Chevron Corp. to Acquire Renewable Energy Group for $3.125 Billion
Chevron Corporation and Renewable Energy Group, Inc. have announced a definitive agreement under which Chevron will acquire the outstanding shares of REG in an all-cash transaction valued at $3.15 billion, or $61.50 per share. The acquisition combines REG's growing renewable fuels production and leading feedstock capabilities with Chevron's large manufacturing, distribution and commercial marketing position.
The transaction is expected to accelerate progress toward Chevron's goal to grow renewable fuels production capacity to 100,000 barrels per day by 2030 and brings additional feedstock supplies and pre-treatment facilities. After closing of the acquisition, Chevron's renewable fuels business, Renewable Fuels - REG, will be headquartered in Ames, Iowa. In addition, CJ Warner is expected to join Chevron's Board of Directors.
The transaction is expected is expected to close in the second half of 2022 and be accretive to Chevron earnings in the first year after closing and accretive to free cash flow after start-up of REG's Geismar expansion. The transaction price represents a premium of around 57% on a 30-day average based on closing stock prices on February 25, 2022.
c-LEcta Reaches Agreement to Be Acquired by Kerry Group
c-LEcta (Leipzig, Germany), a leading biotechnology company in enzyme engineering and bioprocess development, has announced that it has reached an agreement with Kerry Group for it to acquire a majority shareholding of the company. Kerry is a world-leading taste and nutrition partner for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets. This combination will accelerate Kerry's innovation capabilities in enzyme engineering, fermentation and bio-process development while also enabling c-LEcta to fufill its long term growth potential.
“The food and pharmaceutical industries are on the cusp of a new wave of innovation where new developments in biotechnology, synthetic biology and precision fermentation are radically transforming these sectors. c-LEcta is a leader in these new technologies, which includes fermentation-based products such as disruptive new enzymes, and the strategically compelling combination with Kerry will accelerate our innovation capabilities in enzyme engineering, fermentation and bio-process development,” says Dr. Albert McQuaid, Chief Science and Technology Officer of Kerry.
Lummus and Synthos Advance BioButadiene Technology Development to Produce Sustainable Rubber
Lummus Technology announced that its Green Circle business and Synthos S.A. have reached a major milestone in the development of advanced bio-butadiene technology. After completing a successful feasibility study in 2021, Lummus and Synthos have concluded that the bio-butadiene technology is ready for implementation, and the companies have agreed to move into the engineering and design phase of the project.
Given the confidence in the technology and the strong market demand for renewable materials, Synthos has committed to building a plant with a capacity of 40,000 metric tons of bio-butadiene per year – twice as much as the companies had originally planned. In addition to the plant capacity expansion, Synthos has confirmed that it will license BASF's butadiene extraction technology from Lummus and leverage Lummus' digitalization capabilities for operational efficiency and reliability.
“Since Lummus began collaborating with Synthos last year, it has become evident that this technology has the potential to be the new standard in our industry due to its renewable sourcing, production efficiency and low carbon footprint,” said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology. “The petrochemical industry is quickly adjusting to ambitious sustainability requirements, and at Lummus we continue to lead this change on multiple fronts. The commercialization with Synthos of this bio-technology for more sustainable rubber products is one of several sustainable process solutions that are making a positive impact.”
A subsidiary of Lummus, Green Circle is a leader in commercializing and developing breakthrough solutions to address the key pillars of the energy transition, including end-of-life waste plastics recycling, production of bio derived sustainable chemicals, and decarbonization strategies for existing and new assets.
BioMADE Announces $12.1 Million to 16 Projects to Accelerate Bioindustrial Manufacturing in the United States
BioMADE, the Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem, is awarding $5.8 million in federal funds to 16 innovative projects aimed at accelerating bioindustrial manufacturing knowledge, capabilities, and workforce in the U.S. These projects will leverage an additional $6.3 million in non-federal cost share, providing a significant boost to the ecosystem. These projects will create chemicals such as acrylic acid – used in everything from diapers to mobile phones – and succinic acid, which is used in polyesters.
