Business Concentrates POLYMERS
▸ Ashland eyes sale of two businesses Ashland is considering options, including a sale, for both its composites business and a plant in Marl, Germany, that produces butanediol and derivatives. The composites business has annual sales of about $780 million. The Marl plant employs around 250 people. Ashland says a sale would increase its focus on specialty chemicals. To that end, the firm sold its Valvoline motor oil business last year and acquired the specialty ingredient maker Pharmachem. Ashland considered exiting butanediol in 2016.—MICHAEL
MCCOY
AGRICULTURE
▸ Monsanto links up with AgriMetis Monsanto will collaborate with agricultural chemical firm AgriMetis, a 2016 C&EN Start-up to Watch, on new insect protection compounds. AgriMetis creates semisynthetic compounds using Saccharopolyspora spinosa. The bacterium is currently the source of spinosad insecticides, which are made via fermentation. AgriMetis chemically alters the fermentation product to improve characteristics such as potency and the species that can be targeted.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
ENERGY STORAGE
▸ Japanese firms eye lithium car batteries Mazda, Ube Industries, and ELIIY Power are teaming up to develop lithium-ion alternatives to the lead-acid batteries used to start cars. While lithium-ion batteries offer lower weight and toxicity, they have not been able to replace lead-acid batteries because of under-thehood heat and the flammability risk their electrolytes pose in a collision. Mazda will use its car-making know-how to simulate the chemical reactions inside batteries. Ube will provide electrolytes and battery cell separators. ELIIY has supplied lithium-ion starter batteries to
14
C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MARCH 26, 2018
M&G assets being sold off Three producers of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are buying up PET facilities owned by the bankrupt Italian company M&G Chemicals. A joint venture of the three firms—Indorama Ventures, Far Eastern New Century, and Alpek—has agreed to pay $1.125 billion to acquire an M&G plant under construction in Corpus Christi, Texas, that will produce PET and the raw material purified terephthalic acid (PTA). The facility will be the largest integrated PET-PTA plant in the world when it is complete, the partners say. They will each take one-third of its output. Separately, Indorama has agreed to buy M&G’s PET plant in Suape, Brazil, the country’s largest, for an undisclosed sum. Last month, Far Eastern won a bankruptcy court auction of M&G’s PET plant in Apple Grove, W.Va. M&G’s remaining PET plant is in Altamira, Mexico. A likely buyer is Alpek, which supplies the facility with PTA and recently helped arrange a loan to keep it running.—MICHAEL MCCOY
motorcycle makers since 2016.—JEAN-
ENERGY STORAGE
FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
▸ Sila Nano, BMW form anode materials pact
BIOBASED CHEMICALS
▸ Total Corbion makes PLA in Thailand A joint venture of Total and Corbion has started up a 1,000-metric-ton-per-year polylactic acid pilot facility in Rayong, Thailand. PLA is made from lactide, a fermentation product that Corbion specializes in. Total Corbion is also building a 75,000-metric-ton-per-year plant on the site. The launch provides an Asian source of PLA for biobased, biodegradable plastics. In North America, the main producer of PLA is NatureTotal Corbion is making PLA at this Works.—MELODY
facility in Thailand.
BOMGARDNER
California-based start-up Sila Nanotechnologies has teamed with BMW to develop energy-dense anodes for long-range lithium-ion car batteries. Sila says it can make silicon-rich anode materials that offer a far higher energy density than the graphite in conventional anodes. The anode materials are safe, compatible with existing battery production processes, and economically viable when made at large scale, Sila says.—ALEX SCOTT
PHARMACEUTICALS
▸ Lundbeck buys firm for Parkinson’s drug Lundbeck is acquiring Prexton Therapeutics, which was spun off of Merck KGaA in 2012, for up to $1.1 billion. The centerpiece of the deal is foliglurax, OH a positive allosteric modulator N of mGluR4 N currently in Phase II O O studies in N Foliglurax people with Parkinson’s disease. Foliglurax was developed by Merck and Domain Therapeutics, which in 2013 sold rights to the drug to Prexton. The compound addresses side effects of current Parkinson’s treatments, which alleviate symptoms by replacing dopamine but can cause involuntary muscle movements.—LISA JARVIS
S
C R E D I T: TOTA L CO R BI O N
SPECIALTY CHEMICALS
