relayed by Avantium's Dirk Den Ouden, director for new business development, is the possibility of creating 100% renewable-based polyester like PET by using biobased ethylene glycol and replacing purified terephthalic acid (PTA) with Avantium's platform chemical 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA).

According to Ouden, FDCA has a lot of potential applications not only in polyesters but also polyamides, polyurethanes, thermosets and plasticizers. Compared to PTA, which saw average price of around EUR 600-1200/tonne, FDCA price is comparable at estimated EUR 500-1200/tonne based on a 2005-2009 raw material prices.

Avantium plans to have a 20 ton/year pilot plant for its furanics-based monomer and polymer production starting by early next year. A demonstration plant of around 1,000 ton/year is estimated at 2012 and an industrial plant with capacities between 10,000 and 100,000 tons/year is expected by late 2014.

The company is also currently collaborating with NatureWorks on Furanics polyesters. Avantium is also working on the development of furanics-based biofuel.

From ICIS News (requires subscription):

US DNP Green aims to lower bio-succinic acid price by 25-35c/lb

Day one of the Biobased Chemicals East conference gave the green blog an opportunity to hear the side of end consumer companies looking to capitalize on the use of renewable-based chemicals such as wheat straw-based polypropylene in Ford Motor's cars; biobased surfactants on Henkel's cleaning products; PLA-based fibers for US carpet maker Interface; and PLA-based polystyrene foam trays from Canadian manufacturer Dyne-a-Pak.

Frank Roland Schroeder of Henkel noted that among detergent feedstock, surfactant is the one that has the greatest potential to create a bio-based material. As of 2008, surfactant use in detergent application in Germany amounted to 200,000 tons, said Schroeder. Of course, the detergent market is already using other renewable-based materials such as enzymes, citrates, some of the alcohols, and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC).

The surfactant industry is already using vegetable oils like palm kernel oil and coconut oil as feedstock. Henkel also touched briefly on how the palm oil industry is trying to commit to sustainable sourcing and production of palm oil via the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) group.

Henkel is also looking at biotechnology as possible other source for biobased chemicals such as enzymes, alcohol (ethanol), organic acids and fragrance ingredients (remember Allylix?). The last topic that Schroeder mentioned is the importance of packaging materials as another way for consumer products manufacturers to utilize biobased chemicals.

Speaking of Henkel, look out for my incoming green surfactant article on October 4 from ICIS Chemical Business (it's a free link!). Henkel's director of biotechnology Karl-Heinz Maurer talked to me about their strategies on bio-surfactants.

Back to the conference,  Ford's Ellen Lee brought several interesting samples of bio-based materials that the company has been working on. One is their soybean-based polyurethane foam that are now being used in seating applications for several Ford models.

Lee said the soy foam is cost neutral or sometimes even cheaper than petroleum-based foam. Around 844m bushels of soybean could be consumed just by using the soy foams on all interior foams of Ford Motor cars!

Another material presented was wheat straw polypropylene (PP) that could replace the use of fiberglass and other mineral reinforcements (such as talc and mica) in injection molding materials. Lee said, the use of wheat straw-based PP could reduce processing costs between 8-10% compared to conventional composite materials. The renewable-based materials are also lighter by 10% compared to the use of fiberglass or talc-reinforced PP.

Ford started using the wheat straw PP late last year in some of its models. Lee said they are also looking into other biobased resin as thermoplastic resin alternative like polylactic acid (PLA), DuPont's corn-based PTT (polytrimethylene terephthalate), Mirel's PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), castor oil-based nylons and other natural fiber-reinforced composites.

Interface's chief innovation officer John Bradford talked about the importance of the whole supply chain sustainability not just using renewable chemicals for consumer products. The company talked about their life cycle analysis (LCA) study on one of their carpet products comparing the use of 20% PLA to 100% nylon 6,6 usage. Interface also emphasized that sustainability helped them go through the recession as the company reported only 16% in sales decline last year compared to the 36% industry decline.

