So much for the bad news. The good news is that green chemistry innovators have plenty of opportunities to formulate more sustainable alternatives.radar this week is the Danish biotech startup Cellugy. The company has come up with a fermentation-based system for producing pure cellulose, marketed under the name EcoFLEXY. The product, offered in a dry powder or in a solution, isfor the petrochemicals commonly found in lotions, and many other personal care products.
However, the devil is in the details. Among the challenges is cultivating a super-bacteria that can quickly and efficiently convert plant sugars. “The round was led by Germany’s ICIG Ventures and Denmark’s Unconventional Ventures, with new, U.S.-based investor Joyance Partners joining the round, along with existing investors PSV DeepTech, The Footprint Firm, and EIFO,” Cellugy reported in a press release earlier this week.In terms of the volume of petrochemicals to be replaced, the personal care industry is rather small compared to the fuel industry.
One of those companies to dip a toe in the petrochemical-free market is International Chemical Investors Group, an industry powerhouse with sales of more than € 3.6 billion. They are eagerly anticipating scale-up for Cellugy with an assist from their ICIG Ventures branch. “We are particularly excited about the synergies in accompanying Cellugy in its scale-up journey,” he added.Shaking off the grip of the petrochemical industry on the global economy has been a decades-long effort. The
ACS credits the University of Massachusetts with creating the first Green Chemistry Ph.D. program in the US, in 1997. “In that same year, Dr. Joe Breen, a retired 20-year staff member of the EPA, and Dr. Dennis Hjeresen co-founded the Green Chemistry Institute as an independent nonprofit dedicated to advancing green chemistry,” ACS also notes.Green Chemistry: Theory and PracticeThe momentum continued to build after the turn of the 21st century.