Avantium acquires Liquid Light to create chemicals from CO2
Renewable chemical firm Avantium has bought the assets of chemical tech company Liquid Light, which owns a proprietary process to produce major chemicals using carbon dioxide. The purchase will see the combination of both companies’ technology to create an electro-catalysis platform and to commercialise new CO2 processes to develop sustainable chemicals and other materials. Liquid Light has invested over $35m into the low-energy electrochemical conversion of CO2 into useful chemicals, and its technology and patent portfolio will be incorporated into Avantium’s Renewable Chemistry business unit, as well as its R&D programme.
Renewable chemicals company Avantium has acquired the assets of Liquid Light. Liquid Light has developed proprietary process technology to make major chemicals from low-cost, globally-abundant carbon dioxide. The acquisition combines the technologies of both Liquid Light and Avantium to develop a world-leading electro-catalysis platform and to commercialize new process technologies using CO 2 as feedstock to produce sustainable chemicals and materials.

The acquisition of Liquid Light is an important step in our strategy to create and commercialize breakthrough technologies in renewable chemistry. It will extend our capabilities beyond catalytic conversion of biomass. This acquisition will enable the development of a powerful technology platform on the basis of CO 2 feedstock, meaning it turns waste into valuable products such as chemicals and plastics. —Tom van Aken, CEO of Avantium

Spun out from Princeton University in 2008, Liquid Light has invested more than US$35 million on low-energy electrochemistry technologies to convert CO 2 to major chemicals. It has filed more than 100 national patent applications of which more than twenty have been granted. Its patent portfolio includes filings on producing multiple chemical building blocks used in large existing markets, including oxalic acid, glycolic acid, ethylene glycol, propylene, isopropanol, methyl-methacrylate and acetic acid for the production of polymers, coatings and cosmetics.

The technology and patent portfolio of Liquid Light will be integrated in Avantium’s Renewable Chemistry business unit and its existing R&D program in electrochemistry. The combination of Liquid Light’s expertise in electrochemistry with Avantium’s expertise in catalysis and process engineering will be the basis of a technology platform to develop novel production technologies for converting CO 2 to chemicals and materials.

The integration of the Liquid Light assets into Avantium is complete and effective immediately. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.