Dyne-a-Pak meanwhile is already using NatureWorks' PLA resin for its foam tray. The compostable trays are said to be cost effective alternative to polystyrene, with the same light weight and performance in cold or room temperature applications.

Other presentations on Day 1 included Roquette talking about their isosorbide; Ontario BioAuto Council talking about current bio-based chemicals being used or developed for automotive applications; the importance of biobased guidelines in foodservice ware by the Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative (SBC) group; Itaconix' product itaconic acid already being used in several cleaning products; and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) talking about their biopreferred program.

The Ontario BioAuto Council by the way, noted Toyota's biomaterials targets by 2015. Toyota's vision is to replace 20% of petro-based materials with biobased alternatives and recycled plastics in the next 5 years. Biobased chemicals include soy and corn-based polyols to replace ethylene and propylene oxide; isosorbide to replace bisphenol-A; succinic acid to replace maleic anhydride; and vegetable-oil based plastic additives to replace phthalates.

Here are some of my Day 1 coverage for ICIS News (subscription only). Pls. also check previous tweets from @ICISchemicalbiz, hashtag #ICIS.

US Ford to increase use of A Schulman's wheat-straw PP

US-based Itaconix commercializes itaconic acid for detergents

French Roquette to expand isosorbide capacity by 2011 

Very tight deadline today and I'll start blogging about the Biobased Chemicals East conference on Tuesday after I finish my "bio-adipic acid" article for ICIS Chemical Business based from Verdezyne and Rennovia's presentations at that event.

I am now including the topic Green Chemicals to my weekly rotation of inorganics/biofuels/oleochemicals for ICB, so that will be exciting (ad alert! haha!).

For now, here are this week's news roundup, which seems to be revolving more around biofuels:

Bioenergy crop company SG Biofuels completed a $9.4m Series A financing from Flint Hills Resources, a privately held company based in Kansas, Life Technologies Corporation, a biotechnology tools company based in Carlsbad, Calif., and participation from existing investors. The financing will support the company's efforts to advance Jatropha as a high-yielding, low cost feedstock for diesel, jet fuel and petrochemicals.

The Canadian government has granted through its ecoENERGY for Biofuels program up to $18.79m to million Biocardel Quebec Inc. for its biodiesel project. The company, located in Richmond, Quebec, will produce about 40 million litres of biodiesel a year using vegetable/cooking oil or animal fat.

Solazyme has completed delivery of over 20,000 gallons of algal-derived shipboard fuel to the U.S. Navy. The company also signed a new contract with the U.S. Department of Defense for a research and development project that will produce 150,000 additional gallons in 2010-2011, which is 7.5 times larger than the previous order.

Joule Unlimited has been issued US patent #7,794,969, "Methods and Compositions for the Recombinant Biosynthesis of n-Alkanes," which covers the use of engineered photosynthetic microorganisms for the direct synthesis of diesel molecules. Unlike biofuel processes that require costly intermediates such as sugar, algal or agricultural biomass, Joule claims to be the first to achieve and patent a direct, single-step, continuous process for the production of hydrocarbon fuels requiring no raw material feedstocks.

Linnaeus Plant Sciences entered a licensing deal with DuPont to use oil gene intellectual property, advanced gene technologies and biotechnology expertise developed by DuPont to accelerate development and commercialization of camelina oil, which can be used as bio-chemical feedstock.

H.C. Starck GmbH, Goslar and Japanese chemical company Chisso have established a joint venture, CS Energy Materials, to develop and produce lithium mixed oxides for high-performance batteries used to power electric cars. H.C. Starck will own 49% and Chisso 51% of the company. The joint venture will build a 1,000 ton/year production plant in Minamata, Japan, which will start in 2012.

Insight: Plastic bag bans -  the never-ending story.

Five Brazilian ethanol mills were certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as producers of advanced biofuels.