Launched in 2021, BioMADE is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. It is also a member of Manufacturing USA®, a national network created to secure U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing through large-scale public-private collaboration on technology, supply chain, and education and workforce development. Additional projects may periodically be announced in the future.
Origin Materials Announces Geismar, Louisiana as Location for Second Manufacturing Plant
Origin Materials, Inc. (West Sacramento, CA) has announced that, subject to finalization of economic incentives, the company has selected a site in Geismar, Louisiana, for the construction of its first world-scale manufacturing facility, Origin 2.
The facility would produce carbon-negative materials used to make polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, which is used in packaging, textiles, apparel, and other applications, as well as hydrothermal carbon, which can be used in fuel pellets, as activated carbon, and as a replacement for carbon black. Origin's patented technology platform can turn the carbon found in sustainable wood residues into useful materials while capturing carbon in the process.
The 150-acre facility would create an estimated 500 construction jobs, 200 local full-time positions, and between 500 and 1,000 indirect local jobs. The plant would convert an estimated 1 million dry metric tons of wood residues each year into products for a wide range of end markets. The plant is expected to be operational mid-2025. Pending state and local incentives are estimated to be worth more than $100 million. In addition, a Private Activity Bond volume cap allocation from the State of Louisiana, pending finalization, is expected in the amount of at least $400 million. Private Activity Bonds are tax-exempt bonds authorized by state and local governments for the financing of qualified projects with private capital.
Separately, Origin and the Green Chemistry Division of the Minafin Group have entered into a strategic partnership to industrialize high-value specialty materials based on Origin's carbon-negative materials.
The partnership includes multiple collaboration areas and is an important milestone for bringing cost-competitive biobased products to the market, with applications in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, cosmetics and personal care, and automotive industries. As part of the partnership, Minafin affiliate Pennakem aims to develop new technologies with Origin to further expand the market for Pennakem's biobased products. Through this partnership, Origin aims to develop and industrialize additional high-value products based on its core technology platform, leveraging the proprietary technologies, manufacturing know-how and customer relationships of Minafin.
In addition, Minafin business unit EcoXtract® is in discussions with Origin to commercialize its revolutionary biobased extraction process using sustainable carbon-negative materials produced by Origin. The EcoXtract® process efficiently extracts useful plant oils for food, cosmetics, and other applications.
UPM Biorefinery at Leuna, Germany Delayed
UPM says its planned biobased ethylene glycol and propylene glycol plant at Leuna, German will be delayed a year. The facility is also expected to manufacture lignin-based functional fillers. “[T]he pandemic has materially slowed down the completion of the detailed engineering in Leuna,” says JussiPesonen, UPM president and CEO, in a press statement. “Disruptions to global supply chains have affected both the availability and costs of critical construction materials. As a result, we are updating our plans and estimate that the start-up would take place by the end of 2023. The capital expenditure estimate will be updated in due course.” The plant was originally estimated to cost €550-million ($614 million).
LANXESS and Matrìca Partner to Produce Sustainable Preservatives from Renewable Raw Materials
Specialty chemicals company LANXESS and Matrìca, a joint venture between Versalis (Eni) and Novamont, have partnered to produce sustainable biocide preservatives from renewable raw materials. Starting in January 2022, the Matrìca plant at Porto Torres (Sardinia, Italy) will supply LANXESS with bio-based raw materials from vegetable oils which LANXESS will use to manufacture a new series of industrial preservatives broadening its Preventol range. The new Preventol preservatives are designed for consumer products, such as household cleaners, laundry care and dishwashing products as well as paints and coatings.
“We consider the use of bio-based raw materials as crucial for modern preservatives,” says Dr. Oliver Kretschik, Vice President of the Biocides business line at LANXESS' Material Protection Products business unit. “With this collaboration we can create a new generation of preservatives based on renewable resources in numerous applications. This approach stresses LANXESS' strategic focus on sustainability and consumer protection.”
