The DuPont and DSM transactions are important because they provide evidence that traditional chemicals and materials companies are expanding beyond petroleum-based materials and industrial chemicals to get into biotechnology and bio-based products. It is important that both the traditional chemical industry and the emerging bio-based industry work together to produce the most efficient and effective products.

Bio-based products must perform and be cost effective, or they will struggle to be adopted, as described in this recent Washington Post article.

This philosophy has been a fundamental element of our business at Elevance. We continue to form partnerships to expand and leverage our technology to produce new bio-based chemicals and materials at the high-performance edge of the spectrum. You will be hearing more about these partnerships as we move toward start-up of our Asian bio-refinery later this year.

Click here for a full listing of product platformsElevance provides.

According to Ernst & Young, “VC investment in cleantech companies increased by 8 percent to $3.98 billion in 2010. Cleantech in Q4 2010 reached $979 million with 72 financing rounds. VC investment in cleantech in Q4 2010 reached $979 million with 72 financing rounds.”

This proves that activity in the cleantech industries is increasing, and Elevance is proud to be part of this emerging industry.

Our strong relationships with our investors and partners, have helped Elevance grow significantly in the last three years as we continue development of high performance specialty chemicals and products.

With the support of these resources and technology, we have been able to move both our business and the bio-based industry forward in the past and look forward to significant additional advancements this year.

De Guzman explains the problem manufacturers and formulators have experienced since the “green” movement hit mainstream — keeping price low and performance high — all while keeping up with demands of being green.
One challenge has been combining high performance with cheaper, renewable-based surfactants and the ability to “increase the level of green ingredients in formulations without compromising performance.”

To overcome these challenges, manufacturers and formulators have increasingly switched from petroleum to oleochemical-based surfactants. “High petroleum prices and growing supply of Asian palm oil has driven the replacement of petrochemical-based alcohols with oleochemical-derived ones for several years. Alcohol is a major raw material for surfactant manufacture.”

“Oleo alcohols accounted for 60% of the global detergent alcohols market five years ago, says Neil Burns, managing partner for US-based consultancy Neil A. Burns. Today it is almost 70% and the trend continues with planned investments in oleo alcohol production capacity.” However as De Guzman points out, this trend is as much about supply availability and costs as it is about increasing sustainability.

At Elevance, our efforts in the area of surfactants, like in the other areas we are targeting for development, are focused on generating cost-effective performance improvements from renewable feedstocks.

Our biorefinery produces oleochemicals that will compete in today’s oleo alcohol markets as well as novel specialty chemicals that can be utilized as building blocks for the next generation of surfactants. Our collaboration with Wilmar will help us address the needs of the oleo alcohol markets and the recently announced collaboration with Stepan Company is targeting performance enhancements from our specialty chemicals to enable a new level of performance and economics. This combination of possibilities inspired Burns in a second article to deem Elevance’s joint venture with Wilmar “revolutionary.” We tend to agree.

Stepan’s joint development with Elevance represents a significant opportunity for both companies. It brings together complimentary capabilities and will accelerate development of high value specialty products needed in markets targeted by both companies.

Our business model is one of partnerships. We have established them in technology, feedstocks, manufacturing and markets. Each of these collaborations (whether publicly announced or still confidential) is creating opportunity for our partner in addition to helping to transforming the petrochemical industry to sustainable, renewable based products.

We are pleased to be working with Stepan to deliver value to their customers and achieve growth through innovation.

“The chemical industry is looking for alternatives that it can use to provide more stability and security of supply,” said Shafer. “I think that’s one major, overarching factor that is driving [new production] technologies… there is a strong drive for innovation and enhanced performance,” he said.

When considering biobased alternatives for fuel, lubricants, waxes and personal care products, performance and functionality are the most important factors considered by potential customers in the biobased chemical sector.

Shafer supports the idea that performance leads all other factors when companies are looking to purchase biobased chemicals and products. Cost is also a factor, as biobased chemicals must be priced at or below their fossil-based counterparts to remain cost competitive.

Biobased products have to perform well, meet the required specifications, and be functional. An added bonus is that they are made from renewable resources.

“The fact that a chemical is biobased, in my experience, is a nice tie breaker,” Shafer says. “But, generally it’s not the driving force for most customers.”

