Business Roundup

Dow is increasing capacity for alkoxylates, used in cleaning and personal care applications, in Europe and the US. The firm says the initiative, which it expects to complete by 2025, will raise its capacity by 70% when combined with earlier expansion projects.

Advanced Ionics, a Milwaukee-based start-up with electrolyzer technology for making green hydrogen from steam, has raised $4.2 million in funding. The firm claims its technology consumes less electricity than standard water electrolysis technologies.

Linde will add 5.6 million m³ of helium capacity starting in 2024 by extracting the gas from natural gas liquefaction facilities in Texas operated by Freeport LNG. Global helium supply is around 160 million m^{3 per year}.

Prince International has completed its $2.1 billion purchase of the pigment maker Ferro. The combined firm will join with Prince’s sister company, colorants maker Chromaflo Technologies, and be called Vibrantz Technologies.

Sygnature Discovery, a UK-based drug discovery services provider, has acquired Peak Proteins, a UK firm with 35 employees that provides protein expression and purification services. Sygnature’s shareholders have held a stake in Peak since 2016.

Johnson Matthey has formed a research partnership with two industrial partners and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) to improve the efficiency of proton-exchange membrane electrolyzers that make hydrogen. The partners say the project will last for 3 years.

Inseco, a South African insect protein start-up, has raised $5.3 million in a seed funding round. The company feeds black soldier flies organic waste to create protein for animal feed and other products.

Codexis is investing $5 million in seqWell, which makes technologies for gene-sequencing libraries. Codexis will use its enzyme design platform to improve seqWell’s gene-sequencing library preparation tools.