Chinese biobutanol producer Cathay Industrial Biotech (Cathay Biotech) plans to build a second biobutanol facility either in China or the US.

Iogen is probably thinking of doing the same move as Verenium when it sold its cellulosic ethanol joint venture to BP.

Iogen announced last week that it has "initiated a process to explore strategic alternatives for enhancing shareholder value and funding the deployment of its world leading renewable energy technology." The company has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its exclusive financial advisor.

Like Verenium, Iogen Corporation started in the development, manufacture and marketing of enzymes. The company owns 50% stake of Iogen Energy, its joint venture with Shell, which specializes in cellulosic ethanol. Iogen Energy has been producing the biofuel from wheat straw at its Ottawa, Canada, demonstration plant since 2004.

Iogen's wholly-owned subsidiary, Iogen Bio-Products, develops, manufactures and markets enzymes used to modify and improve the processing of natural fibers within the textile, animal feed, pulp and paper, grain processing and brewing industries.

Like BP, Shell will probably buy the cellulosic ethanol business. The question is how much is Shell willing to fork over for the biofuel portfolio? While technology development for cellulosic ethanol has been progressing rapidly, enthusiasm for commercialization in North America seems to have lost its momentum.
 

Just got back from covering the Biobased Chemicals East conference in Boston and I hope you were able to follow my tweets via @ICISchemicalbiz or hashtag #ICIS.

I was planning to write about some of the presentations next week as I have a very tight deadline this week writing about green surfactants. But as I was eager to start some of them so I'll post first about Rennovia since I was able to talk to them three weeks ago.

This California-based start-up company was founded last year by Symyx Technologies veterans Tom Boussie and Vince Murphy. I first heard about them in September 2009 when it was able to closed a $12m series A funding from 5AM Ventures and Versant Ventures.

Rennovia's technology is focused more on its high throughput catalyst R&D infrastructure where it can fast develop multi-biobased product pipeline using any type of renewable-based feedstock.  Unlike most other green chemical companies embedded in fermentation processing (or in some cases hybrid chemical/biological processing), Rennovia is producing their drop-in bio-based chemicals only via chemical catalysis processing. So in short --- plants, yes, but bugs, no.

"Not only can we leverage existing chemical manufacturing assets using catalytic chemical processes, it also has greater efficiency and scalability compared to fermentation processing," said Robert Wedinger, Rennovia's CEO. "We believe that high space-time yields, temperature and solvent flexibility, high carbon efficiencies and low cost of product isolation make chemo-catalysis preferable to fermentation for many large-volume chemical manufacturing processes.

According to Wedinger, over 90% of the existing petrochemical value chain are produced via chemo-catalytic processes. Products manufactured via this processing is more than 500bn lbs in size and worth more than $900bn/year, according to Rennovia.

Now there are other companies who are also using chemical catalysis using renewable feedstock. Rennovia pointed out that they are the only company so far who will produce large-volume drop-in chemicals unlike Virent and Range Fuels who are only producing cellulosic-based fuels via synthesis gas, and Segetis, Avantium and Rivertop who are also using chemical catalysis but will produce new molecules instead (L-ketals for Segetis, furanics for Avantium and glucaric acid for Rivertop).

So what is Rennovia producing?

Their first choice of product is adipic acid, and Wedinger said they already have product #2 in the pipeline. Here's how their technology works:

Because of their high-throughput catalyst R&D platform, Rennovia said they were able to produce gram quantities of adipic acid only within 3 months of initiating the project starting December 2009. The company is moving in laboratory-pilot scale this December. 

Rennovia said there's plenty of glucose to source their feedstock from and that there are opportunities for corn wet mill capacity to shift from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) production to renewable chemical production instead without threatening food supply. The company's strategy however is to diversify their feedstock source from the existing carbohydrate supply chains into non food-based raw materials when these supply chains mature enough.

