Business Roundup

Wacker Chemie will build a plant at its site in Nünchritz, Germany, that makes silanes and resins for paint and building-protection agents. The plant will cost about $37 million and complement a similar facility in Berghausen, Germany.

Avantium has been awarded $2.2 million by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program to develop an electrocatalytic process that converts carbon dioxide into industrial chemicals, including formic acid, glyoxylic acid, and glycolic acid, and fuels. The EU will pay Avantium in four annual tranches.

BASF and Mitsui Chemicals say they will jointly study the potential of chemical recycling in Japan. BASF aims to use 250,000 metric tons per year of recycled feedstock, such as pyrolysis oil derived from plastics, globally by 2025.

Stepan has opened an agriculture innovation center in Barrow County, Georgia. The center includes training and customer support facilities, as well as a spray research chamber, chemical and biological formulation labs, and a test greenhouse.

Haldor Topsoe has created a green hydrogen business to promote its electrolysis activities. The Danish firm has developed solid oxide water electrolysis technology that it claims can produce 30% more hydrogen than standard technology with the same amount of energy.

Avantor, a health-care services firm based in Pennsylvania, has acquired RIM Bio, a Changzhou, China–based maker of single-use bioprocessing bags. RIM will be Avantor’s first Asian plant for the bags, which it already makes in the US and Europe.

NiKang Therapeutics has raised $200 million in series C funding to develop small molecules to treat cancer. NiKang says it develops drugs using target structure biology and structure-based drug design.

Esco Lifesciences has raised $200 million in series A funding led by Vivo Capital. The investment will allow Singapore-based Esco to develop a cell and gene therapy hub in Boston.