Renmatix, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, announced a $14 million investment, led by Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Renmatix’s Plantrose process is designed to provide an enabling technology for profitable biorefineries by deconstructing a range of plant material into renewable feedstocks to produce separate streams of industrial sugars and novel polymers.
This investment in commercializing Plantrose will help drive towards the first wave of Renmatix licensees building Plantrose-enabled biorefineries in diverse global markets like Canada, India, Malaysia, the U.S. and elsewhere. In parallel, that activity will facilitate further market development in downstream bioproduct applications.
According to Gates, "To effectively address climate change, we need to develop an energy infrastructure that doesn't emit greenhouse gas and is cost competitive. A critical component in this effort must be to decarbonize the industrial sector. Another is the possibility of cost competitive biofuels. Renmatix provides an innovative process that is an exciting pathway to pursue."
Gates is joined in the round by Total, Paris, France, which initially invested in 2015 and has expanded its investment. Total has additionally signed a licensing agreement with Renmatix for 1 million tons of annual cellulosic sugar production capacity, at Total's discretion to build corresponding facilities. The license represents significant revenue potential for Renmatix, extending over the lifetime of the agreement.
"At Total, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major. We want to make low-carbon businesses a profitable growth driver accounting for 20 percent of our portfolio in 20 years' time. Meeting these goals is what has led to setting-up and expanding our collaboration with Renmatix," says Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of Total.
The patented Plantrose process uses supercritical water to reduce costs in conversion of biomass to cellulosic sugars, the intermediary for second-generation biochemicals and biofuels.
"This continued progress marks the pronounced acceleration of a new, sugar based, chemistry regime. One that can go beyond conventional oil based products for cleaner, more sustainable solutions," says Renmatix CEO Mike Hamilton. "While we're working with partners to capitalize on the vast opportunity for biobased transformation in markets as diverse as the U.S. and India, this investment from Gates and Total together shows recognition of our technological achievements, and magnifies our commercial momentum. That acknowledgment and Total's signing of the million-ton license, are compelling indicators of our Plantrose technology's maturation towards biorefinery scale."
