Novomer Inc., a sustainable materials company pioneering a plastics, polymers and other chemicals from renewable feedstocks such as carbon dioxide (CO2), announced it has been awarded $18.4 million in federal funding from the Department of Energy.
The supported project is to convert waste CO2 into a number of polymers for use in the manufacture of bottles, films, laminates, coatings on food and beverage cans, and in other wood and metal surface applications. Novomer is one of only six companies selected as part of a Phase Two, $106 Million Recovery Act investment aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and mitigating climate change. Novomer will work closely with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in execution of the project.
Phase One began in January 2010, and was focused on experiments and preliminary designs for pilot plants to demonstrate the feasibility of capturing and using CO2 exhausted from industrial processes. Phase Two is a 24-month, $23 million project, including a 20% industry cost share, in which Novomer and its partners will design, construct, and operate materials creation at pilot-scale, in advance of broad commercialization.
Based on the success of Novomer’s work in the $2.5M Phase One project, Novomer was chosen from 12 original companies to move into pilot scale development, and will now work to scale-up its products with the Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Orangeburg, South Carolina locations and the Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) at its Rochester, New York location. The Phase Two work will result in the creation or maintenance of an estimated 200 cleantech jobs across all of the locations above, and Waltham, MA, where Novomer is headquartered.
Leveraging the Company’s patented catalyst technology–developed at Cornell University–Novomer will produce sustainable polymers and polyols using waste CO2 as a primary raw material. The CO2 for this work will be sourced from ethanol manufacturing and supplied by Praxair (NYSE: PX). At the end of the project, in addition to enabling commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities for sustainable materials with several contract manufacturers, it is expected that several products will be customer qualified, requiring commercial scale production of PPC polymers on a global basis.
Novomer’s materials and polymers are based on the co-polymerization of carbon dioxide (CO2), and can be designed as both thermoplastic polymers and polyols for the production of various packaging and coating products. As these polymers contain more than 40% CO2 by weight, Novomer’s technology requires significantly less petroleum than traditional polymers and converts significant amounts of CO2 into valuable materials, thereby preventing it from being emitted into the environment.
From a materials perspective, when compared to traditional plastics, Novomer’s CO2 based polymers are more environmentally friendly, and have mechanical and barrier properties that perform well for a variety of flexible and rigid packaging applications, the company says. In addition, Novomer’s CO2 based polyols are well suited as resins for protective and decorative surface finishes for metal, wood, and plastic. Potential applications include food and beverage can coatings and linings, coil coating, and automotive and industrial finishes.
Novomer is partnered with equity investors Flagship Ventures, Physic Ventures, OVP Venture Partners, DSM Venturing and KensaGroup, and has received support from the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and the State of New York.
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