Business Concentrates BIOBASED CHEMICALS
Cosmetic chemistry on view in New York City First North American In-Cosmetics exhibition showcases antiaging ingredients Naturally derived cosmetic ingredients, many purported to offer antiaging effects or protection against air pollution, were on display at the first In-Cosmetics North America show in New York City last week. As an added bonus, the show offered an opportunity for formulation chemists to display their
Chemists competed to formulate a skin cream at In-Cosmetics North America. skills in a 90-minute mix-and-make competition at an ad hoc lab built just for the show. About 160 exhibitors from 23 countries showed off their cosmetic ingredient wizardry at the event, a U.S. edition of Reed Exhibitions’ annual In-Cosmetics Global show, which drew nearly 10,000 visitors in 2016. The inaugural New York show drew about 3,000 personal care ingredient exhibitors, product formulators, and marketing executives. Some of the products were quite exotic. Among the exhibitors was Germany-based
Bitop, which showcased its 28Extremoin, amino acids derivatives from extremophile bacteria found in the Caribbean islands and intended to “prevent pollution-induced skin aging.” Chief Scientific Officer Andreas Bilstein explained that the amino acid forms a “water shell” that hydrates the surface of the skin and prevents skin damage from airborne particles. Nexthia, a one-year-old company from Germany, showed off its Neosome EM Ultrafill, a soy-lecithin-based phospholipid intended to reduce wrinkles and facial folds and help “redesign” facial contours. Envisioned as an alternative to injected fillers, the phospholipid penetrates the skin surface, said CEO Marc Pfeiffer, pulling in water and inflating skin cells. Ashland Specialty Ingredients will soon launch an antiaging ingredient derived from the lotus plant and intended to aid the transdermal skin barrier, according to Michael Koganov, the firm’s vice president for biomaterials. The new ingredient is based on technology Koganov developed to separate cellular fractions from living plants. An unusual feature of the show was a competition among chemists from personal care product companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and Conair to create a face cream on the fly. Conair chemists won with an all-day moisturizer created using a surprise list of ingredients from firms including Solvay, Gattefossé, and AMA Laboratories.—MARC REISCH
OVERHEARD
“We will limit price increases. Where we increase price on our branded therapeutic medicines, we will take price increases no more than once per year and, when we do, they will be limited to single-digit percentage increases.” —Brent Saunders, CEO of drugmaker Allergan, in a Sept. 6 blog post reacting to public outrage over aggressive drug price increases
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
Biobased companies sell U.S. facilities Changes in strategy at two biobased chemical firms—Ineos Bio and Elevance Renewable Sciences—will mean the sale of two U.S. facilities that make fuels and chemicals from biomass. Ineos Bio, a subsidiary of the Anglo-Swiss chemical firm Ineos, plans to sell its bioethanol business, including a facility in Vero Beach, Fla., and a research center in Fayetteville, Ark. The Vero Beach plant opened in 2013, taking in yard waste and woody biomass to be gasified and fermented into ethanol. Ineos spokesperson Charles Saunders says the company invested $300 million of its own funds in the business; it also received a $75 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a $50 million Department of Energy grant, and state and county tax incentives and job grants. Despite reports of technical difficulties due to contaminants, Saunders says the facility achieved continuous operation and commercial-scale syngas fermentation. “Unfortunately, the U.S. market for bioethanol has changed,” he adds, and the economic drivers for developing the technology are no longer there for Ineos. Elevance, meanwhile, has sold a biodiesel plant in Natchez, Miss., to operating partner World Energy, which has been producing biodiesel at the site. Elevance acquired the facility in 2013 with the intention of spending $225 million to convert it into a plant that makes specialty chemicals from natural oils using olefin metathesis. Elevance now says it will supply chemical customers from its metathesis facility in Gresik, Indonesia, which it operates with partner Wilmar International, and from other locations.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
C R E D I T: MA RC S . R E I S C H /C & EN
SPECIALTY CHEMICALS
