9 March 2016
DETAILS
The new $1 million 8,300 square-foot laboratory
at NatureWorks world headquarters
is the latest milestone in the company’s multi-year program
to commercialize a fermentation process
for transforming
methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into lactic acid,
the building block of PLA biopolymer.
NatureWorks is hiring six scientists to staff the new facility.
The methane to lactic acid research project began in 2013
as a joint effort between
NatureWorks and Calysta Energy™,
Menlo Park, Calif., to develop a fermentation biocatalyst.
In 2014, laboratory-scale fermentation of lactic acid
from methane utilizing a new biocatalyst was proven,
and the United States Department of Energy
awarded $2.5 million to the project.
In 2016, the opening of the new laboratory
at NatureWorks headquarters
marks another major advancement in the journey
from proof of concept to commercialization
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