Financing News
LanzaTech (Chicago, Illinois) announced on 8 March plans to go public via a merger with AMCI Acquisition Corp. II (AMCI), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). LanzaTech's technology converts gases derived from industrial waste, biomass, and other sources into fuels and chemicals. The transaction implies a combined pro forma enterprise value of approximately $1.8 billion and a pro forma equity value of approximately $2.2 billion. The combined company is expected to receive proceeds of approximately $275 million, comprised of $150 million of cash from AMCI and a committed common equity PIPE of approximately $125 million, at $10.00 per share, by investors including AMCI, ArcelorMittal, BASF, K1W1, Khosla Ventures, Mitsui & Co., LTD., New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, Primetals Technologies, SHV Energy, and Trafigura. Upon closing, the combined company will be renamed LanzaTech Global, Inc. and its common stock is expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LNZA. Closing is expected in the third quarter of 2022, subject to approval by AMCI's stockholders and LanzaTech's stockholders.
Ribbon Biolabs (Vienna, Austria) announced the successful close of €18 million in its Series A funding round from a consortium of European and US investors led by Hadean Ventures and with participation from Lansdowne Partners, Helicase Venture as well as several undisclosed investors. Existing investors IST cube and tecnet equity also joined in the round. The funds will be used for the commercialization of Ribbon Biolabs' DNA synthesis technology, which uses an innovative approach integrating combinatorial optimization algorithms to guide the automated enzymatic assembly of DNA. This includes the setup of production facilities with key technology partners and the preparation for expansion into the US market.
Biosynthetic® Technologies, LLC announced that it has raised $7.5 million in a series A-1 funding led by HG Ventures, the corporate venture arm of The Heritage Group. Biosynthetic Technologies is developing and marketing a new class of high-performance bio-based oil, or Estolides, that is biodegrad
Kula Bio (Boston, MA), a leader in sustainable nitrogen solutions, announced today it has closed a $50 million Series A. The round was led by Lowercarbon Capital and includes Collaborative Fund, Grantham Environmental Trust's Neglected Climate Opportunities Fund and iSelect Fund. Kula Bio produces Kula-N, a next generation, sustainable nitrogen biofertilizer that helps farmers maintain yield, improve soil quality and significantly reduce carbon emissions and other environmental impacts associated with traditional, synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer accounts for over 5% of the world's greenhouse gasses each year.
CellulaREvolution has raised £1.75 million from a group of notable investors. The round was led by Happiness Capital and also includes Allusion One. The investment will be used to accelerate research and development and strengthen their commercial team as they prepare to take their bioreactor technologies to market.
Wildtype, a startup creating sushi-grade cultivated salmon, has announced the completion of a $100 million Series B funding round, the largest for a cultivated seafood company. The round was led by L Catterton, and includes investments from Leonardo DiCaprio, Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, S2G Ventures Oceansand Seafood Fund, Robert Downey Jr.'s FootPrint Coalition, Cargill, and several prominent chefs and professional athletes. Existing investors, including Spark Capital and CRV, participated in the round. Since its founding in 2016, Wildtype has raised more than $120 million.
This new round of funding will allow Wildtype to expand production capacity as it prepares for its U.S. market launch. In 2021, Wildtype unveiled its sushi-grade salmon offering and opened a first-of-its-kind pilot production plant in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood. With both product and production ambitions in place, Wildtype has moved swiftly to recruit innovators and culinary partners.
Yali Bio, a California-based food tech company focused on designer fats for plant-based meat and dairy products announced it has raised a $3.9 million seed round, bringing their total funding to $5 million. The round was led by Essential Capital with participation from new and existing investors, Third Kind Venture Capital, S2G Ventures, CRCM Ventures, FTW Ventures and First-in Ventures. Yali Bio is building a platform to create tailor-made fats that will enhance the quality of plant based meat alternatives. The company combines synthetic biology, deep learning and genomics tools to produce fats that are more sustainable than the oils currently used in plant proteins but on par with their animal based analogs in terms of flavor and texture.
