A Cambridge, Mass. biosciences company that makes plastics, chemicals and energy from renewable crops rather than petroleum, Metabolix, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBLX) today announced that its subsidiary, Metabolix Oilseeds, obtained a $203,000 grant from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture (or USD $203,614.92) to test a crop called Camelina Sativa, or false flax, as a possible petroleum replacement.
Camelina contains oil, fiber and protein with potential uses in nutrition for people and animals, and industrial applications including in biofuels.
Previously, Metabolix, Inc. attained 22 grants* from the U.S. government totaling $11.3 million since 2001 — including in 2009, a $349,450 award from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) — to make bioplastics that could replace HDPE, a petroleum-based variety used in bottles and containers, made on commercial scale equipment and at rapid manufacturing speeds.
According to the company’s website, Mirel resin is biodegradable in soil and water, and in home and industrial composting facilities but not in a conventional landfill, and is used in lieu of traditional plastics to make consumer goods, compost bags, business equipment and packaging. It’s also FDA-approved for use in microwaveable, freez-able, and food, medical and cosmetic packaging.
While Metabolix is viewed as an industry leader, competition for a piece of the sustainable packaging market is growing with companies like Biopack Environmental Solutions, Crown Holdings, EnviroPAK, NatureWorks, Pactiv, and many other stalwarts strongly in the game, and startups like EcoSpan and MicroGreen growing quickly.
The global market for sustainable packaging (not just bioplastics) is projected to reach $142.42 billion by 2015, according to projections by Global Industry Analysts (GIA).
Metabolix is also developing technology to make plastics, chemicals and energy, from crops such as switchgrass, oilseeds and sugarcane on the same equipment, or in the same facilities.
*CORRECTION ADDED TH. JAN. 27, 2011:
This story previously said Metabolix, Inc. had attained a $15 million grant. That number was from an estimate by a trade news site, and was inaccurate. According to USA Spending, a U.S. government website, Metabolix has attained 22 U.S. government grants totaling $11.3 million since 2001. The grant it attained in 2009 from the U.S.D.A. was a $349,450 award. I regret the error.
Founded in 1992, Metabolix, Inc. is an innovation driven bioscience company focused on providing sustainable solutions for the world’s needs for plastics, chemicals and energy. The Company is taking a systems approach, from gene to end product, integrating sophisticated biotechnology with advanced industrial practice. Metabolix is now developing and commercializing Mirel(TM), a family of high performance bioplastics which are biobased and biodegradable alternatives to many petroleum-based plastics. Metabolix is also developing a proprietary platform technology for co-producing plastics, chemicals...
The singular mission of MicroGREEN Polymers is to provide the plastics industry and the world with environmentally sound plastics technologies that offer substantial economic advantages. Twenty years ago researchers at MIT, and later UW discovered that if you put plastic under pressure and expose it to a gas, such as CO2, it will become saturated with that gas while in solid state. By exposing the saturated plastic to enough heat to soften it rather than melt it, the gas...
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
