Aramco buys Novomer’s CO₂-based polyols business

Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Saudi Aramco, is making a big investment in green chemistry with the purchase, valued at up to $100 million, of Novomer’s Converge polyols business.

Novomer produces the polyols by reacting carbon dioxide with epoxides such as ethylene oxide and propylene oxide. The polyols, which have a renewable content of up to 45%, are then reacted with isocyanates to make polyurethanes.

Earlier this year, Ford Motor Co. announced it was investigating the use of the polyols for making seat cushions. The Detroit automaker hopes to use it in vehicles within the next five years.

Novomer was founded by Cornell University chemistry professor Geoffrey W. Coates, whose team developed catalysts, based on β-diiminate zinc acetate and salen cobalt carboxylate complexes, that help combine CO₂ with epoxides.

The company intends to use the proceeds from the sale to develop its COEth technology, which combines ethylene oxide with carbon monoxide to make beta-propiolactone, a chemical that can be converted into industrial chemicals such as acrylic acid.

Saudi Aramco made an equity investment in Novomer in 2013 and now says its Aramco Performance Materials subsidiary will manufacture the polyols. The company says the purchase of the business is consistent with the Saudi government’s Vision 2030 program, which calls for diversification of the Saudi economy.

“By providing access to reliable feedstock supplies, financial stability, and unrivalled R&D investment and focus, Saudi Aramco will accelerate the commercialization of these exciting new polyol materials,” says Abdulaziz al-Judaimi, acting senior vice president of downstream for Saudi Aramco.

CO₂ for the process could come from a carbon capture project, the first in Saudi Arabia, that Aramco inaugurated last year. At its Uthmaniyah oilfield and Hawiyah facilities, the firm will inject 800,000 metric tons per year of CO₂ into a limestone reservoir.

Separately, Aramco is in the process of starting up Sadara, a $20 billion chemical joint venture with Dow Chemical. The partnership will make specialty chemicals including polyols.