Dive Brief:
- Texas-based chemical manufacturer Solugen secured a $213.6 million loan from the Department of Energy for the construction of the company's Marshall, Minnesota, facility to make bio-based chemical products, according to a June 13 press release.
- The company's sustainable chemical manufacturing facility will produce organic acids for use in wastewater treatment, industrial wastewater, construction, agriculture and energy sectors.
- Production is set to begin in fall 2025 and will create up to 100 jobs during construction and 56 manufacturing jobs once fully operational.
Dive Insight:
The 500,000-square-foot facility broke ground in April adjacent to food processor Archer Daniels Midland’s corn processing complex. The facility will utilize ADM-sourced dextrose, a sugar substrate that serves as a cleaner alternative to petroleum-derived feedstock, to then manufacture low-carbon organic acids.
The loan commitment is the single largest U.S. government investment in bioindustrial manufacturing since President Joe Biden signed executive order on advancing biomanufacturing in 2022, according to a Department of Energy press release.
The facility will have three production lines boasting a total production capacity of up to 120 kilo tons per annum of product.
Solugen was also awarded $760,000 in financial incentives from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Job Creation Fund, according to the April announcement. The facility is also designed to reduce annual carbon emissions by up to 18 million kilograms, according to the press release.
The project is part of the White House's Justice40 Initiative, since Marshall is considered a marginalized community affected by underinvestment and overburdened by legacy pollution.
Solugen started in 2016 and now has over 230 employees. The company operates two bioforges, or sustainable chemical plants.
In 2018, the company acquired and redeveloped a brownfield site where a chemical plant had previously exploded in Houston. In 2021, the Houston bioforge came online and began production a year later, according to its website.
Solugen partners with surfactant producer Sasol Chemicals for commercialization of the Houston plant.
