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April 1, 2008|
A new company has been formed to commercialize production of certain renewable chemicals. Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., Lisle, IL, is a new specialty chemical company formed to institutionalize work started in 2004 in collaboration between Cargill, a producer of agricultural oils, and Materia, a technology organization leveraging patents from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), to catalyze the commercial production of renewable chemicals. A $40 million round of funding was led by TPG Growth and TPG Biotechnology Partners to scale this existing technology already sold in the performance wax market, functional oils and antimicrobials, soon to be followed by lubricants, additives and other chemicals, says the company.
At the heart of Elevance is olefin metathesis chemistry, driven by Nobel Prize winning technology being developed by Materia and Nobel Laureate Dr. Robert H. Grubbs of the California Institute of Technology. According to the company, the next generation catalyst technology allows the carbon atoms in natural oils to "swap" places, thereby enabling new chemical compounds and manufacturing processes once thought to be impossible. The company has recruited a management team and board led by K'Lynne Johnson, a former division head at Innovene, Lisle, IL, who has held executive positions within BP and Amoco. Cargill and Materia will remain involved as a commercial partners as well as investors.
"Elevance was founded to create a next generation specialty chemical company that can leverage multiple feedstocks such as soy, canola and corn," said CEO K'Lynne Johnson in a release. "Our technology is not a single solution, but a broad, enabling one that allows Elevance to create a wide range of performance advantaged specialty chemicals based on renewable raw materials that also are friendlier to the environment than the existing crude oil derivatives."
www.elevance.com
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