Client News

Joe Zuback

IntelliFlux Controls, Inc. announced that Joseph Zuback, who is a leading global expert in water treatment technologies, has joined the company as a member of its Advisory Board. 

Joe is the president of Global Water Advisors, Inc., and has over forty years of water industry experience as a technology and business developer for municipal, industrial, and commercial water technology markets. Prior to the creation of Global Water Advisors in 2009, he served as the Chief Technology Officer and a member of the Executive Management Council at Siemens Water Technologies (previously USFilter).  He is a board member and vice-chair for the Water Environment Research Foundation and named as inventor or co-inventor for over thirty patents.

“Joe is a personal mentor and a thought leader in the water business. Having him as an advisor for our leadership, management, and technology teams is a rare privilege. I consider this as a spectacular milestone for the company.” said Dr. Richard Woodling, the Chief Commercial Officer at IntelliFlux Controls.

PUNE, India & BERKELEY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Praj Industries Ltd. and Lygos, Inc. have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to co-develop Lygos’s proprietary yeast for the production of lactic acid. As part of this MOU, Lygos will provide its proprietary yeast platform to Praj for jointly developing into various solutions for commercial applications.

Praj has already developed and offers bacterial fermentation technology to produce lactic acid and downstream products from sugary feedstock. Lactic acid is also used in food and beverages, in cleaning agents as well as in the electronic industry. The global lactic acid market size is estimated at around $1 Bln USD (2019).

Lygos will provide its innovative and high-performance technology, LP1 Ultra™ Yeast Platform and Carbon Sequestration Superhighway™, which is well suited to produce acid compounds.

Praj will assemble other segments of technology backed up by its expertise in process development, optimization, design scale-up and will further integrate lactic acid as a source material in to making Bioplastic, called as Polylactic Acid (PLA).

Demand for PLA acid is ~ 200, 000 tons/year, which is expected to increase substantially in the near future. PLA is an appropriate solution to replace single use plastics and reduce the burden on the waste disposal system. Due to its unique characteristics, PLA offers an improved replacement for many applications. Rising consumer awareness with respect to the need for recyclability, green packaging, and sustainability is driving significant demand globally. Unlike conventional plastic, PLA does not take decades to degrade, and as such, reduces adverse environmental impact.

Pramod Chaudhari, Executive Chairman of Praj, said, “True to its vision to make the world a better place, Praj continues to deploy advanced technologies to produce sustainable products. Our focus over the past three decades on environment, energy and agri-process industry complements global efforts to mitigate climate change and is in tune with global circular bioeconomy. We are happy to work with Lygos to co-develop their advanced yeast platform to produce highly valuable organic acid to offer our customers a better opportunity while supporting rural economy. I am confident that this association will open opportunities for both of us in the global renewable chemicals & materials industry.”

Eric Steen, CEO of Lygos, stated, “We are pleased to partner with Praj and the Praj Matrix team whose deep expertise spans commercialization, engineering, and scale-up, construction and operation of similar industrial processes. This is an exciting time where the world’s demand for sustainable, safe products not produced from toxic petroleum continues to grow. We believe our LP1 Ultra™ platform will complement the Praj team’s goal in the lactic acid marketplace. We look forward to accelerating the technology commercialization through this partnership.”

Both companies will jointly pursue identified commercial opportunities globally to establish a leading position in compostable polymers.

PolyCera is bringing its customers around the globe the most advanced membrane filtration solutions. Our robust UF and NF organic metal membranes deliver the highest quality performance with unrivaled reliability, even under the most challenging applications and at the lowest cost-of-life ownership. Watch what our customers have to say about the powerful capabilities of PolyCera’s Hydro and Titan membrane product lines.

SAFCell, Inc. has completed an eight-month field trial of their remote power system at a Shell Canada well site in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. SAFCell’s system, which runs on industrial methanol, powered a methane emissions sensor from late February until mid-October, thereby demonstrating operability in the field at both low and high ambient temperatures.

Download Press Release here.

Librede Inc. Receives Patent for Cannabidiolic Acid (CBDA) Production in Yeast

July 24, 2018 05:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CARLSBAD, Calif.–Librede, a leader in natural cannabinoid biosynthesis, has been granted a new patent for the production of cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) in microorganisms. The patent, Production of Cannabidiolic Acid in Yeast, describes the modification of yeast to produce CBDA from simple feedstocks such as sugar. CBDA is a naturally occurring cannabinoid found in hemp and cannabis which is used to produce cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabidiol has been shown to have a wide range of therapeutic properties, including treatment of epilepsy, for which a CBD-based therapeutic has won recent FDA approval. Librede’s fermentation-based cannabinoid production platform has demonstrated that natural CBD can be produced outside of the cannabis plant using yeast, in a process that is similar to making beer. Librede is now in the process of continuing technology development through optimization and scaling for industrial production in large fermenters. Dr. Anthony Farina, Librede’s Chief Scientific Officer, explains: “We have been building our platform around the natural biochemistry in the cannabis plant that gives rise to a diverse set of compounds, with our focus being on therapeutic applications. Having engineered cannabidiol synthesis in the laboratory, we are now beginning the process of scaled up production.”

Fermentation for the production of high value, complex, natural products offers a preferred route to synthesis at an industrial scale. Librede’s biosynthetic approach has several potential advantages over agricultural-based methods including protection from supply volatility, improved consistency, reduced cost, and lower environmental impact. Dr. Jason Poulos, CEO of Librede, explains: “The use of fermentation to produce these compounds represents the future of industrial scale cannabinoid production. As more cannabinoids are shown to have therapeutic value, we must find a way to produce these compounds in a sustainable way. Utilizing the synthetic power of biology allows us economical access to these compounds while minimizing environmental impacts. The future of all cannabinoid production may not be large farm fields but instead compact and highly efficient fermenters.”

About Librede:

Librede is a synthetic biology company that uses biologically-based approaches to produce high value natural products with a focus on cannabinoids. Librede’s patented yeast-based cannabinoid production platform can provide therapeutic cannabinoids to diverse markets in an economically and environmentally sustainable way.

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