Business Roundup

Topsoe and Saudi Aramco plan to build a demonstration plant for Topsoe’s low-carbon hydrogen technology at Aramco’s Shaybah Natural Gas Liquids recovery plant in Saudi Arabia. The technology uses an electrified reactor to eliminate the emissions that would result from heating with hydrocarbons.

Petronas Chemicals plans to build a plastics recycling plant in Pengerang, Malaysia, that will have a capacity of 33,000 metric tons per year. The plant will make pyrolysis oil that can be used as a chemical feedstock.

Azul 3D has raised $15 million in a series A round from investors including DuPont. The firm’s technology, which it calls high-area rapid printing, was first developed at Northwestern University.

Endolith, a subsidiary of the start-up Cemvita, has received a $1.1 million grant from the US Department of Energy to use microbes to extract lithium from ore. The company says this approach will minimize mine tailings.

SK Capital, a private equity firm, has acquired the food ingredient company J&K Ingredients from Core Industrial Partners. J&K produces a natural mold inhibitor for bread and a plant-based replacement for the preservative potassium sorbate.

Denka and SCG Chemicals, part of Siam Cement, plan to build an acetylene-based carbon black plant in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. Denka, which already operates three acetylene black plants, says the facility will serve markets including lithium-ion batteries and high-voltage power cables.

Symrise has increased its stake in the cosmetic raw material firm Kobo Products to 49%. Symrise says Kobo’s line of inorganic sunscreen filters complements its own portfolio of organic and inorganic filters.

Entos Therapeutics has changed its name to Iambic Therapeutics and closed a $100 million series B financing round. The company uses machine learning for drug discovery; its two lead preclinical candidates inhibit the cancer-linked kinases HER2, CDK2, and CDK4.