Business Roundup

Dow will expand its ethylene cracker in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, by 130,000 metric tons per year. The company says the $200 million-plus cost of the project will be shared 50-50 with an unnamed customer that will take half of the output.

Foremark Performance Chemicals has expanded its triazine manufacturing operations in La Porte, Texas. The firm says the capacity increase reflects strong demand from the oil and gas industry, which uses triazines to scavenge impurities.

BASF will spend up to $11 million to boost water-based polyurethane dispersions capacity by 30% at its site in Castellbisbal, Spain. The dispersions are used in applications including scratch-resistant coatings for furniture and as a raw material in adhesives, the firm says.

Oxis Energy, a UK developer of lithium-sulfur batteries, is doubling battery-cell production capacity at its UK test center to meet rising customer demand. The firm says it expects to make prototype cells with an energy density of 500 W h/kg over the next 12 months.

Clariant has opened a lab in Bradford, England, that will serve oil industry users of its pour-point depression and fuel stabilizer products. The firm says the lab has a wide selection of testing regimes and methods for crude oil analysis.

Memphis Meats has raised $161 million in a series B funding round that it calls the largest in the history of the cell-based meat industry. The Berkeley, California–based firm says it will use the money to expand its staff and build a pilot production facility.

Mammoth Biosciences has raised $45 million in series B financing to continue developing CRISPR-based diagnostics and begin developing CRISPR gene-editing therapies. The start-up hopes to strike partnerships for its ultrasmall Cas14 enzymes, which it licensed from the University of California, Berkeley.

iOnctura, founded in 2017 as a spin-off from Merck KGaA, has raised close to $17 million in series A funding. The Dutch firm says it will use the funds to move its lead molecule, the PI3K-δ inhibitor IOA-244, into a Phase I trial in solid tumors.