Renewablechemicals.<\/strong>\u00a0Say it all together, real fast.\u00a0Especially in bio-based investment meetings as the universal answer to any annoyingly difficult question that cannot otherwise be answered with \u201cBrazil\u201d.<\/p>\nHow do you expect to make money? Renewablechemicals. Biofuels, aren\u2019t they a money pit? Renewablechemicals. Aren\u2019t there big infrastructure issues? Renewablechemicals. Why should I invest in you? Renewablechemicals.<\/p>\n
And within that world is noble adipic. Bioindustry entrepreneur, howl it it like the hungry wolf you are.<\/p>\n
But think nylon, the wonder material. Friend of low-cost carpet, your latest pair of Jimmy Choo sneakers, or mass-market, ready-to-wear fashion sold at everyday low prices. Adipic is a major precursor.<\/p>\n
You want green nylon? (Hint: Nike does, and Toyota) You may need renewably produced adipic acid. Who\u2019s in the nylon hunt? Oh, just a bunch of companies like Ashai Kasei, BASF, DSM, Dupont, Honeywell, Huntsman, Koch, Lanxess, and Rhodia.\u00a0Now, renewable adipic acid is being chased by companies that do not have the star brand power of, say, Dupont. But what they lack in visibility they make up in speed and nimbleness. Companies like Rennovia, Genomatica, BioAmber and Verdezyne.<\/p>\n
Competing paths to nylon 6,6<\/h3>\n
Adipic isn\u2019t the only way. There\u2019s butadiene, generally thought of as a path to polybutadiene rubber (PBR) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), two types of synthetic rubbers used globally to replace natural rubber. But also a key intermediate chemical used by INVISTA for the production of adiponitrile (ADN), which in turn is a critical intermediate chemical used in the manufacture of nylon 6,6.<\/p>\n
And Cobalt and Genomatica\/Versalis are hot on the trail of butadiene, with LanzaTech\/INVISTA, Arzeda\/INVISTA and Global Bioenergies\/Synthos also getting into the game<\/p>\n
What about Rennovia, anyway?<\/h3>\n
We pointed out in \u201cGet cracking!\u201d that chemocatalysis is hot, hot hot this year. And Rennovia is an example \u2014 minimizing supply chain risk by employing renewable raw materials instead of petroleum to produce popular chemicals, while minimizing conversion risk by utilizing chemo-catalysis process technology in place of fermentation.<\/p>\n
Looking at Rennovia in depth<\/h3>\n
The Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Rennovia-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Rennovia-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
Rennovia\u2019s gluconic, glucaric and adipic acids and the path to nylons, polurethanes, ployesters and more<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Rennovia-2\"](\"http:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Rennovia-2.png\")
<\/p>\n
Rennovia vs petroleum<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Rennovia-3\"](\"http:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Rennovia-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rennovia vs fermentation<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Rennovia-4\"](\"http:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Rennovia-4.png\")
<\/p>\n
Timeline to scale<\/strong><\/p>\n(Back in spring 2012, the path looked like this\u2026)<\/p>\n
![\"Rennovia-5\"](\"http:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Rennovia-5.png\")
<\/p>\n
The latest from Rennovia<\/h3>\n
Last October, we reported that Rennovia produced, and shipped to a prospective partner, samples of what it believes to be the world\u2019s first 100% bio-based nylon-6,6 polymer, under Rennovia\u2019s RENNLON brand, made from Rennovia\u2019s renewable monomers, RENNLON adipic acid and RENNLON hexamethylenediamine.<\/p>\n
Production costs for Rennovia\u2019s bio-based AA and HMD are projected to be 20-25% below that of conventional petroleum-based AA and HMD, with a significantly lower per-pound capital cost. Additional projected benefits include an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional petroleum-derived AA, and a 50% reduction in GHG emissions compared to conventional petroleum-derived HMD.<\/p>\n
The bottom line<\/h3>\n
$25M is not commercial-scale finance. But it\u2019s a huge vote of confidence in Rennovia\u2019s path as it opens up new chemicals for scale-up. We said \u201cGet Cracking!\u201d and ADM and Rennovia have certainly grabbed the whip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Plus a multi-billion dollar market, a big partner in ADM, and big ambitions in adipic, glucaric and gluconic acids. What\u2019s not to love about Rennovia? In Illinois, Archer Daniels Midland Company and Rennovia, Inc. announced today that ADM has committed to a $25 million equity investment in the privately held company, which develops catalysts and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[6497,196,4468,4356,75,1180,5425,5424,2395,12205,337,2414,1534,1509,12926,3374,3591,722,2392,4896,1599,3496,12050,2420,3752],"class_list":["post-19237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-american-natural-products","supplier-archer-daniels-midland-company-adm","supplier-arzeda-corp","supplier-asahi-kasei-corp","supplier-basf-se","supplier-bioamber-inc","supplier-chemanex-plc","supplier-cic-holdings","supplier-cobalt-technologies-inc","supplier-dsm","supplier-dupont","supplier-genomatica-inc","supplier-global-bioenergies","supplier-honeywell","supplier-huntsman-corporation","supplier-invista","supplier-koch-technik","supplier-lanxess-ag","supplier-lanzatech","supplier-rennovia","supplier-rhodia","supplier-synthos-sa","supplier-terravia","supplier-verdezyne-inc","supplier-versalis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19237"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=19237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}