The Dow Chemical Company and Boulder’s OPX Biotechologies Inc. announced Monday that the two are working together to develop acrylic acid – a key chemical building block used in paints, adhesives, diapers and detergents – from materials such as corn and sugar cane.
Should the collaborative research be successful, the companies hope to develop industrial scale production that could bring the bio-based acrylic acid to market in three to five years, the companies said in a joint statement.
“At DOW, we engage in collaborations that foster and drive innovations that lead us to breakthroughs throughout all areas of the company,” said Monty Bayer, global business director of Dow Ventures and Business Development. “Dow and POXBIO have strong technical synergies and discovering and capitalizing on those synergies is one avenue to develop and bring innovative and sustainable solutions to the market.”
Charles R. Eggert, president and CEO of OPXBIO, said that the two firms aim to deliver bio-based acid to the market that is “cost-competitive and more sustainable.
“Building our own successful pilot-scale development and leveraging Dow’s chemical processing and purification expertise will enable us to accelerate demonstration-scale activities and validate the performance of a bio-based acrylic acid in multiple applications,” Eggert said.
Dow will provide its expertise in industrial chemistry, process optimization and product development.
OPXBIO, a Colorado company that uses biotechnology to convert renewable raw materials into biochemicals and fuels, will contribute its expertise in strain development and bioprocessing utilizing Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering Technology (EDGE).
OPXBIO says the EDGE technology enables it to engineer high-performing microbes and bioprocesses more effectively and efficiently compared to conventional genetic engineering methods.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
