Business Roundup

Westlake has signed an agreement with the Department of Justice to install $110 million worth of air pollution control and monitoring equipment at two of its facilities in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and at one in Calvert City, Kentucky. The company’s improper industrial flaring had been violating the Clean Air Act.

Evonik Venture Capital is investing an undisclosed sum in the sustainability funds Azolla Ventures and Chrysalix Venture Capital Carbon Neutrality. The investments are the first by Evonik’s Sustainability Tech Fund.

Evonik Industries has expanded its capacity in Shanghai for myristyl myristate, a biobased ester used as a skin-softening emollient in personal care products. The firm says the ingredient, which it sells as Tegosoft MM MB, is made from responsibly grown palm oil.

Dow has signed an exclusive deal with the biobased ingredient maker EcoSynthetix to bring products to the personal care market. The two firms are already working together on a series of corn-based polymers for hair care and cosmetics.

Enko Chem, an agricultural chemistry company, has acquired DNA-encoded libraries from the drug discovery service X-Chem. Enko says the libraries will allow it to quickly test billions of molecules for their potential use in pesticides or other crop health products.

Crop.Zone has raised $11 million to continue developing a system that electrocutes weeds as an alternative to chemical herbicides. The system requires farmers to spray a conductive liquid and then drag an electrical device over fields to kill weeds.

CatSci has received an investment of undisclosed size from the investment firm Keensight Capital. Wales-based CatSci says the deal will support expansion of its drug contract research services business.

Peptone has raised $40 million in series A funding to develop what it calls the world’s most advanced facility dedicated to solving intrinsically disordered protein structures. The firm will do so by expanding its lab in Bellinzona, Switzerland.