Business Concentrates MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
▸ BASF, Umicore settle cathode suit BASF, Argonne National Laboratory, and Umicore have agreed to settle a patent dispute over nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cathode materials used in lithium-ion batteries. BASF and Argonne have granted Umicore a license to make and sell the NMC materials in the U.S. The lithium-enriched, two-phase cathode material, developed by Argonne and licensed to BASF, is used in high-power applications such as batteries for the Chevy Volt hybrid electric car. BASF and Argonne sued Umicore in 2015, claiming Umicore sold cathode material that infringed on Argonne’s patents. Umicore lost the suit at the International Trade Commission, and the case was headed to U.S. District Court.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
START-UPS
▸ DuPont, Delaware create incubator DuPont is joining with the State of Delaware and the University of Delaware to form Delaware Innovation Space, a business incubator at the DuPont Experimental Station research labs, where DuPont has excess space. DuPont is DuPont donated donating a building its newest and labs valued at building at the about $15 million Experimental plus $2.0 million Station to the worth of equipment incubator. and $1.3 million in
KMG will buy fluid specialist Flowchem Specialty chemical maker KMG is buying Waller, Texas-based Flowchem from the private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners for $495 million. Flowchem calls itself the world’s second-largest supplier of drag reducing agents for oil and fuel pipes. Drag reducing agents are injected into pipes to reduce the friction between the fluid and the pipe walls, increasing throughput and reducing operating pressure. Flowchem’s revenues aren’t being disclosed, but the firm earned about $43 million before taxes over the past 12 months. KMG makes electronic materials, wood preservatives, and industrial lubricants, including lubricants for valves. KMG says the purchase will allow it to become an instant leader in drag reducing agents. Arsenal purchased Flowchem in 2013.—ALEX TULLO
start-up funding. The state will contribute $5.0 million in start-up funding; the university will pitch in $1.5 million. The partners hope the facilities will keep ex-DuPonters and other entrepreneurs in the state of Delaware.—MICHAEL MCCOY
technology—mainly purified terephthalic acid and acetyls. The company sold its olefins business in the U.S. and Europe to Ineos in 2006.—MICHAEL MCCOY
AGRICULTURE
▸ Acetylated wood planned for China
▸ U.S. fertilizer projects start up Two new fertilizer plants fueled by lowcost natural gas from shale have started up in the U.S. In Wever, Iowa, OCI has opened a $3 billion facility that can make up to 2 million metric tons of nitrogen fertilizer per year. The company calls it the first greenfield nitrogen fertilizer plant to be built in the U.S. in more than 25 years. And in Borger, Texas, Agrium has commissioned a 610,000-metric-ton-per-year urea facility on the site of an existing nitrogen fertilizer plant.—MICHAEL MCCOY
PETROCHEMICALS
▸ BP will exit big Chinese joint venture BP will sell its 50% stake in the Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical olefins and derivatives joint venture to its partner, China’s Sinopec, for $1.68 billion. BP and Sinopec started up SECCO in 2005 at a cost of close to $3 billion. BP now says it is focusing its Chinese petrochemicals business in areas where it has proprietary
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MAY 1, 2017
CONSUMER PRODUCTS
A new company called Cleantech Building Materials is joining with Jiangsu Sopo Group, a Chinese state-owned chemical maker, to build Asia’s first acetylated wood factory. The partners licensed the technology from Accsys Technologies, which operates an acetylated wood plant in the Netherlands and is building one in England. The Chinese facility will be built at Jiangsu Sopo’s plant outside Shanghai, where it already makes the acetic anhydride needed for acetylation. The partners say the process gives softwoods the performance characteristics of tropical hardwoods.—MICHAEL MCCOY
AGRICULTURE
▸ BASF buys ZedX for digital farming BASF has acquired ZedX, a Pennsylvania-based developer of information technology tools that provide forecasting and decision services to farmers. ZedX builds applications to help growers plan and schedule irrigation and pesticide and fertilizer application. Other tools provide
CREDIT: PAUL PRUITT
ENERGY STORAGE
ANTIBIOTICS
custom weather forecasts and early warning of pest conditions. BASF says the acquisition will strengthen its digital farming footprint and help growers take advantage of big data. The two firms had a threeyear collaboration to develop agronomic models.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
▸ Avantor buys highpurity chemical supplier Avantor Performance Materials, a supplier of high-purity chemicals for electronics and the life sciences, has acquired Puritan Products, a Bethlehem, Pa.-based maker of pharmaceutical buffers and chemicals for research and electronic materials customers. Avantor CEO Michael Stubblefield says the deal will expand the company’s customer base in the U.S. and Europe. “The addition of Puritan’s operations, equipment, and sourcing of raw materials offer our customers an additional layer of supply chain security,” he adds.—RICK
MULLIN
FOSSIL FUELS
▸ Evonik opens lab serving oil sector Evonik Industries has opened a laboratory in Horsham, Pa., that tests the firm’s line of
▸ DSM Sinochem boosts Dutch output Equipment in Evonik’s new laboratory for the “cold finger” analytical technique.
