Business Roundup

Superior Plus will acquire Canexus in a deal that combines two Canadian manufacturers of chlorine, caustic soda, and the paper pulp bleaching chemical sodium chlorate. The deal, which values Canexus at about $715 million, will create the world’s largest sodium chlorate producer, the firms say.

Novozymes has agreed to acquire Pacific Vet Group, a developer of probiotics for poultry. Probiotics are health-promoting microbes that inhabit the intestinal tract. PVG was founded in 2008 based on lactic acid bacteria technology developed at the University of Arkansas.

VWR has acquired Purifications Technologies Inc., which purifies select solvents for analytical, biotech, and agrochemical customers. VWR, a lab products provider, says the purchase will help it supply high-purity acetonitrile and other solvents.

Clariant has opened an industrial biotechnology research center in Planegg, Germany, near Munich. The specialty chemical firm’s new center has more than 65,000 sq ft of laboratory and office space for about 100 employees.

Carbon Clean Solutions, based in London and Mumbai, has raised $5.2 million from private investors to expand research and sales of its solvent-based CO₂ capture and reuse technology. Carbon Clean has been testing its technology for five years and claims it is more energy efficient and lower in cost than competing technologies.

Kuraray will increase its capacity for polyvinyl alcohol film in Ehime, Japan, by 20 million m² per year. The company did not say how much it is spending, but the firm’s 32 million-m² expansion in 2011 cost $110 million. The material is used in polarizers for liquid-crystal displays.

Toray Industries has acquired a 55% stake in Italy’s Delta Tech, a manufacturer of resin-impregnated carbon fiber (prepreg) sold to car companies. Toray, the world’s largest carbon fiber maker, was already Delta’s supplier of carbon fiber.

MOF Technologies, a Northern Ireland-based start-up, has received $1.3 million from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research funding program to scale up production of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The firm says its MOFs have applications in gas storage, air purification, and heat pumps.

Merck Millipore will work with the German firm Celares to provide PEGylation services for customers’ protein-based therapeutics. Millipore makes functionalized polyethylene products that Celares PEGylates, or conjugates, to proteins to improve their properties as drugs.