Business Roundup

Umicore and BASF have signed a nonexclusive cross-licensing agreement covering more than 100 families of patents relating to cathode active materials and their precursors, including chemistries such as nickel cobalt manganese. The firms say the agreement will accelerate development of safe, cheap, and energy-dense battery materials.

Chevron Phillips Chemical has picked Old Ocean, Texas, as the site for a 266,000-metric-ton-per-year 1-hexene plant the firm earlier said it was considering. The material is a comonomer used to make linear low-density polyethylene.

Nouryon has agreed to supply hydrogen peroxide and sodium chlorate to Renewcell, a start-up building a textile recycling plant in Sundsvall, Sweden. Renewcell will use the bleaching chemicals in a plant that Nouryon will install at the site.

Solvay has completed the sale of its North American and European amphoteric surfactant unit to the private equity firm OpenGate Capital. The business has been named Verdant Specialty Solutions, with specialty chemical veteran John Foley as CEO.

Eastman Chemical has acquired 3F Feed & Food, which makes additives for animal and human nutrition. 3F specializes in organic acid derivatives and nonantibiotic growth promoters. It operates a plant in Avila, Spain.

Modern Meadow, a start-up developing alternative leather from fermentation-derived proteins, has raised $130 million in a third round of funding led by Key Partners Capital. It also has a new CEO: Anna Bakst, who previously led the fashion label Kate Spade.

Trinseo and the catalyst firm ETB Technologies are collaborating on a process to convert ethanol into 1,3-butadiene. Trinseo says it will conduct a feasibility study for a pilot plant in Europe.

Aceragen, which focuses on rare diseases, has launched with the purchase of Enzyvant’s investigational enzyme therapy for Farber disease for up to $226 million. Aceragen will get $35 million in funding from NovaQuest Capital Management.