ExxonMobil is proceeding with a multi-billion-dollar chemical complex in the Dayawan Petrochemical Industrial Park in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China. The facility will help meet expected demand growth for performance chemical products in China, including the packaging, hygiene, automotive, and agricultural industries. The project includes three performance polyethylene lines, two differentiated performance polypropylene lines and a flexible feed steam cracker with a nameplate capacity of approximately 1.6m t/year.
BASF is accelerating implementation of its CO2 reduction targets. The aim is to reduce emissions by 25% by 2030, compared with 2018 and become climate neutral by 2050. The unit, called ‘Net Zero Accelerator’, focuses on projects relating to low-CO2 production technologies, circular economy and renewable energies. Projects managed by the new unit include CO2-free technologies such as methane pyrolysis.
Johnson Matthey is selling its Advanced Glass Technologies business, a provider of specialist glass enamels and precious metal pastes supplied mainly to the automotive sector, to Fenzi Holdings, a manufacturer and supplier of materials for flat glass processing, for £178m. Johnson Matthey has also announced that it has entered into an agreement for the sale of its health business to Altaris Capital Partners, a healthcare investment firm.
US genetic medicines company Metagenomi and biotech Moderna have entered into a strategic R&D collaboration focused on advancing new gene editing systems for in vivo human therapeutic applications. The collaboration will use Metagenomi’s gene editing tools and Moderna’s mRNA platform, as well as lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technologies, with the goal of developing curative therapies for patients with serious genetic diseases.
Japanese multinational Takeda Pharma-ceutical has acquired UK biotech Gamma-Delta Therapeutics, a company focused on exploiting the properties of gamma delta (γδ) T cells for immunotherapy. Takeda will obtain GammaDelta’s allogeneic variable delta 1 (Vδ1) gamma-delta (γδ) T cell therapy platforms, which includes both blood- and tissue-derived platforms, in addition to early-stage cell therapy programmes.
US-based Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals has entered into an exclusive licence agreement with GSK, under which GSK will develop and commercialise ARO-HSD, Arrowhead’s investigational RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic in a Phase 1/2 trial that is currently being developed as a treatment for patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
US biopharmaceutical company Neurocrine Biosciences and Japan’s Sosei Group have signed a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement to develop novel muscarinic receptor agonists, which Neurocrine Biosciences intends to study in the treatment for schizophrenia, dementia and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in partnership with Enterprise Singapore, has launched the Singapore Agri-Food Innovation Lab. It aims to accelerate innovation and reap the growing economic opportunities in the agri-food sector.
ExxonMobil and Pertamina, the Indonesian state-owned energy company, have signed an MoU to evaluate the potential for large-scale deployment of low-carbon technologies in Indonesia. The companies have agreed to identify potential subsurface CO2 storage locations and examine the feasibility of transporting CO2 in Southeast Asia. The collaboration is expected to include research and development studies with universities.
London, UK-based start-up gene therapy company AviadoBio, which focuses on developing and delivering medicines for people living with neurodegenerative disorders, has announced the successful completion of an $80m (£58.6m) Series A financing round, following an initial $16.5m (£12m) seed financing. The funds will advance AviadoBio’s lead program in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) into the clinic, while continuing to expand its team.
Croda International, which uses smart science to create high-performance ingredients and technologies, has signed a definitive agreement to sell the majority of its performance technologies and industrial chemicals businesses to Cargill Velocity Holdings for an enterprise value of €915m (£778m).
£1.7m
Sustainability charity WRAP and Innovate UK have launched a UK fund to reduce the impact of plastics on the environment in India, Chile, Kenya and South Africa. The International Circular Plastics Flagship Projects competition is a £1.7m fund to address the problem of plastics pollution in these nations. Applicants can apply for funding ranging from £50k to £250k that demonstrate solutions that respond to specific targets under the plastics pacts of each nation.
2200
AstraZeneca has formally unveiled The Discovery Centre (DISC) in Cambridge, UK, a state-of-the-art R&D facility designed to accommodate over 2200 research scientists. The new £1bn facility will include the most advanced robotics, high-throughput screening and AI-driven technology.
€30m
German specialty chemicals company Lanxess is expanding its production network in China. It will build a second compounding line for Durethan and Pocan high-tech engineering plastics at its manufacturing site in Changzhou. Investment of around €30m will increase the capacity in Changzhou by 30,000t/year, planned to go onstream in Q1 2023.
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The UN predicts the world population will grow to 9.8bn by 2050, doubling food demand, which must be produced with half the current emissions. To help meet demand, Valio and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland are launching a project to research what kinds of food industry raw materials could be produced using cellular agriculture. The research project will develop technology for biotechnologically produced proteins. In cellular agriculture, food is produced in bioreactors with microbes.
