Evonik takes license to Holiferm’s integrated production and separation technology.
8th June 2019.
Holiferm, a UK start-up company developing and licensing advanced fermentation and integrated separation processes to reduce bioproduction costs, has granted it’s first technology license to Evonik Creavis GmbH, Evonik’s strategic research unit based in Marl, Germany.
Holiferm have developed a technology to recover lipid bioproducts as they are produced during fermentation, using their patent pending Gravisep technology. This has first been applied to sophorolipids, a class of environmentally friendly, high performance alternatives to oil-based surfactants in the cosmetic, household cleaning and agricultural markets.
Holiferm CEO, Ben Dolman said- ‘Evonik are experts in the biosurfactant space and current commercial producers of sophorolipid. We are pleased to be able to offer a license to support the production of these environmentally friendly molecules and look forward to pursuing a collaboration with this innovative company. The dramatic cost reductions our technology can generate should make a transition from oil based to biobased chemicals a lucrative opportunity across a number of important markets.’
Oliver Thum, Director Bioprocesses at Evonik Creavis, said ‘We are happy to look into this interesting technology within our existing efforts to support our operative units with strategic, long-term oriented research and development. We will evaluate whether and when it could contribute to improving our current production process of sophorolipids’
Holiferm have demonstrated a proof of principle for their technology for application with both mannosylerithritol lipids (another biosurfactant) and terpenes. Holiferm are now working to demonstrate comparable performance improvements to those seen with sophorolipids for other molecules, initially within the biosurfactant space and then for broader lipid producing fermentations.
Holiferm believe collaboration is the best way to innovate, and welcome enquiries to collaborate to apply Holiferm technology to processes of interest, to take a license to Holiferm’s technology for sophorolipid production, or to work for Holiferm and become a leader in the transition to the bioeconomy.