Business Roundup

Alterra Energy is licensing it plastic pyrolysis technology to Freepoint Eco-Systems Holdings, which intends to use it to build a plant on the Gulf Coast that will process 192,000 metric tons of plastic waste per year. Freepoint is also building a plant in Hebron, Ohio, and intends to sell its output to Shell.

LG Chem will pay $75 mil- lion for a 6% stake in Piedmont Lithium, which owns part of a proposed lithium mine in Canada. LG Chem has also committed to buying concentrated ore from the Canadian mine and lithium hydroxide from Piedmont’s planned refinery in the US.

JSR is walking away from its business relationship with the 3D printing specialist Carbon, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing business environment. JSR has invested in Carbon through multiple venture capital rounds.

NanoGraf has raised $65 million to help build a facility in Chicago to produce silicon battery anode materials. In November, the company received a separate $10 million contract from the Department of Defense to fund the same facility.

Maxion Therapeutics has completed a $16 million series A financing round. It will use the money to develop biologic drugs that target ion channels and G-protein- coupled receptors to treat various health conditions. The firm’s drug design concept consists of fusing cysteine-rich miniproteins onto antibody surfaces.

Ineos has raised the $3.7 billion it needs to build an ethylene steam cracker in Antwerp, Belgium. The cracker will be able to be powered with low-carbon hydrogen and, with a zero carbon footprint, will be the greenest in Europe, Ineos claims.

Solvay has partnered with Cyclic Materials, a Canadian rare earth recycling firm, to source recycled mixed rare earth oxides. Cyclic will produce the oxides at its site in Ontario and ship them to Solvay’s site in La Rochelle, France.

Aqilion will collaborate with Merck KGaA on small-molecule inhibitors of the TAK1 protein to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Aqilion has received $10.6 million in cash and is eligible for milestones and royalties worth over $1 billion.