Robin is responsible for working to accelerate Elevance’s collaborations with customers across the company’s business platforms. His experience in product development, technology licensing, production, P&L management and strategic analysis in the petrochemical, life science and energy industries allows for a comprehensive outlook on product development as the company commercializes higher-value, novel and specialty chemicals from the Elevance biorefinery.

The ad will run throughout September on www.environmentalleader.com and in the publication’s weekly newsletter. A print ad is also running in the Society of Environmental Journalists annual meeting program. The meeting will be held in Montana in October.

We’re proud to have Robin as a member of the Elevance team!

K’Lynne Johnson, CEO, will be presenting at The 10th Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) in Saskatchewan Canada from Sept. 12 – 15. The ABIC encourages research, development and commercialization of new biotechnologies.

K’Lynne will describe how the concepts of biorefineries and platform chemicals can be utilized to help renewables compete with established petrochemical refineries.

Andy Shafer, Executive VP Sales and Market Development, will travel to the West Coast the same week to present at The Future of Bio-Based Chemicals – Inception to Marketplace Conference in San Francisco Sept. 13-14. Andy will discuss plans for Elevance’s biorefinery project with Wilmar, discussing Elevance’s approach to commercializing bioproducts that will be produced and opportunities for potential collaboration. Schedule here.

On the East Coast, Steve Di Biase, Chief Science Officer, will present at the Biobased Chemicals Conference in Boston, September 13-15. He’ll explain the importance of innovation in the renewable chemicals space, providing information on how Elevance’s metathesis technology combines nature’s resources with human ingenuity to produce the next generation of organic chemistry. Schedule here.

The article points out Elevance’s distinction as one of BusinessWeek’s Top 10 Most Successful Startups of 2008, and that, just two years later, it expanded and created the world’s largest biorefinery.

Through its Wilmar joint venture, Elevance is able to rapidly, cost-effectively and profitably produce 180,000 metric tones per year of ‘drop in fuels, ’ specialty chemicals and oleochemicals.

By collaborating with leading industry partners, Elevance is commercializing renewable chemicals for use in consumer ingredients and intermediates, antimicrobials, lubricants, fuels and additives for lubricants and fuels.

For the complete article: Polymers and Tyre Asia Aug.Sept. 2010

Crain’s Chicago Business featured Elevance in the August 2 issue, highlighting the company’s growth and innovation in the specialty chemicals industry.

Writer John Pletz noted, “While others struggle to turn a profit squeezing fuel out of corn, K’Lynne Johnson is turning crops into chemicals.”

The article declared that Elevance “may have hit on a formula that’s sustainable not just environmentally but also financially. Making agricultural feedstocks into chemicals costs about as much as producing ethanol, but the chemicals sell for twice as much. That makes the business profitable without the taxpayer subsidies that prop up the ethanol industry.”

Seth Snyder, a biofuels researcher at Argonne National Laboratory in Darien said that Elevance is “extremely vital to the area.” For an area that is familiar with the agriculture and petrochemicals industries, Pletz writes “renewable chemicals offer not only the prospect of new jobs for local workers but also a new market for Illinois farmers.”

As Elevance strives to be a leader in the space, Johnson acknowledges that customers are “skeptical that there are very many technologies that can deliver cost and performance, and they’re right. There have not been very many technologies that have been able to deliver. We believe we can.”

Click here to read the full article:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20100731/ISSUE01/307319984

(article available for viewing by subscription or free-trial)

Elevance’s Chief Science Officer Steve DiBiase and VP of Chemicals Development Robin Weitkamp gave presentations at the conference and were pleased to be joined by Dr. Sian Rees, Director of Science and Technology for Dow Corning’s Life Science Business.

Dr. Rees, who participated in the session, “Specialty Chemicals, Pharma Intermediates, Food Ingredients Advances in Commercialization of Performance Specialty Chemical” with Robin Weitkamp, discussed Dow Corning’s approach to innovation and their collaboration with Elevance in the commercialization of specialty chemicals for the personal care industry.

Weitkamp discussed Elevance’s approach to commercializing biobased products, specifically the different products that Elevance would be developing with Wilmar. He highlighted the need for performance and economic value to the end user and the benefit of partnerships with companies like Dow Corning.

DiBiase discussed Elevance’s technology and its implementation into the Elevance biorefinery.

In all, it was a great opportunity for scientists, executives, government officials and investors to network and exchange ideas and we look forward to World Congress 2011.