What are you doing about ocean pollution?

What are you doing about ocean pollution?

Why 150 Million Tons of Plastic Pollution

Is Much More Than a Drop in the Ocean

 

To many people watching Sky News and their #OceanFree Campaign, you would think that removing plastic from the oceans will be enough to resolve the problem. Sadly, this is not the case.

 

The oceans ability to provide food from fisheries and aquaculture is subject to climate change and the resultant ocean acid and oxygen levels. Rising CO2 is just one issue. Rising temperatures and reduced oxygen levels are issues altering the ocean ecosystems. These have a serious impact on marine life.

 

The effect is both regional and global. They include the displacement of fish stocks that were in abundance not long ago. The life expectancy of shellfish, affected by rising acid levels, who are unable to adapt or migrate, has reached a point where they are no longer available in many regions that previously relied upon them for a living.

 

Even fish stocks who have been able to migrate are subject to accelerated overfishing, loss of habitat and increasing pollution. There are now instances where there is an increase in dead zones in the ocean. These are exacerbated by an increase in toxic algal blooms.

 

I have watched documentaries where individual groups are trying to slow the declining coral reef ecosystems. It seems a futile to attempt to rebuild the damage caused by coral bleaching, causing the total collapse of coastal fishing. Even replacement with fish farming (aquaculture) is likely to be affected by an increase in tropical storms and flooding.

 

What can we do?

 

Even if we stop throwing plastic waste into the ocean today, the gyres in the oceans will continue to accumulate more plastic over the next 20 years. The damage has already been done. We can reduce the stresses, but not eliminate them, by lowering ocean pollution. in 2014 we produced 311 millions tonnes of plastic. This is expected to double by 2030. I fear that COP23 in Bonn was nothing more than a talking shop, kicking the pollution can down the road. The lead has to come from the consumer of fish and single-use plastic.

 

There is small option to consider changing fish catching pressure, or the rotation of fishing regions. We can target or lower demand with taxation on certain species. It does require some dynamic management with discretion. Legislation will not resolve the matter.

 

Further support for aquaculture may help, but that may only resolve the short-term supply side. There is the inevitable risk of political infighting as fish stocks migrate. There may even be fish wars.

 

A far more deadly killer remains. The acid and oxygen levels of the oceans has already done so much damage and there is not much we can do at this point. But can you seriously risk ignoring the problem and hope it will go away?

 

What is your view? Leave a comment below and join the Biomassive Revolution

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Integumen License Ageement

Today, Cellulac announces that it has signed Heads of Terms to enter into a commercial technology agreement with Integumen (LSE: SKIN). In addition, Integumen has conditionally agreed to acquire 9.35% of the issued shares of Cellulac. Gerard Brandon and Camillus...

What are you doing about ocean pollution?

  To many people watching Sky News and their #OceanFree Campaign, you would think that removing plastic from the oceans will be enough to resolve the problem. Sadly, this is not the case.   The oceans ability to provide food from fisheries and aquaculture is...

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Climate Change Our Bit Infographic

Climate Change Our Bit Infographic

Doing our bit for Climate Change

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Integumen License Ageement

Today, Cellulac announces that it has signed Heads of Terms to enter into a commercial technology agreement with Integumen (LSE: SKIN). In addition, Integumen has conditionally agreed to acquire 9.35% of the issued shares of Cellulac. Gerard Brandon and Camillus...

What are you doing about ocean pollution?

  To many people watching Sky News and their #OceanFree Campaign, you would think that removing plastic from the oceans will be enough to resolve the problem. Sadly, this is not the case.   The oceans ability to provide food from fisheries and aquaculture is...

Daring to Dream Big

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result - Albert Einstein   Another 300 million tonnes of plastic every year Since World War II we have consumed 5 billion tonnes of plastic, much of which has ended...

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  The abolition of sugar quotas in 2017 will have such a profound effect on EU sugar producers, used to super profits under the EU supported Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), that many smaller producers will be subject to consolidation or have to cease...

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  In a recent major MIT Study (Covert, Thomas, Michael Greenstone, and Christopher R. Knittel. 2016. "Will We Ever Stop Using Fossil Fuels?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(1): 117-38. ) it was shown that approximately 65 percent of global greenhouse gas...

