Over the past century, major chemicals companies like BASF, Dow and LyondellBasell have maximized a global manufacturing process that is derived from fossil fuels.
Sparked by a chance medical school poker game conversation in 2016, Solugen evolved from prototype to physical asset in five years, and production hit commercial scale shortly thereafter.
"Solugen is the first synthetic biology company with a demonstrated ability to scale both their sales and their own manufacturing," an investor told CNBC at the time of the 2021 deal.
The Bioforge, as its manufacturing platform is known, is designed to minimize the massive environmental toll of traditional chemical manufacturing, and in a perfect world, result in carbon-neutral if not carbon-negative emissions.
Bioforge 1, its Houston-based site, is a zero discharge facility without air or wastewater emissions.
Persons:
Solugen, Baillie Gifford
Organizations:
BASF, Dow, CNBC
Locations:
Houston