Business Roundup

Kraton, a maker of specialty polymers derived mainly from pine, plans to increase production capacity for alpha methyl styrene resins at its facility in Niort, France, by 15% by year-end. Kraton will also modify the plant to reduce solvent consumption by 70%.

Compact Membrane Systems (CMS) has started up a pilot membrane system at Braskem’s polypropylene plant in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. The unit, which uses CMS’s fluoropolymer-based membranes, will separate propylene from propane and run for 500 days.

Ascend Performance Materials, a maker of nylon 6,6, will acquire Formulated Polymers of Chennai, India. The nylon compounder manufactures in Chennai and has warehouses throughout India.

DIC of Japan has picked Good Chemistry, a Vancouver-based quantum chemistry firm, to provide it with quantum computing and artificial intelligence services. Good Chemistry’s cloud-based service will be applied to materials research at DIC.

e-Zinc has raised $25 million to begin pilot production of an energy storage system that uses a zinc-air battery to power businesses for several days. The company says its battery could increase the availability of renewable energy when other sources aren’t generating electricity.

Umiami has raised $29 million to build a factory that produces whole cuts of plant-based meat, rather than ground products like hamburgers or meatballs. The company plans to startwith a version of chicken breast.

Aurion Biotech has raised $120 million from investors including Visionary Ventures and KKR’s Falcon Vision unit. The firm is developing a cell therapy for treating a form of corneal edema, an eye disease.

Autigen has signed a research and licensing agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim aimed at finding therapies for people with sensorineural hearing loss. Autigen could get more than $100 million if it achieves all milestones.