Green Chemicals Blog
lactic acid
NatureWorks’ $1 Million R&D Lab for methane-based lactic acid
NatureWorks has opened its new $1 million 8,300 square-foot laboratory at its Minnesota headquarter to commercialize a fermentation process for transforming methane into lactic acid, the building block of Ingeo™ biopolymer. NatureWorks is hiring six scientists to staff the new facility.The methane to lactic acid research project began in 2013 as a joint effort between NatureWorks and Calysta … Continue reading
Plaxica gets patents for its Optipure® Technology
I’m off for a day to attend the Geekiest place on Earth in the next four days, the New York Comic Con! Too bad I can’t use my press pass here but maybe I’ll introduce them to the magic and wonders of renewable/green chemistry. In the meantime, let me post this brief news from Plaxica. … Continue reading
Corbion acquires Indian lactic acid biz
Unfortunately, I’m in the middle of writing this month’s Bio-Materials newsletter for Tecnon OrbiChem so blog posts are brief and few. Here’s a recent announcement from Corbion Purac about its planned acquisition of Malladi Specialties Limited (MSL), a leading manufacturer in India of lactic acid and lactic acid-based derivatives such as calcium lactate, sodium lactate … Continue reading
Corbion mulls 75 ktpa PLA project
Corbion Purac continues to expand its reach in the bio-based chemicals sector and if anybody knows the situation on the PLA resin market, it is this company, which has been supplying lactides to PLA producers and co-developing PLA-based products with its customers. The problem with PLA is that there is only one big volume supplier … Continue reading
Calysta produces lab-scale lactic acid from methane
Calysta has successfully fermented methane into lactic acid, under a research collaboration with NatureWorks. Lactic acid is the building block for NatureWorks Ingeo™ lactide intermediates and polymers used in consumer and industrial products worldwide. The joint development program, started in June 2013 between Calysta and NatureWorks, is focused on creation of a commercially viable methane-to-lactic-acid … Continue reading
Cellulac to build a lactic acid plant
The countdown for 2014 begins and I hope next year will bring in revenue for the blog (for the first time in 6 years!). This woman needs to eat! Anyway, I had a really interesting interview with Ireland-based industrial biochemicals company Cellulac as it recently announced its plans to build a lactic acid acid facility … Continue reading