Renewable Chemicals Developer Raises $104M in Venture Funds

(SecretService.gov)

Elevance Renewable Sciences in Woodbridge, Illinois says it raised $104 million in its series E financing, the fifth round of funding after start-up. Lacustrine Limited, a subsidiary of Genting Berhad, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia led the round with Total Energy Ventures International, based in Paris.

Elevance produces specialty chemicals for personal care products, detergents, lubricants, fuels, and other ingredients from renewable feedstocks. The company says its biorefinery converts the triglycerides and fatty acids found in natural oils — such as plant, vegetable, and animal oils — into multiple fuel and chemical streams.

The company’s technology is based on olefin metathesis chemistry, a process discovered by Robert Grubbs of California Institute of Technology. This process allows carbon atoms in natural oils to “swap” places, thereby enabling new chemical compounds and manufacturing methods. Grubbs, along with Yves Chauvin and Richard Schrock won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2005 for their development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis.

In June, Elevance acquired the Delta BioFuels facility in Natchez, Mississippi. The company plans to expand the existing 800,000-square-foot refinery in multiple phases over the next five years, creating 165 full-time jobs.

Read more:

• Cellulosic Biofuel Process Close to Cost-Competitive
•  U.S. Patent Awarded for Isobutanol Production Process
• Energy Efficient, Low CO2, Lower Cost Cement Developed
• Nanotech Enhanced Oils Boost Insulation Properties

Hat tip: Fortune/Term Sheet

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