As far as I know, Verdezyne is the only company right now who announced the same intention of going into biobased adipic acid, although Verdezyne's processing is fermentation-based. Both companies pointed out during the conference the attractiveness of entering the adipic acid market given its growth rate of 3-5%/year and its 4.8bn lb/year size (according to Rennovia).

Wedinger also pointed out the possibility of now being able to create 100% bio-based nylon since adipic acid can be converted into adiponitrile, and this chemical can then be converted into caprolactam, the precursor to nylon 6, as well as be converted into HMDA (hexamethylene diamine), an intermediate used for manufacturing nylon 6,6 polymers.

"Adipic acid was once largely used to produce adiponitrile by dehydration of the diamide, but cheaper butadiene has kicked out this route into oblivion. Price of butadiene has been going up and the market has been volatile," said Wedinger.

Just to make sure, I looked into ICIS data, and sure enough, current US butadiene price was around 94 cents/lb compared to the mid-20 cents/lb range in 2000. According to ICIS, US butadiene prices rose by 49% between January and July this year.

Back to Rennovia, the company plans to have a demonstration facility up and running by 2012/13 and a commercial scale plant with a capacity of between 300m-500m lb/year by 2014, both via joint ventures.

"We are already seeking scale-up and commercialisation partners across the adipic acid value chain," Wedinger said.

Rennovia estimated their preliminary processing cost to be below cash cost of petroleum-based adipic acid processing with oil price at $60/bbl.

For it's second product, the company said it is already exploring partnership opportunities for this development and plans to transition to process scale-up and lab-pilot development in 2011.

Purac has been busy last week and sent me two news, one about their partnership with Arkema, and another, about their investment in biomedical polymers.

Purac and Arkema is collaborating on the development of lactide-based block copolymers that will enhance the thermochemical and physical properties of bioplastics such as polylactic acid (PLA). I remembered Arkema mentioning their one of many bioplastic additives development in a past post so I guess this is one of them.

Purac said this latest copolymers are produced by combining Arkema's organic catalysis ring-opening polymerisation technology with Purac's L- and D-Lactide monomers.

In the other news, Purac said it is expanding its biomedical polymers capacity by building a new manufacturing facility in the US. Capacity of the facility was not disclosed. Purac is already currently operating a biomedical polymers plant in the Netherlands.

Construction of this second facility in the US will start next year and will be completed before the end of 2011. Investment costs for the plant is around EUR 15m.

I'm here in Boston for this week's Biobased Chemicals East conference. Hopefully, I'll have internet connection to tweet some info via @ICISchemicalbiz and #ICIS hashtag. Stay tune!

For now here are this week's news roundup. Biofuel seems to be the theme in last week's news.

Rape oil for Neste Oil's diesel
Neste Oil will use Raisio's rapeseed oil surplus in feed protein production as a renewable diesel raw material starting October 2010 at Neste's Porvoo, Finland, refinery.

Record-high ethanol output
US ethanol production reached an all-time high in June 2010 while ethanol demand also hit a record level, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Ethanol production in June was 854,000 barrels/day (b/d), up from 846,000 b/d from May and more than 160,000 b/d higher than June 2009. Ethanol demand also reached an all-time high of 857,000 b/d, up from 721,000 b/d one year ago, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.

W.R. Grace bags biofuel grant
W. R. Grace & Co. will receive up to $3.3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop technologies for thermochemical conversion of biomass to advanced biofuels that are compatible with existing fueling infrastructure. The technologies will upgrade bio-oils into gasoline, diesel and jet fuels using a specialized catalytic reactor designed to resist corrosion and extend catalyst lifetime.

Taghleef starts bio-film production
Taghleef Industries has started production of its new NATIVIA biodegradable and compostable film from its plant in San Giorgio di Nogaro, Italy. NATIVIA is based on NatureWorks® PLA biopolymers Ingeo. Shipments of NATIVIA started this month.

