Business Roundup

Lenzing plans to build a 100,000-metric-ton-per-year plant for its Tencel cellulosic fiber in Thailand by the end of 2020. Late last year, Lenzing said it will build a $300 million Tencel plant in Mobile, Ala. The fiber is used in apparel, home furnishing, and other applications.

PolyOne is selling the plastic sheet and packaging business it acquired when it bought Spartech for $393 million in 2013. Private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners will pay $115 million for the business, which represents about 70% of what was once Spartech, according to the investment firm Jefferies.

AkzoNobel will spend more than $20 million to increase production of expandable microspheres in Stockvik, Sweden. The gas-filled thermoplastic balls expand to up to 60 times their volume for use as insulating or filling material.

Kemira has acquired liquid fingerprinting technology from the Finnish start-up Aqsens. Kemira says the technology, based on enhanced time-resolved fluorescence, will allow it to rapidly check polymeric scale-inhibitor concentrations during oil-field water treatment.

PTT Global Chemical has purchased a 68-hectare parcel on the Ohio River in Belmont County, Ohio, from FirstEnergy. The company may use the land to build a new ethylene cracker. It expects to decide on the project later this year.

Heptares Therapeutics has teamed with PeptiDream to develop small molecules and peptides against an undisclosed GPCR receptor relevant in inflammatory diseases. Heptares’s technology will help elucidate three-dimensional details of the GPCR target, allowing PeptiDream to discover molecules that bind to it.

Evonik Industries and Sinopec Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry will build a process development lab in China for Evonik’s organic solvent nanofiltration membrane technology. The membranes are used in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries.

Nucelis and sister firm Cibus, both biotechnology trait developers for microbes and plants, have partnered with Mexican manufacturer Fermic on fermentation routes to food and personal care ingredients. Their first product is vitamin D², a plant-based form of vitamin D.