Business Roundup

PMC Group has agreed to acquire Lanxess’s organotin catalysts and specialties business for an undisclosed sum. Lanxess will continue to make some products for PMC at its site in Bergkamen, Germany.

Trinseo has decided to retain its polycarbonate plant in Stade, Germany. Trinseo had considered selling or closing the plant but decided to keep it operating after identifying cost savings at the site.

Celanese and the building-material maker Oriental Yuhong Waterproof Technology will collaborate on emulsions for waterproofing applications. The companies have a commercial relationship in emulsions and vinyl acetate chemistry that stretches back a decade.

Showa Denko says it will commercialize production of 1,3-butylene glycol at its plant in Oita, Japan, by the end of the year. The chemical is used as a moisturizing component in cosmetics.

Perstorp has broken ground on a plant in Gujarat, India, that will make pentaerythritol, a polyol used in coatings and other applications. The plant, which will also produce renewable grades of the chemical, will have a capacity of 40,000 metric tons per year and open in 2022.

Spero Renewables is receiving $2 million in funding from the US Department of Energy to develop its technology for lignin-based thermoset polymers. The California-based firm licensed the technology from Purdue University.

Sumitomo Chemical America is joining the Massachusetts-based start-up incubator Greentown Labs as a supporter. The firm joins more than 160 other companies, including BASF, DSM, and Shell, that get insights into and engagement opportunities with small firms developing clean technology businesses.

Ervaxx, a biotech firm based in London, has launched with $17.5 million in seed and series A financing. The start-up is designing off-the-shelf cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies based on cancer antigens from the so-called dark matter of the genome—the large fraction of DNA that doesn’t normally encode proteins.