Onego Bio Ltd (Helsinki, Finland) has raised €10 million in seed funding to commercialize a breakthrough technology to produce egg white without chickens. The round included participation from venture capital investors Agronomics Limited and Maki VC. Onego Bio's technology, developed and researched at Technical Research Centre of Finland, enables production of bioalbumen with cellular agriculture means. Bioalbumen is an animal-free egg protein, produced with a specific precision fermentation process that creates identical egg white protein without the need for animals.
Novameat says it has recently closed an oversubscribed $6 million Pre-Series A Round, led by Praesidium and joined by Unovis Asset Management, Rubio Impact Ventures, Volta Circle Ataraxia Partners and VU Venture Partners. The financing will be used to scale up the company's proprietary microextrusion technology.
Biomason (Research Triangle Park, NC) has announced a $65-million funding round led by 2150 with participation from Celesta Capital, Hartree Partners, and others, including current shareholders Novo Holdings and Martin Marietta Materials (MLM). The Series C funding will accelerate development of Biomason's proprietary biocement® technology platform to reach its goal of eliminating 25% of global carbon emissions from the concrete industry by 2030. Biomason employs natural microorganisms to grow biocement in ambient temperatures without emitting carbon dioxide. Its patented biocement technology mimics nature's use of carbon as a building block, creating cement in a biological, circular system, rather than relying on the 200-year-old climate-intensive Portland cement (OPC) production.
Umami Meats, a Singapore-based food tech startup developing cultivated seafood has secured pre-seed funding of $2.4 million. The pre-seed funding round was co-led by Better Bite Ventures, an APAC-focused alt protein VC, and Genedant, a VC investing in early-stage, deep-tech biomedical and agri-food startups in Asia. Further participants in the round include CULT Food Science, Impact Venture, Katapult Ocean, Plug & Play Ventures, Prithvi Ventures, The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, and Venture for America. Umami Meats will utilize the funding to further advance its low-cost, scalable production system for cultivating fish by establishing robust and production-ready cell lines from multiple fish species, leveraging its growth serum to enable production at price parity, and maturing production processes ahead of product demonstrations and taste tests.
DMC Biotechnologies, Inc. announces that strategic investors Continental Grain Company, through their venture arm Conti Ventures, and Toyobo have joined the Series B fundraising round, bringing the total raised to $39 million.DMC previously announced the first close of its Series B fundraising on 2 December 2021 with investment from Cibus Enterprise, Capricorn Partners, Sofinnova Partners, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, SCG, Boulder Ventures, Solvay Ventures and Michelin.
Project News
Kemira has commenced full-scale production of its newly developed biomass-balanced polyacrylamide for wastewater treatment in San Giorgio di Nogaro, Italy and Bradford, UK… Kaneka Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) says it will invest ¥15 billion to significantly increase production capacity for KANEKA Biodegradable Polymer Green Planet, a biomass polymer produced by microorganism biosynthesis using plant oils by 15,000 tons per year.
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Tokyo) and its subsidiary Mitsubishi Chemical Methacrylates (MCM; Representative: Hitoshi Sasaki) have developed a manufacturing technology for methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomers that uses plant-derived materials and have begun designing a pilot plant. The pilot plant will be put into operation in fiscal year 2023 and, after demonstrating the technology's viability, the goal is to apply it to existing commercial-scale plants in 2026.
USA BioEnergy, through its subsidiary, Texas Renewable Fuels (TRF), has announced the development of an advanced biorefinery that will convert 1 million green tons of wood waste into 34 million gallons annually of premium clean burning transportation fuel including Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Renewable Diesel and Renewable Naphtha. Future expansion will double the plant's production capacity to 68 million gallons annually. The company has secured fuel offtake agreements with a major trading and logistics company as well as one of the world's premier airlines and will announce its partners and suppliers in greater detail in the coming months. The project has received $150 million in state and local incentives.
