Novomer Inc. receives US$5 mln Energy Department grant to use carbon dioxide and ethane-laden natural gas

25-Sep-13

Materials science company Novomer Inc., which specializes in biodegradable plastics and other chemicals from renewable substances, received a US$5 mln Energy Department grant to be used in its efforts to use carbon dioxide and ethane-laden natural gas to make an array of petrochemicals. The grant money is to be used to set up lab space at Eastman Business Park to prove the technology. Novomer currently is talking with various companies to fund the next step — a pilot plant, said Michael Slowik, Novomer director of chemicals. “Interest in the process and technology is very high,” he said. By 2017, Novomer hopes to have a full-sized plant set up to use its chemical process to turn out acrylic acid, butanediol and other petrochemicals at an industrial scale. Novomer’s aim is those petrochemicals being available far more cheaply than they currently are when made from crude oil, which in turn could make the United States more competitive in manufacturing’s global marketplace. The location of the pilot plant and the subsequent, full-sized operation has yet to be determined, Slowik said. In 2011, the company received more than US$18 mln from the U.S. Department of Energy to help set up a pilot plant to show the feasibility of turning waste carbon dioxide into plastics. Now Novomer is starting to try to land sales of its technology.