Business Roundup

Ineos is doubling the size of its proposed US Gulf Coast ethylene oxide facility to 520,000 metric tons per year. The company expects the facility, which will also make ethoxylated derivatives, to start up in 2023.

Solvay will increase hydroquinone capacity at its plant in Saint-Fons, France, by 20% within the next few months. The firm recently increased hydroquinone capacity in Zhenjiang, China, by an undisclosed amount.

Covestro will collaborate with Genomatica to research and develop high-performance materials based on renewable feedstocks. Producing materials made with Genomatica’s engineered microbes will help Covestro reduce its CO₂ emissions, the companies say.

Lubrizol has acquired Laboratoire Phenobio, a maker of naturally derived extracts and botanical active ingredients for cosmetics. Lubrizol previously acquired other cosmetic natural ingredient makers including Active Organics in 2011 and Lipotec in 2012.

Avantium plans to build a biomass-based ethylene glycol demonstration plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands, by the end of the year. A $2.3 million grant from the European Regional Development Fund is helping to underwrite the plant, which will have an annual capacity of 10 metric tons.

Clear Labs, a food safety testing start-up using gene-sequencing technology, has inked a deal with Oxford Nanopore. Benchtop sequencers from Oxford Nanopore will power Clear Labs’ system, enabling fast, high-volume pathogen testing, they say.

Enamine is extending an agreement to provide drug-discovery services to the Danish firm Lundbeck. Enamine will supply a new screening compound library, produce compounds on demand, and increase its contract chemistry offering.

Synerkine Pharma has raised nearly $4 million in its first formal round of financing. Synerkine is developing fusion proteins that can address chronic pain without the side effects seen with common analgesics. The proceeds will support preclinical development of a fusion protein of IL-4 and IL-10 for arthritis and neuropathic pain.