Company Profile
Novomer
Company Overview
Novomer is a venture-backed start up company commercializing a family of sustainable polymers and chemicals produced using CO2 and CO as feedstocks via proprietary Novomer catalysts. The company has raised over $50 million to date in private and public funding and has ~ 30employees across three locations. R&D is headquartered in Ithaca, NY with additional capabilities in Rochester, NY. All business activities are conducted out of Novomer’s Waltham, MA offices.
Company History
Novomer is commercializing a homogeneous catalyst system capable of producing acrylic acid (AA), acrylate esters, butanediol, THF, PolyPropiolactone (PPL), and succinic acid–all of which have a market value in excess of $20 billion–at a significantly reduced cost and with a lower carbon and energy footprint. PPL is a new polymer that has the potential to have a transformational impact on the chemicals industry because of its excellent material properties and demonstrated biodegradability.
Novomer’s proprietary catalyst system allows carbon monoxide to combine with ethylene oxide (EO) to produce a versatile chemical intermediate called propiolactone. This intermediate can then be converted to the wide range of value-added chemicals mentioned above. The cost of this process has the potential to be 40% lower than current technologies. The lower cost is enabled because the process has demonstrated selectivity in excess of 99% and uses inexpensive raw materials, CO and ethane derived EO. The emergence of shale gas rich in ethane throughout the U.S. is an ideal low cost feedstock for this technology.
The process is expected to have a lower carbon and energy footprint because it operates at moderate temperatures (30-50oC), has excellent atom efficiency, and will use a renewable source of CO. Additionally, Novomer has shown the PPL is stable across a wide range of temperatures, but degrades quickly to glacial AA above 200oC. The ultimate vision of the technology is that low molecular weight PPL could be shipped globally and converted to acrylic acid or acrylate esters upon demand. Also, high molecular weight PPL would have two product uses; one as a thermoplastic for packaging, and the second when PPL is collected and “upcycled” to glacial AA.