Business Roundup

SK Geo Centric is joining Loop Industries and Suez in a plan to build a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) depolymerization plant in Europe. The firms are scouting locations for the plant, which would have the capacity to make 70,000 metric tons of recycled PET per year.

Kuraray and Origin Materials will collaborate on developing carbon-negative materials for polymer applications. The partners plan to use Origin-made intermediates as raw materials for polymers including polyethylene terephthalate and nylon.

Waters and the contract research firm BioInfra will collaborate on a workforce development center in South Korea. The ASEAN Academy for Bioanalysis will be stocked with Waters instruments and located at BioInfra’s headquarters in Seoul.

Solvay has launched two glycolipid biosurfactants for the personal care and beauty markets. The firm says the fermentation-derived Mirasoft SL ingredients are 100% biobased and biodegradable.

Synteris has won a $2.7 million grant from the US Department of Energy to develop its ceramic 3D-printing technology. The Baltimore start-up is testing the technology in power electronics for electric vehicles.

NextFerm, an Israeli biotech company, has started production of a yeast-based protein that can supplement vegan products. The US food company Spacemilk plans to use the product in a vegan protein powder that will launch later this year.

Almac says it will invest about $250 million in its facilities in the UK, Europe, North America, and Asia over the next 3 years. The Northern Ireland drug services firm also reports an 8.6% increase in sales to $903 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021.

Precision BioSciences will get $75 million to partner with Novartis on gene therapies. Using its Arcus genome-editing technology, Precision will make a custom nuclease that Novartis can develop into a potential in vivo