Search for bio-dispersants
The National Science Foundation awarded $98,988 to conduct production and testing of fermentation-derived bio-dispersants that may replace petrochemical dispersants currently used for oil spill management. ISU is collaborating with scientists and engineers from Modular Genetics, Inc., Columbia University and Louisiana State University (LSU).

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):
Air Liquide signed a long-term contract to become the sole supplier of gases for Italian solar panel joint venture (JV) 3Sun. The deal covers the supply of "very large volumes" of specialty gases, pipeline supply of carrier gases and the provision of all related services.

German biogas firm BKN biostrom has sold its 50,000 tonne/year biodiesel plant to BioDiesel Bokel GmbH.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is not likely to become a viable option for German or European industry - including chemicals and power plants - to fight carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to a study by a German research institute DIW Institute.

Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol opened its $1.023bn (€0.808bn) hydro-treatment plant at the Barrancabermeja refinery for clean fuel production.

Procter & Gamble announced this week that it will compact its entire US and Canadian powder laundry detergents starting February 2011, which will help reduce waste, save energy and save water.

The smaller packaging and compacted formulas will also reduced fuel consumption, according to the company. With the proper dosage use as recommended, consumers can still clean the same number of loads using less detergent compared to non-compacted formulas.

The key word here is less detergent. I was wondering how much surfactant use will be reduced in these new compacted powder formulations and if there are new type of surfactants added.

I reached out to industry sources (given that P&G are not that media-friendly when it comes to giving out any bit of detergent formulation information), and got the same response that nobody knows much of the specifics regarding these new products.

To quote one source: "P&G has long been looking for ways to achieve this and most of it revolves around new technology to improve efficiency of surfactants (and thus you need less) and maybe incorporate new surfactants. Exactly what the specifics are is likely a tightly guarded secret until the product hits the shelves. I would guess any innovation to be protected by IP."

The detergent market is too competitive so this secrecy is completely understandable especially recalling the move of detergent makers into concentrated liquid detergents. One of P&G's new detergent products launched last year in Europe was Ariel ExcelGel, where the product contains 20% less chemicals per wash and the pack uses 45% less plastic than a common liquid detergent.

Europe actually uses more detergent powders than the US. The European detergents association A.I.S.E. actually launched last year their laundry powder compaction initiative where over a two-year period, detergent manufacturers are committed to reducing volume and weight of powder detergents by 10-15% without reducing the number of wash loads.

The group estimated that the initiative will save 200,000 tonnes of powder and 5,000 tonnes of packaging.

Back to P&G, the company started its transition of compacted powder laundry detergents last year March in Canada. Packaging of Tide concentrated formula was reduced by up to 31-59% compared to the non-compacted formula.

Finally, here's a January article from Wall Street Journal about how Americans seem to be using much more detergents than what is really needed.

My apologies for posting this so late but I did file an ICIS news story* (subscription only) about DNP Green's joint venture with DuPont late last June as well as part of my biorefinery story on ICIS Chemical Business published in July.

Here's a recap of what DNP has been doing the past year with some input from president and CEO Jean-Francois Huc. The company has been very busy this year, which I'm sure I already mentioned in past posts before. The latest was the announced licensing agreement of its joint venture succinic acid company Bioamber with DuPont late last June.

DNP said it has licensed certain technology from US chemical company DuPont regarding production of bio-succinic acid derivatives although DuPont will not be involved in any marketing under this deal. DuPont, however, has the right of first refusal to secure offtake from future commercial plants.

Huc said DuPont's technology will accelerate Bioamber's succinic acid development program and shorten their time to market.

In April, DNP Green also formed a partnership with Japan's Mitsui Chemicals to exclusively distribute Bioamber's biosuccinic acid in Asia. Huc did not disclosed whether Mitsui will be interested in forming a partnership (or taking an an equity stake) in building a bio-succinic acid plant in Asia (or elsewhere) but Huc noted that Mitsui will be an ideal partner to do so.

