Technology company Solugen is set to build a green chemical plant next to Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)’s corn complex in Minnesota, USA.
Using dextrose supplied by ADM, Solugen would scale up its current range of lower-carbon organic acids at the facility in Marshall and develop new molecules to replace existing fossil fuel-based materials, ADM said on 30 October.
The companies said they also planned to work together on commercialising biomaterials for a range of applications including energy, water treatment, agriculture, construction materials, cleaning, personal care and other sectors.
Using computationally-engineered enzymes and metal catalysts, Solugen’s Bioforge uses a chemienzymatic process to convert plant-derived substances into materials traditionally made from fossil fuels.
“The strategic partnership with ADM will allow Solugen to bring our chemienzymatic process to a commercial scale,” Solugen co-founder and CEO Gaurab Chakrabarti said.
With offsite construction scheduled to start this year and on-site construction in early 2024, the initial phase of production was expected to start in the first half of 2025, Solugen said.
“The initial phase of the project will significantly increase Solugen’s manufacturing capacity, which is critical for commercialising our existing line of molecules,” Solugen co-founder and CTO Sean Hunt said.
“The increase in capacity will also free up our Houston operation for research and development efforts into additional molecules and market applications.”
