Pyran raises USD5 mln for bio-based PDO

Pyran, Inc. (Madison, Wisconsin) has announced that it has raised USD5 million in a series B equity funding round that it will use to build a commercial facility to produce bio-based 1,5-pentanediol (PDO), as per Chemweek.

The company said it has “narrowed its site selection” but did not provide further location, cost or capacity details. Pyran uses intermediates from renewable feedstocks to make 1,5 PDO that can replace petroleum-based chemicals in paints, coatings and adhesives.

“This strong investor support further fuels our ability to scale our technology and complete the necessary steps to begin operating a world-scale commercial plant with renewable feedstocks in 2027,” said Kevin Barnett, Pyran co-founder and chief technology officer.

Pyran has raised USD12.5 million since its founding in 2018. Its series B was led by a USD3 million contribution by Kowa Global (Nagoya, Japan). Participants also include the venture arm of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Arosa Capital.

“This investment allows us to expand our role in the bio-based specialty chemicals value chain, in which we have growing global market access, with a new product and opportunities for derivatives that have wide ranging impact on making everyday products more sustainable, and with a talented team with whom we have developed a very good working relationship,” Satoshi Hata, Kowa Holdings America’s president, said in a press statement.

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Representatives from Blue Polymers LLC, Republic Services and the city of Buckeye, Arizona, have broken ground on a Blue Polymers recycled plastics production facility in the Western United States, said the company.

When it opens in the second half of next year, the planned 162,000-square-foot plant will support sustainable packaging manufacturing throughout the Western U.S., according to the parties involved.

The Buckeye Blue Polymers facility, announced this May, will produce recycled-content polyethylene (PE), such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE) used in milk jugs and detergent bottles, and polypropylene (PP), frequently used in packaging such as margarine tubs and yogurt cups. “These plastics will be processed and formulated into high-quality, drop-in recycled plastic solutions for the packaging industry,” Blue Polymers and Republic say.

Phoenix-based Republic Services, a joint venture (JV) partner in Blue Polymers, is developing a network of regional Polymer Center plastics recycling facilities. Those centers are designed to sort recyclable plastics sourced from Republic’s national curbside collection operations by resin and color.

Each Republic Services Polymer Center will be paired with a Blue Polymers facility, with the Buckeye facility to process materials from Republic’s Las Vegas Polymer Center, which opened in late 2023.

Republic says demand is rising for domestically sourced, high-quality recycled plastics because of both voluntary sustainability commitments and state legislation.

Blue Polymers says its facilities are being built to support true package-to-package circularity, with an annual production target of 300-plus million pounds (tons) of recycled resins. The Buckeye facility joins a previously announced Indianapolis location as part of Blue Polymers’ network of four regional facilities.

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Perstorp AB (Malmo, Sweden) has announced that it has completed its offering of C8-C10 oxo-alcohols by introducing isononanol (INA), iso-dodecene and oxo oil 9N to the company’s product portfolio, said the company.

Perstorp said the new and complete offering has been made possible by utilizing synergies with its parent company Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG; Kuala Lumpur).

The new additions to the Perstorp oxo-alcohol product portfolio are available to order and are manufactured by Petronas Chemicals Isononanol Bhd, a PCG subsidiary, at the Pengerang Integrated Complex in Malaysia, Perstorp said. The plant making the products has been operational since early August, it said.

PCG’s marketing business, Petronas Chemicals Marketing Labuan Ltd., will oversee distribution of the new products.

Elsewhere in Asia, Perstorp in February this year commissioned a plant at Sayakha, India producing pentaerythritol (penta) chemicals.

We remind, Perstorp has resumed phthalic anhydride production in Nol, Sweden, following maintenance. Perstorp has shut down its phthalic anhydride plant in Nol, Sweden, with a capacity of 35,000 tons per year, for one month due to scheduled maintenance. The phthalic anhydride production is being repaired simultaneously with the plasticizer production.

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Sentiment in Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industry has “deteriorated significantly again” in September, according to industry association VCI (Frankfurt), as per Chemweek.

The industry’s sales this month are more than 2% below levels in September 2023, VCI said in a statement Sept. 25. Falling producer prices have “wiped out” a slight increase in production, it said. “The demand situation has deteriorated noticeably this month,” VCI said. “Industrial activity in Germany remained weak until recently. There were also no positive impulses from abroad,” the statement said.

Current conditions remain “negative” for Germany-based chemical and pharmaceutical producers, and the immediate outlook is no better, VCI said. “Companies are again more skeptical about the coming months — especially in the chemical industry,” it said. One in three chemical companies in Germany expects business to deteriorate, VCI said.

Hopes for an early recovery of the German economy are “increasingly evaporating,” VCI noted. “This is putting a strain on the cyclically sensitive chemical industry in particular,” it said.

“In Germany, the industrial downturn seems to be continuing,” said VCI chief economist, Henrik Meincke. “And there are also no solutions in sight for the structural problems. Overall, these are bad signals — especially for the chemical industry. Companies are still lacking orders. Therefore, business remains difficult.”

VCI said earlier this month that Germany’s chemicals output, excluding pharmaceuticals, increased 8.4% year over year and 3.6% sequentially in the second quarter. However, sales, including pharmaceuticals, slipped 0.7% sequentially and 0.6% year over year, VCI said.

VCI held an “industry summit” at Berlin on Sept. 12, with attendees including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the future of the country’s chemical industry. In an opening speech at the summit, Scholz said, “The chemical industry is the basis of our success as an industrial nation.” To ensure that this remains the case, the German government has “set the political course” with measures such as the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Strategy, the Growth Initiative, a reduction in the electricity tax and electricity price compensation, Scholz said. “Germany is a central location for the chemical industry in the world,” he said. “I want it to stay that way.”

Scholz addressed other priority measures that the German government is planning to strengthen the chemical industry. They include rejecting a total ban on entire groups of chemical substances, as well as a commitment to a risk-based approach, under the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regulation. Measures also include support for chemical recycling and the mass-balance approach.

In response, VCI President and Covestro CEO Markus Steilemann called the comments “a first step. However, the measures are not sufficient to start the necessary departure towards a strong chemical location,” he said. Scholz’s announcements “must now be implemented quickly,” Steilemann said.

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TotalEnergies SE (Paris) has signed an agreement with HD Hyundai Chemical (Daesan, South Korea) for the annual delivery of 200,000 metric tons of LNG for a period of 7 years starting in 2027, as per Chemweek.

The natural gas will be used as feedstock by HD Hyundai Chemical, a producer of petroleum products and mixed xylenes. The xylenes will be supplied as feedstock to sister company HD Hyundai Cosmo (Daesan), which has a production capacity of 1.42 million metric tons per year of benzene, toluene and para-xylene, according to HD Hyundai’s website.

HD Hyundai Chemical was formed in 2014 through a strategic joint venture between HD Hyundai Oilbank and Lotte Chemical. HD Hyundai Cosmo — also established in the same year — is a JV between HD Hyundai Oilbank and the Japanese refiner Cosmo Oil.

South Korea is the world’s third-largest LNG importer.

We remind, TotalEnergies SE has lifted the force majeure on polypropylene (PP) supplies in Europe. Total's polypropylene production units in Feluy, Belgium, and Gonfreville, France, have resumed normal production levels. This, in turn, has allowed the company to lift the force majeure on polypropylene supplies.

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