DNP Green revealed during the interview that the company is currently in the middle of a negotiation to become an equity stakeholder in a consortia being formed by a large Asian group. The consortia will focus on production of bio-succinic acid in Asia. Mitsui is not involved in the planned consortia.

The objectives of the consortia, according to Huc, is to have three types of partners: technology partners, which would be Bioamber; feedstock partners, who will have access to low-cost feedstock in Asia; and marketing partners, who will be responsible for taking the output of the plant and using it either in downstream products or selling it to the market.

No other details about the consortia was divulged but I'm sure will be hearing more about it in the near future.

Meanwhile, in other activities this time in North America, DNP Green formed a partnership in April with GreenField Ethanol to build a $50m bio-succinic acid refinery for the production of de-icing solutions. GreenField will build and operate the refinery in Ontario, Canada, while DNP Green will hold a significant stake at the new joint venture. Feedstock for the refinery will come from grain-derived glucose.

Huc said there's a lot of synergies between the production of succinic acid and derivatives, and ethanol production. One major synergy is ethanol infrastructure which succinic acid production can leverage in terms of energy and waste stream access.

"Ethanol plants produce a lot of carbon dioxide, and bio-succinic acid manufacture requires a lot of them. Having a regular, cheap source of CO2 next door is a good thing,"

Another synergy is the access of ethanol for succinic acid derivatives manufacture such as diethyl succinate.

"We can envision part of the succinic acid manufactured will be esterified with some of the nearby ethanol at cost to produce ethyl esters of succinic acid for diversification of product ranges. Our goal is to be able to produce a meaningful scale of some of these derivatives within the next several months."

The company's approach, according  to Huc, is to have a palate of products to be produced within a facility and then license the technology. The licensees could be part of a consortia. Products produced will be based on local demand and economics such as butanediol that could make more sense in Asia, or solvents for South America.

Asia might be a more strategic location in terms of manufacture for DNP after acquiring Sinoven Biopolymers last February. Sinoven Biopolymers now operates as a subsidiary of DNP with sales office in Philadelphia and a manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China.

Sinoven will manufacture modified polybutylene succinate (mPBS) in China using Bioamber's bio-succinic acid. DNP said they are looking to partner their mPBS technology with a leading producer of PBS in order to build a large scale modification plant in proximity to a PBS plant.

Here's a video interview of Jean-Francois Huc taken during the BIO conference:

Solazyme has been a very, very busy company this year gathering big time investors from across various industries to its fold. Many industry analysts are speculating this is part of a big-time preparation for an IPO (initial public offering).

Today, Solazyme announced its current development partner Unilever has joined its Series D financing round although no investment figures were disclosed.

Recalling from a past post in March, Unilever and Solazyme joined in a developing deal to use algal oil in soaps and personal care products. I also mentioned in the post that Solazyme has a patent filed last year on algae-derived polysaccharides that can be used as an anti-aging skin care ingredient.

Unilever might also be looking at using algal oils for food although Solazyme seems to be already doing that with another recent Series D investor, major agribusiness company Bunge. The company said Solazyme's algal oil technology is strategically placed between Bunge's sugar and vegetable oil portfolio. No investment figure was also disclosed for this one.

Other Solazyme investors in this round include CTTV Investments LLC, the venture capital arm of Chevron Technology Ventures LLC; San-Ei Gen, a major Japanese manufacturer and distributor of food ingredients; Jay Precourt and Family; and Sir Richard Branson via the Roda Group. Braemer Energy Ventures and Morgan Stanley led the round, with all major existing investors from previous rounds participating, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, The Roda Group, Harris and Harris Group, VantagePoint Venture Partners and Zygote Ventures.

Having consumer companies such as Unilever and Bunge is definitely good news to the algae industry, which is still trying to dispel technology skepticism, although most of that seems to be focusing more on its use as a biofuel feedstock.

Using algae on food and chemicals, on the other hand, is pretty much welcomed with open arms given that companies don't need big algal oil volumes to use for these types of market.

