Business Roundup

Italmatch Chemicals, of Italy, has acquired Aubin, a Scottish producer of treatment additives for water, oil and gas, lubricants and plastics, from the private equity firm BGF. Aubin’s key markets are in the Middle East, UK and US.

Showa Denko will help develop Microwave Chemical’s recycling process, which uses radiation to break down postconsumer plastics into ethylene and propylene. For nearly 20 years, Showa Denko has used a thermal decomposition process to produce hydrogen and ammonia from waste plastic.

Ineos is expanding capacity for high-viscosity polyalphaolefins by 50% at its facility in La Porte, Texas, by 2025. Polyalphaolefins are used in applications such as lubricants for wind turbine motors.

BASF is boosting capacity for specialty amines at its plant in Geismar, Louisiana. The plant’s polyetheramines and tertiary amines are used in epoxies and polyurethanes.

W. L. Gore & Associates is working with the protein design company Arzeda on how proteins could reduce the environmental impact of new materials. Arzeda says it applies computational design and artificial intelligence to create new proteins.

BASF’s personal care division has launched two antiaging skin-care ingredients based on Lactobacillus crispatus. One is a living probiotic preparation of the bacteria; the other is a “postbiotic,” an industry term for metabolites secreted by the organism.

DeepMatter, a UK-based chemistry data and software company, has acquired the artificial intelligence specialist ChemIntelligence for up to $500,000. The French firm’s software predicts properties of molecules, materials, and formulations and suggests experiments to expedite chemical development.

invoX Pharma, a subsidiary of Sino Biopharmaceutical, has agreed to buy the UK cancer immunotherapy company F-Star Therapeutics for about $161 million. The firms say the deal will help invoX build Sino’s R&D outside China and strengthen Sino’s oncology pipeline.