Business Roundup

Tronox Holdings has named John D. Romano and Jean-François Turgeon co-CEOs. They took on the roles on an interim basis in December when CEO Jeffry N. Quinn took a leave of absence after allegations of insider trading.

Afyren, a biobased chemical firm, has partnered with the sugar producer Südzucker for supply of sugar beet coproducts. Afyren says it will use the feedstock at its facility in France, which will start making seven organic acids at industrial scale in early 2022.

Viridis, a renewable chemical firm, received undisclosed investments from EIV Capital and IFG Asset Management to buy and improve plants in Columbus, Nebraska. The plants will be used to produce USP-grade ethanol and what Viridis says will be the only renewable ethyl acetate in the US.

Svante has landed a $25 million equity investment from the Canadian oil company Suncor to help commercialize its solid sorbent technology for carbon capture. Svante, which says it can capture point-source CO₂ at half the cost of competing approaches, has raised $100 million overall this year.

Solvay, Groupe Renault, and Veolia have formed a partnership that intends to recycle electric vehicle batteries in Europe. They plan a closed loop of collection, dismantling, metal extraction, and purification.

1910 Genetics, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has launched with $22 million in series A funding to design small-molecule and protein-based drugs with artificial intelligence. The start-up says it has already applied its platform to find compounds that block SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cells.

ZwitterCo has completed a $5.9 million seed funding round led by Mann+Hummel Corporate Ventures. ZwitterCo says its zwitterionic polymer membranes can handle fat-, oil-, and protein-rich wastewater streams that vex conventional filter materials.

Fujifilm has picked Holly Springs, North Carolina, as the site for a previously announced $2 billion cell culture contract manufacturing site in the US. The company says it will be North America’s largest such facility.