US gene therapy company Spark Therapeutics, a member of the Roche Group that works on genetic disease, is to invest $575m in the creation of a new, state-of-the-art gene therapy innovation centre on Drexel University’s campus in Philadelphia, US.
ScepterAir and ExxonMobil have agreed to work together to deploy advanced satellite technology and proprietary data processing platforms to detect methane emissions at a global scale. The agreement has the potential to redefine methane detection and mitigation efforts and could contribute to broader satellite-based emission reduction efforts across a dozen industries, including energy, agriculture, manufacturing and transportation. ScepterAir’s satellite detection technology can accurately collect data on methane, while also identifying sources of other greenhouse gases.
The UK’s Dstl (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) is pioneering the use of autonomous mobile robotics within the scientific research laboratory with funding of £1.02m. Following a competitive tendering process Dstl has a contract with the University of Liverpool and its start-up company Gearu Robotic Research to identify the optimal robotic solution to conduct two chemical processes, one related to the analysis of environmental samples and the other to the analysis of explosives.
French bio-pharma BCI Pharma, owner of a proprietary kinase technology platform, and Mithra, a Belgian independent pharmaceutical group, have entered into a collaboration and licence option agreement to identify new kinase inhibitors for treating endometriosis, cancer in women and other diseases. BCI Pharma will identify preclinical candidates and Mithra will carry out the clinical development.
INEOS and Petroineos at Grangemouth, UK are partnering with Plastic Energy in an important breakthrough in the recycling of plastic. The process will use existing refinery operations replacing oil with TACOIL made from waste flexible food packaging to remake virgin plastic for reuse in food and hygiene applications. This trial and the evolution of the policy environment in the UK will inform the development of a large-scale advanced recycling plant, which aims to be the first of its kind in the UK.
Merck has successfully completed its cash tender offer, via a subsidiary, Astros Merger Sub, for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Acceleron Pharma at a purchase price of $180/share in cash. Merck has also announced the expansion of its neurology pipeline with the acquisition of the rights to develop cladribine for the treatment of generalised myasthenia gravis (gMG) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Merck entered into an agreement to secure the global rights by acquiring Chord Therapeutics, a Swiss-based biotech company focused on rare neuroinflammatory diseases.
The Research and Development Council of New Jersey has awarded a BASF team with the 2021 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for outstanding environmental contributions. The award honouring an innovative diesel oxidation catalyst, which enables automotive OEMs to meet tighter emission regulations, was presented to Shiang Sung, Stanley Roth, Claudia Zabel, Susanne Stiebels, Andreas Sundermann, and Olga Gerlach.
German polyurethane, polycarbonate and resin coating company Covestro has launched Decovery SP-8310, a 37% bio-based, breathable, multi-purpose resin to enable exterior coatings with improved outdoor durability and enhanced bio-based content. The new product addresses the decorative coating market’s need for longer-lasting outdoor coatings with a lower environmental impact.
US water treatment company Ecolab has introduced a programme for ethylene producers and chemical recyclers of plastic waste that use and produce an alternate recycled plastic feedstock called pyrolysis oil. The end-to-end suite of chemistries and field expertise that are unique to the downstream energy and chemical markets make the production of pyrolysis oil easier, while also helping with feedstock flowability and stability.
Belgian chemical company Solvay is working with Swiss manufacturing solution OEM 9T Labs to help bring additively manufactured carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) parts to mass production. The joint effort enables 9T Labs’ additive manufacturing technology to produce low-to-medium volume size parts for the aerospace, medical, luxury/leisure, automation, and oil and gas industries.
Czech accessories brand Är has launched a reusable FFP2-certified mask treated with Polygiene ViralOff technology, to protect and self-clean the textile with regard to microbes. The mask also comes with an anti-fog system.
German specialty chemical manufacturer Evonik has announced its new TEGO Cure 100 hardener, which cures coatings at room temperature, eliminating energy-intensive oven drying. The hardener is suitable for silicone resins as well as silicone combination resins. It improves the corrosion protection of the coating, and the high solids content of more than 99% reduces solvent emissions.
US antimicrobial solutions provider Microban International has announced a new range of antiviral technologies that reduce viral loading on products and surfaces. These can be incorporated into various materials during manufacturing, becoming part of the product’s structure to provide inherent and enduring protection from microbes. Modes of action vary by disrupting the structure of either the outer protein coat – to prevent viruses from recognising or binding to host cells – or nucleic acid payload, to prevent viral replication.
Chemicals manufacturer Milliken has launched DeltaFlow viscosity modifiers designed specifically to help polypropylene (PP) recyclers, who can use the solid concentrate to increase the melt flow rate of recycled polypropylene (rPP) for extrusion and injection moulding processes. Milliken offers DeltaFlow in free-flowing pellets, making it easy to feed, safe to handle and dust free.
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