As mentioned in another post in March, chemical companies already wading in algae developments include Honeywell's UOP business, DuPont, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil and bioplastic producer Cereplast. I'm sure there are others out there that I forgot to mention.

In an article from ICIS Chemical Business talking about algae-based bioplastic, Algal Biomass Organization (ABO) noted that companies such as General Motors and Kimberly Clark are also looking to use algae-based products.

A recent report from SBI Energy noted that most of the algae developments are happening in the US although there are pockets of activities in the European Union and Asia mostly due to collaboration with the US algae biofuels industry.

SBI forecasts the US to represent over 82% of the global market for open pond algae cultivation systems from 2010-2015, while the EU and Asian markets will have 11% and 7% respectively. More than a dozen projects with over $25 million in algae cultivation system costs are projected through 2015.

By the way, ABO is having its annual summit in Phoenix, Arizona, on September 28-30. Too bad I won't be able to attend due to schedule conflict but the press agency for ABO promised to keep me informed of any new developments coming out from the Summit.

They will also twitter live from the event via @algaeindustry and using the hashtag #ABS4.

New Zealand-based LanzaTech and Chinese coal producers Henan Coal and Chemical Industrial Corp. (HNCC) announced their plans yesterday to produce ethanol fuel and chemicals from the gasification of coal using LanzaTech's gas fermentation technology.

The companies will jointly build a 300 tonne/year demonstration plant in Zhengzhou, Henan province, which will initially produce ethanol. The facility will be operational by the second half of 2011. If successful, the companies could also look into building a full-scale commercial facility based on coal-derived synthesis gas.

In a separate agreement, the companies will also establish a Bio Energy Research Center for the development, pilot production and commercialization of the technology of "coal derived synthesis gas to ethanol fuel and chemicals". LanzaTech said the research center will focus on developing complimentary process technologies such as product separation, water conservation and process integration.

The research lab will also develop other high value added technology and products.

LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren noted that this recent agreement proves the extensibility of their technology, which can use waste gas not only from steel mill but from coal as well.

"Henan has expertise converting coal derived synthesis gas to other fuels and chemicals using thermochemical approaches and this will enable us to do a head to head comparison to understand which steps are best done biologically with our system vs which steps are best done thermochemically," said Holmgren. "I think this will allow the industry to continue to leverage multiple approaches and pathways to continue to reduce the carbon and energy intensity of making liquid fuels and chemicals."

In June, LanzaTech formed a joint venture with China's largest steel and iron conglomerate, Baosteel, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to commercialize LanzaTech's technologies for producing fuel ethanol from steel mill flue gases.

[Photo of LanzaTech signing ceremony in Henan Province, China]

The monthly green chemicals product launch is back! (at least while I have extra time to put it all together) August seems to be the month for new product introductions focusing on the energy market. I also have a growing list of new bio-based products in the retail market that hopefully, I'll be able to post soon.

Next week, watch out for a couple of announcement posts (crossing my fingers) coming from the Biobased Chemicals East conference in Boston. I'm definitely writing one about Rennovia ;-)

For ICIS Chemical Business subscribers, I hope you enjoy my latest update on bio-butanol in this week's issue! Next week will be about fatty alcohols.

1. DuPont battery separator - DuPont has introduced Energain™, the first nanofiber-based polymeric battery separator that boosts the performance and safety of lithium ion batteries. The separators can increase power 15-30%, increase battery life by up to 20% and improve battery safety by providing stability at high temperatures.

2. Rhodia green emulsifier - Rhodia has introduced Rhodiasolv® INFINITY, an eco-friendly micro-emulsion based on biodegradable ingredients, which gives formulators the flexibility to reduce or eliminate traditional VOC solvents in industrial and institutional cleaning products.

3. Solutia encapsulant - Solutia has introduced its Saflex® PS41 PVB, an advanced encapsulant designed to prevent corrosion in solar cells. The new encapsulant also inhibits discoloration, making it an ideal module encapsulant for use in building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).

