Good morning. Free editions aren't typically sent twice per week, but since The Column won't return for free readers until the week of January 2nd, I figured it was worth sending one more to close out the year (paid readers will still get this Friday's edition). Oh, and if you know any start-ups in the chemical or materials industry, please let me know so I can add them to the live database.

From the condenser:

· Eni's cellulosic ethanol enzyme acquisition

· Shell's small modular nuclear interests

· POTD: legos

Eni just made an enzymatic acquisition

Versalis, the chemical subsidiary of Italy's oil major, Eni, has acquired DSM's enzyme production technology.

The enzymatic holy grail:

In many ways, enzymes are like the holy grail of catalysis. This is because of two reasons: (1) they achieve excellent selectivity, and (2) they achieve that selectivity at low temperatures. And while (1) is important, it says nothing about conversion—but, given effective separation processes, an integrated enzymatic process could achieve virtually perfect conversion at the plant scale. On the other hand, (2) is meaningful from both sustainability and energy-related OpEx POVs—ambient conditions means lower heat requirements (less need to generate heat by combusting fuels), and lower heat requirements means less money spent on energy. Unfortunately, enzymatic catalysis is also characterized by poor conversion (which means more separation units are required, therefore greater CapEx) and high enzyme production and utilization costs (which hinders OpEx).

So, what's going on here?

In any case, the future of the chemical industry is at least incrementally more enzymatic, and Versalis thinks that DSM's blend of cellulase enzymes, produced via yeast fermentation, will become increasingly marketable in the coming years. So, they decided to acquire it for its synergy with Versalis's existing cellulase enzymes in use at its cellulosic ethanol site in Italy.

Bigger picture:

The success of Versalis's existing enzymes and DSM's ex-enzymes hinges more on innovation prior to cellulose conversion and on innovation in enzyme operational cost reductions. For example, you could use MetGen's lignin separations prior to using your cellulase enzymes, and you could immobilize your enzymes with EnginZyme's technology, instead of discarding the enzymes with each batch.

Shell is showing interest in nuclear

London-based petroleum giant, Shell, has announced a new partnership with small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) start-up, NuScale, to explore nuclear-powered hydrogen production.

The context you need:

Chemical manufacturing is unique because value creation is closely tied to the amount of energy required to make and separate molecules. For example, there aren't minimum thermodynamic heat requirements needed to piece together a car, but those requirements do exist for splitting molecules (as you would do in a steam cracker). That's why the industry is "hard-to-abate". You need a lot of heat to do stuff, which is typically delivered via steam, which is typically produced by the combustion of fuels.

Okay, so what's going on here?

This is a very early stage agreement to study a moonshot application for SMRs—the companies want to know if SMR-based energy could be an economical means of producing green hydrogen via water electrolysis for the purpose of grid stabilization (by converting that hydrogen into electricity with fuel cells). In the short term, the agreement is mostly just a commitment to jointly assess the options with simulations, which is why it was also made in partnership with the Idaho National Laboratory, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), Fuel Cell Energy, FPoliSolutions, and GSE Solutions.

Zooming out:

The proposed use case here is critically different than the use case that Dow Chemical is working with X-energy on, and the use case that NET Power is looking to fill ($). If SMR-based green hydrogen for delayed power generation ends up taking the cake it will be because it's the cheapest way to make green hydrogen, or because batteries hit some scaling limit making them poor grid stabilizers. Regardless, it's now clear that nuclear is back on the table for the petroleum companies.

Some more headlines

• TPC Group emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy

• LG Chem and GS EPS are building a biomass-based power plant

• BASF is providing Toyota and Panasonic's JV with cathode active materials

• Sarens is going to move stuff around (literally) at the new Corpus Christi PET plant

• Sinopec and Saudi Aramco are planning to build a refinery and steam cracker in China

Product of The Day

Today, we're breaking down legos.

Since 1963, Legos have been famously known for being made out of a copolymer called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). After 6 decades of practice, Lego has mastered the use of ABS—even with 20 micrometer tolerances the company reportedly only fails 18 bricks per million it makes.

While this polymer has treated the company well over the years, Lego is actively trying to move away from it towards a polymer that is more easily recycled (such as polyethylene terephthalate). That hasn't stopped Ineos or Toray from building new ABS plants (because Lego is far from their largest buyer).

The reboiler

• Guide: If you’ve been looking for a breakdown of biobased fuels, then look no further.

• Book: How can you expect to understand the chemical industry without knowing its history? Start with Fred Aftalion's introduction.*

• Podcast: Chemical engineers can work in beer industry—listen to Daniel Garza's experience if you're interested.

The bottoms

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