US-based chemical company, Dow Chemical, has announced the startup of its new polyurethane (PU) molecular recycling plant.

Some context:

Dow is one of the market leaders when it comes to reacting polyols and isocyanates to make PU. The material (which has so many other applications) is widely used as the foam that makes up your mattress. But mattresses don't last forever, so companies like BASF and Covestro have been developing ways to recover polyols from that PU.

So, what are they doing?

Dow and four other companies (who have other roles in the supply chain) have created a system to collect, dismantle, depolymerize foam mattresses, and recover the polyols (which will be marketed as Renuva). The plant is capable of processing 200,000 foam mattresses per year. That's obviously a lot of mattresses—but it pales in comparison to the 18 million thrown away each year by the US alone. The likes of Dow, BASF, and Covestro are just getting started.

Read the press release here.

German chemical company, BASF, has announced a new partnership with a leading Chinese battery producer to recycle batteries and produce cathodes.

Catching you up:

In the last 6 months alone we've seen a lot from BASF regarding batteries—most recently, the company announced a new JV to make cathodes and a plan to build a battery recycling pilot plant. All of this (and more) comes just 3 years after BASF's ex-CEO brushed off the possibility that vehicle electrification was coming soon. Today, BASF is the only large chemical company getting into the battery game. They are planning to compete with other battery raw materials producers like LiCycle and Redwood Materials.

Connecting the dots:

Speaking of Redwood Materials, that company just signed a deal to provide Ford with a supply of cathode materials. Ford likes that idea because it shortens the supply chain for battery production in the US. Battery producers in Europe want the same thing. This partnership between BASF and CATL will give BASF expertise and give CATL access to BASF's "strong position in the CAM market" (CAM is cathode active materials).

Read the press release here.

Colorado-based renewable chemicals company, Gevo, has announced its acquisition of Butamax's entire isobutanol related patent portfolio.

Wait, what does Gevo do?

Gevo developed a new strain of yeast that produces isobutanol instead of ethanol when it consumes plant sugars. The company's technology could open up a whole new market for companies (like POET and ADM) who produce ethanol from corn. That's because isobutanol can be dehydrated to isobutylene and oligomerized to olefins with an 8 to 12 carbon backbone which represents the main component of gasoline and jet fuel respectively.

Zooming out:

Butamax was formed as a joint venture between BP and DuPont back in 2011. Gevo and Butamax have fought (and worked together) for years on their often overlapping isobutanol-related technologies. Now, Gevo owns all of the patents in question and will be able to expand (by licensing) its technology without stepping on the toes of their competitor. Maybe Chevron had a feeling this would happen—it was just a couple of weeks ago that Gevo signed an agreement with the company to build some new plants.

Read the press release here.