4. Dow encapsulant - Dow Chemical Company has launched ENLIGHT Polyolefin Encapsulant Films, which can enhance efficiencies in C-Si and thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module production and lead to lower conversion costs. The films also provide greater module stability and improved electrical performance versus traditional encapsulants.

5.Evonik lenses for PV - Evonik Industries now offers two products as solutions for applications of concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) technology in large-scale such as power plants: primary lenses of PLEXIGLAS® and secondary lenses of SAVOSIL. The products increase the concentration of the solar energy more efficiently.

6. Shell Catalyst - Shell Global Solutions launched CENTERA, a portfolio of third generation catalysts that can be used for Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel production (10 parts per million Sulphur). The catalysts will enable Asia Pacific refiners to improve operational performance and to meet product specifications to produce cleaner fuels.

7. Dow Corning PV solutions - Dow Corning has introduced its PV-8080 Neutral Sealant and Dow Corning® PV-7321 Potting Agent for solar applications. The sealant provides long-term bonding and protection against moisture, mechanical and thermal shock, and vibration in framing applications, while the potting agent provides protection against corrosion and moisture of junction box components.

Rhodia has signed a long term green chemistry collaboration with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Ecole Normale Superieure of Lyon (ENSL) and the East China Normal University (ECNU) of Shanghai. The deal aims to develop common research on materials and processes based on eco-design principles and renewable raw materials. Biofuels company Mascoma has bought SunOpta BioProcess Inc. The combined companies will have comprehensive capabilities for converting non-food cellulose (wood chips, energy crops and organic solid waste) into ethanol and high value co-products. AdvanceBio LLC has developed its next generation, sugar-based fuel ethanol process, which is capable of utilizing sugars derived from sugar cane, sweet sorghum, sugar beet and other similar crops for fuel ethanol and green power production while generating zero liquid waste. Enerkem started construction of its municipal waste-to-biofuels facility with its partners, the City of Edmonton and the Government of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta. The 10m gal/year facility will reportedly be the world's first industrial-scale biofuels project to use municipal solid waste as feedstock. Rentech is building its Renewable Energy Center in Rialto, Calif., which will convert biomass, such as yard and tree trimmings, into producig 640 barrels/day renewable, ultra-clean diesel fuel and 35 megawatts of base-load renewable electricity. The new facility will use UOP hydroprocessing technology, which converts hydrocarbons into clean-fuel products. Celgard started construction of its lithium battery separator manufacturing plant in Concord, N.C. that will strengthen the company's ability to support the emerging electric drive vehicle (EDV) industry. The new 150,000 square-foot plant is the second phase in Celgard's strategy to expand production capacity.

The California senate voted down a bill that would have banned plastic single-use carryout bags.

Canada's regulation requiring a 5% average renewable fuel content in gasoline will take effect on 15 December.

Rockwood Holdings will increase lithium hydroxide production at its facility in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, due to an increase in demand and forecasted growth for electric vehicles.

Before I file my fatty alcohol article for ICIS Chemical Business today...here is an interesting development on carbon capture technology coming from German companies RWE, BASF and Linde.

The companies claimed that new chemical solvents can increase efficient separation of carbon dioxide from flue gas by being able to reduce energy input by 20%. The new solvents also feature superior oxygen stability, which reduces solvent consumption significantly.

The solvents were tested since 2009 in a pilot plant at RWE's Niederaussem power station near Cologne.

The partners plan for a demonstration and large-scale power plants. First demonstration plants are scheduled to come on stream in 2015, and CO2 capture is expected to be used commercially in coal-fired power stations by 2020.

The technology is expected to allow more than 90% of the CO2 contained in the waste gas of a power plant to be captured for subsequent sub-surface storage or for chemical use such for fertilizer manufacture.

RWE Power will spend EUR9m ($11.6m) on the development project.

[Photo of the pilot plant from BASF]