Competitive Edge: Pyran
Q: What was the reason for founding your organization – what was the open niche you saw that could be addressed with a new product or service? What was the problem, or gap, or opportunity?
To commercialize a technology to produce 1,5 pentanediol. Polymer producers want new green low-cost monomers and monomers that give their polymers a performance advantage. 1,5 pentanediol is used in several high-performance polymer applications.
Q: Tell us about your organization. What do you do?
We are in the process of commercializing the technology to produce 1,5 pentanediol. We have global exclusive rights to the technology that was originally developed at the University of Wisconsin in the research groups of Professors George Huber, Jim Dumesic and Christos Maravelias as part of a DOE BETO program.
Q: What stage of development are you?
Proof of concept stage – in the lab or in the product/service formation process
Q: What do your technologies, products or services do and accomplish – how does it (they) work, who is it (they) aimed for?
1,5 pentanediol is used as a monomer to produce a wide variety of polymers including polycarbonate diols and polyester polyols. These polymers are used in paints, coating, polyurethane and even for synthetic leather. 1,5 pentanediol can also be used to create new types of biodegradable polymers. Pyran produces 1,5 pentanediol from furfural. Furfural is the largest by volume biochemical that is produced from corn cobs. 1,5 pentanediol cannot be produced on purpose from petroleum and is only produced as a minor byproduct during caprolactam production.
Q: Competitively, what gives your technology, product or service set an edge in cost or performance, sustainability, or any other aspect, that makes it stand out from the crowd, In short, what makes it transformative?
The key advantage is that we are producing a 5-carbon molecule from biomass that is very expensive to produce from petroleum. We can produce 1,5 pentanediol at lower cost than petroleum. Pyran’s pentanediol is high performing, sustainable, allows downstream customers to not be dependent on oil and fits into the existing polymer market.
Q: What are the 3 top milestones you have accomplished in the past 3 years?
- Production of liter quantities of 1,5 pentanediol in process development units
- Testing of 1,5 pentanediol in customers in several markets.
- Validation of Pyran technology with the DOE BETO program and industrial partners
Q: What are the 3 top milestones you will accomplish in the next 3 years?
- Scaling of technology to produce ton quantities of 1,5 pentanediol to get our product qualified with downstream customers
- Obtain offtake agreements for our commercial plant
- Finalize design of commercial facility to produce 1,5 pentanediol
Q: Where can I learn more about Pyran?
Category: Top Stories
