This is quite interesting news that came out today about Danimer Scientific announcing its plans to acquire Novomer in a cash transaction valued at $152 million.
Headquartered with a pilot plant in Rochester, New York, Novomer develops high-performing, carbon-efficient, cost-effective polymers and chemicals including poly(3-hydroxypropionate) (“p(3HP)”), a type of polyhydroxyalkanoate (“PHA”), all of which can be sourced from renewable or non-renewable feedstocks. Danimer believes that Novomer’s p(3HP) is highly complementary with Danimer’s inputs, and can be incorporated as a component in certain Danimer resins.
Nodax®, Danimer’s signature PHA, and Novomer’s p(3HP) have different properties and attributes: Nodax® has strong performance and biodegradability properties, making it possible to be used across diverse end-use applications, while p(3HP) has improved barrier properties and is a lower cost non-fermented input. Novomer leverages its proprietary Novo22™ catalyst and intelligent process design to develop products in its pilot plant that can be produced at low costs.
By incorporating Novomer’s p(3HP) into Danimer’s customer solutions, Danimer expects to have greater flexibility to meet an even broader range of customer needs, and also expects to be able to produce its resins at a substantially lower cost. Additionally, by blending these inputs, Danimer will reduce the amount of fermentation required in the production of its resins. Given these significant benefits, the Company expects to modify its previously announced greenfield construction plans for its new facility in Bainbridge, Georgia to include fewer fermenters and expand Novomer’s production capacity.
This transaction and the resulting modifications are expected to meaningfully reduce Danimer’s planned capital expenditures on a per-pound basis while increasing the anticipated overall volume of finished product it will be able to deliver when also taking into account the completion of its Kentucky Phase II expansion.
By the way, I’ve spoken with Novomer early this year about its Rinnovo line of compostable p(3HP) polymer, and its technology to produce this product using the company’s catalytic COEth process. One very interesting tidbit of information about this polymer is that it can reportedly be depolymerised into acrylic acid with greater than 99% purity. For those who are looking for renewable acrylic acid (hello Procter & Gamble!), p(3HP) might be a product to look into.
