Business Roundup

Chemours has picked Villers-Saint-Paul, France, as the site for a $200 million capacity expansion of its Nafion ion-exchange materials, used in water electrolyzers that produce hydrogen. The firm said last fall that it was considering sites in the US and Europe.

Orica and Saudi Chemical will work together to build nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Chemical says the planned facility will be the first of its kind in the region.

Novozymes has entered a partnership to supply enzymes to Carbios, which has developed an enzymatic process to break down polyethylene terephthalate into its raw materials, terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. Carbios’s first commercial-scale plant using its technology is set to open in France in 2025.

PureCycle Technologies has selected the Port of Antwerp-Bruges as the location of the first European plant to use its solvent-based process to recycle polypropylene. The company’s first plant is under construction in Ironton, Ohio.

Asahi Kasei, the National Institute of Technology in Kitakyushu, Japan, and the Tokyo University of Science have jointly developed a closed-loop recycling process for low-value carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics. Called the electrolyzed sulfuric acid solution method, it can be used to repeatedly reuse carbon fibers, the partners claim.

Membrion has closed a $7 million series B funding round. The firm makes ceramic membranes for desalination and industrial wastewater treatment.

Raven SR has signed 10-year supply deals with both Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways for its sustainable aviation fuel, to be made from garbage. Each deal starts at 50,000 metric tons (t) in 2025 and ramps up to 200,000 t in 2035.

Visolis has raised $8 million in seed funding to help develop a family of carbon-negative specialty chemicals and materials. The California-based firm says its technology combines synthetic biology and traditional chemical catalysis.