crude oil paraffin inhibitors. Evonik says its inhibitors modify the paraffin waxes present in crude oil, dispersing them so they don’t adhere to surfaces and impede oil flow. Alex Tsay, Evonik’s oil additives marketing manager, says the lab will help identify additive blends that provide flow assurance for crude oils from around the world.—MICHAEL MCCOY
DRUG DISCOVERY
▸ HitGen works with Scripps and Calibr HitGen, a biotech company based in China and with labs in Houston, will work with Scripps Research Institute and its affiliate, the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr). The partners will use HitGen’s DNA-encoded small-molecule libraries to discover and develop oncology, regenerative medicine, and virology drugs. Scripps and Calibr will provide target materials and expertise. The alliance comes just one week after HitGen entered a multiyear drug discovery deal with Pfizer.—ANN THAYER
Business Roundup
CREDIT: EVONIK
▸ Lanxess has completed the acquisition of Chemtura in a deal valued at about $2.6 billion. Lanxess says the purchase will greatly expand its additives business as well as its footprint in North America. ▸ Lanxess will spend $27 million on efficiency improvements at a plant in Antwerp, Belgium, where the company makes nylon 6 and its precursor, caprolactam. Lanxess says it has put more than $300 million into the site since the company was founded as a spinoff from Bayer in 2004.
▸ BASF has agreed to buy Thermotek, Mexico’s largest supplier of waterproofing systems to the construction industry. Thermotek, which has 500 employees, makes resinous and dispersion materials as well as asphalt sheet for waterproofing roofs and walls. ▸ Enamine, a producer of chemical building blocks and screening libraries, will work with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory to find small molecules that address EMBL’s anti-cancer targets. Enamine will provide library synthesis, medicinal
DSM Sinochem Pharmaceuticals will expand a plant in Delft, the Netherlands, HO O that produces 7-aminodeacetoxyO cephalosporanic acid (7-ADCA), N an intermediate used to produce cephalosporin antibiotics. S H2N H The facility is the only maker of 7-ADCA still in operation 7-ADCA in the West, according to the company. DSM Sinochem has in recent years been critical of antibiotics manufacturers, mostly in Asia, that contribute to antimicrobial resistance by discharging antibiotics waste.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
DIAGNOSTICS
▸ Two Pore Guys gets initial funding Diagnostics-focused start-up Two Pore Guys has raised $24.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Khosla Ventures. The six-year-old company plans to scale up production of its hand-held, point-of-use testing device. According to the company, the solid-state nanopore-enabled device uses disposable test strips and can detect single molecules of virtually any kind. As with phone apps, specific assays can be developed by third parties.—ANN THAYER
chemistry, and biological services. EMBL will deploy a team of medicinal chemists at Enamine. ▸ Reliance Industries has completed upgrades that will allow its ethylene cracker in Dahej, India, to import cheap shale-based ethane from the U.S. The company also plans to use ethane at its plants in Hazira and Nagothane, India. ▸ Wacker Chemie will expand production of isopropenyl acetate by 2,500 metric tons per year in Berghausen, Germany. The company uses the chemical to make acetylacetone, which has applications in the life sciences, con-
struction, and the automotive market. ▸ EpimAb Biotherapeutics has raised $25 million from Chinese and foreign investors. The Shanghai-based firm is developing immuno-oncology drug candidates that make use of its technology for generating molecules with antibody-like properties. ▸ Arsanis, a biotech firm developing monoclonal antibodies for treatment of infectious disease, has raised $46 million in a Series D round of financing. The investment was led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and included GV, formerly Google Ventures.
MAY 1, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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