Sulzer Chemtech has announced it will provide its technology for producing a range of polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastic grades for Yangzhou Huitong Biological New Material's plant. Under the terms of the deal, Sulzer Chemtech will design and provide its lactide purification, polymerization, devolatilization and post-reaction proprietary technologies. The licensing agreement framework also includes extensive service support from engineering to technical assistance and field services.
Briefs
Nuseed and BP Products North America Inc., have entered into a long-term strategic offtake and market development agreement, that will see bp, or its affiliates, purchase NuseedCarinata oil to process or sell into growing markets for the production of sustainable biofuels.
Amyris, Inc. (Emeryville, CA) has closed the acquisition of EcoFabulous, a Gen Z-focused clean beauty consumer brand. Amyris also announced the start of production of a range of consumer products at the Reno, Nevada facility ahead of its mid-year schedule.
Clariant has unveiled its new Vita 100% biobased surfactants and polyethylene glycols (PEGs) to help directly address climate change by helping remove fossil carbon from the value chain. Vita products are based on renewable feedstocks and have at least 98% Renewable Carbon Index. Clariant uses 100% bio-ethanol derived from sugar cane or corn to create the ethylene oxide for its innovative new surfactants and PEGs. The bio-based material is fully segregated along the value chain from the field to the final consumer product.
Honeywell has introduced a new solution for producing renewable naphtha for petrochemical production using the commercially proven Honeywell UOP Ecofining™ technology. The new pathway can produce high yield of naphtha from sustainable feedstocks like used cooking oil and animal fats. Naphtha is a valuable petrochemical feedstock used in the production of plastics, specifically olefins that are building blocks for other chemicals and aromatics that are used to produce polyester and other packaging materials. Renewable naphtha from sustainable feeds such as used cooking oil has a 50%-80% lower greenhouse gas footprint compared to petroleum feeds, depending on the feedstock.
Covestro, Mitsui Chemicals, and Mitsui & Co., Ltd, have completed the first delivery of certified renewable phenol to Asia. Covestro has entered into an agreement with Mitsui Chemicals on the supply of raw materials phenol and acetone from ISCC Plus certified mass-balanced sources. Both components will be used for the production of polycarbonate at Covestro's Asian sites in Shanghai, China, and Map Ta Phut, Thailand.
Evonik has launched the first renewable isophorone-based products for solvents, composites and coatings.
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Woburn, MA) has announced recent advances in the development of Camelina as a platform for the production of PHA bioplastic directly in the seed. Field work completed during 2021 supports the Company's decision to begin seed scale up of prototype PHA spring Camelina lines at acre-scale in 2022.
Yield10 is also developing PHA winter Camelina lines and advancing its research program to increase the level and type of PHA production achievable in its Camelina plant varieties. Yield10 plans to breed an optimized PHA trait into the elite herbicide and disease resistant varieties of Camelina currently advancing in its pipeline with the expectation to process PHA Camelina to achieve the integrated economics of simultaneously producing three seed products: PHA bioplastic, feedstock oil and protein animal feed. Seed based PHA bioplastic would represent a major new market for farmers.
Unilever (London) has launched an “entrepreneurial challenge” aimed at identifying startups, scaleups, and academic spinouts with biodegradable and sustainable functional ingredients that could be used in the consumer giant's beauty and personal care products and packaging. The program is part of Unilever's Positive Beauty Growth Platform, which it launched last year. The leading ideas will get the opportunity to explore partnership opportunities within Unilever's beauty and personal care business, with revenues more than €20 billionand includes brands such as Dove, Axe, TRESemmé, and Vaseline.
Upside Foods has announced its acquisition of cultivated seafood Cultured Decadence. “Cultured Decadence has developed promising technology and proprietary cell lines and cell feed for a variety of delicious seafood products, including lobster and other crustaceans,” says Upside Foods. Crustaceans are the most fuel-intensive sector in seafood, accounting for 22% of the carbon emissions from fishing vessels, it adds.
