Business Roundup

Celanese has agreed to acquire Linde’s synthesis gas plant in Pasadena, Texas. Regulators said Linde must sell the facility, which supplies Celanese, before they would approve its merger with Praxair.

BP Lotte, a South Korean joint venture of BP and Lotte, will spend $175 million to increase its acetic acid capacity by 100,000 metric tons. The firm will also double its production capacity for vinyl acetate to 400,000 t.

Mitsui Chemicals will build a 20,000-metric-ton-per-year α-methylstyrene plant adjacent to its phenol facility in Singapore. The compound is used to produce petroleum resins and as a performance enhancer for the engineering plastic acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene.

Nouryon, the former AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals, will market Itaconix’s biobased chelating polymers to the cleaning product industry. The supply deal stems from a 2017 joint development agreement between the two firms.

Danimer Scientific is working with the food giant Nestlé to design water bottles made from the biodegradable polymer polyhydroxyalkanoate. Danimer is building a PHA plant in Winchester, Kentucky.

Juvenescence has raised $46 million to date in series B financing and says it expects the financing round to reach $100 million by the end of the quarter. The firm is focused on therapies that modify aging or age-related diseases.

Genomatica says it has reached a production milestone of 600 metric tons of butylene glycol made from sugar using a proprietary microbe. The ingredient, which Novamont makes for Genomatica on a contract basis, is used in personal care products to help active ingredients penetrate the skin.