Specialty renewable chemicals developer, Rennovia Inc., has entered a joint development agreement with engineering and process technology firm, Johnson Matthey, for the co-development and manufacture of catalysts to be used in the scale-up and commercialization of Rennovia’s process for the production of bio-based glucaric acid and adipic acid.

This agreement, for the co-development and manufacture of catalysts, builds upon the existing collaboration, announced in March 2014, under which Rennovia and Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies are working together on the engineering and construction of a mini-plant to optimize and scale the process, which will enable commercial production of these products. The focus of the joint development effort announced today will be to develop and supply catalysts for the mini-plant and future commercial plants.

The company has been busy with press releases in the past few months, such as appointing a new chief financial officer; a new VP of Commercialization, Tim Dummer, which some of you may recognize as from Solazyme; relocating to a larger facility in Santa Clara, California; and the recently expanded collaboration with Johnson Matthey.