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Biomassive Revolution

Biomassive Revolution

Biomassive Revolution

If you want to solve plastic ocean pollution reduce CO2 and reduce over-fishing only a Revolution will achieve it

 

It’s just not your fault

 

What if I were to tell you that it is not your fault that the seas are polluted with plastic that the fish and whales are consuming? In the same way, I can say that it is not your fault that over-fishing is destroying future fish stocks. It is absolutely not your fault that climate-change is reeking havoc on the low-lying seashores affected by monster storms. That over-whelming burden is far too much responsibility to bear on a single individual.

 

Why did this happen?

 

No one saw it coming.

 

Because, as a society, we are only guilty of not being psychic.

 

A member of my family a few weeks ago was going through a crisis. I could have said “Don’t worry. It will all work out“. The crisis was already out of control and was not brought on by anything that person did. It was a situation that could have happened to anyone, at any time. It could have been avoided…

 

…if that person was psychic.

 

It would have been easy to comment on how they should feel, or say “Don’t be afraid“. Instead, I told that person that she was not alone. We walked through the crisis together. From the 2016 movie “Finding Dory

 

When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming.” — Dory

 

3 Secrets you already know about Industry.

 

  • Secret #1: Industry, all by itself, are not able to and will not stop producing 300 millions tonnes of plastic every year.
  • Secret #2: Industry, all by itself, are not able to and won’t stop overfishing and destroying the oceans for Omega 3 oil production; and,
  • Secret #3: Industry, all by itself, are not able to and can’t reduce CO2 or greenhouse gas emissions increasing all by themselves.

 

Biomassive Revolution

 

Only a Revolution from the Biological Masses is going to make a difference. Just like in 1989 when the Berlin wall came down. It did so with individuals bare hands, working together. There were no cranes or bulldozers. Of course, once it started, the industrial complex got behind it. But initially, it was done by the people.

 

This company is part of the industrial complex. Just like every other producer, we contribute greenhouse gases and CO2. Our equipment is installed in many companies across many industrial sectors. So while we play a role in climate change, as CEO I am saying that we can and will also play our role in the solution. There is a realization, that in order to reduce plastic in the oceans and replace it with biodegradable substitutes, the industrial complex has to step up to the plate. Industry too can replace oils that are currently extracted from fish, and make it from sustainable biomass.

 

One by one we must tear down the high wall of resistance until there is a crowd, then a tribe and eventually a revolutionary wave that will make a difference. Industry alone, will not be found wanting, but they will not lead the way.

 

To begin, join the Facebook Page of the Biomassive Revolution. Call out the polluters. Highlight the positive solutions and resolve that it is not just enough to make a change alone, but to make a difference, together.

 

Like this post or hate it? Let me know. Leave a comment below, and share it, but first join the Revolution.

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Integumen License Ageement

Today, Cellulac announces that it has signed Heads of Terms to enter into a commercial technology agreement with Integumen (LSE: SKIN). In addition, Integumen has conditionally agreed to acquire 9.35% of the issued shares of Cellulac. Gerard Brandon and Camillus...

What are you doing about ocean pollution?

  To many people watching Sky News and their #OceanFree Campaign, you would think that removing plastic from the oceans will be enough to resolve the problem. Sadly, this is not the case.   The oceans ability to provide food from fisheries and aquaculture is...

Biomassive Revolution

  It's just not your fault   What if I were to tell you that it is not your fault that the seas are polluted with plastic that the fish and whales are consuming? In the same way, I can say that it is not your fault that over-fishing is destroying future fish...

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  In a recent major MIT Study (Covert, Thomas, Michael Greenstone, and Christopher R. Knittel. 2016. "Will We Ever Stop Using Fossil Fuels?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(1): 117-38. ) it was shown that approximately 65 percent of global greenhouse gas...

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Daring to Dream Big

Daring to Dream Big

Daring to Dream Big

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result – Albert Einstein

 

Another 300 million tonnes of plastic every year

Since World War II we have consumed 5 billion tonnes of plastic, much of which has ended up in a landfill or the oceans.

Making ourselves healthier by depleting global fish stocks.

In 2015, a consensus of expert opinion suggested that a recommended minimum daily dose of 500mg the Omega 3 oil requirement for the world population was 1.3 million metric tonnes. The world fish catch is not elastic and we are already at a plateau. Thankfully we are still producing much less than that each year, but demand continues to grow, while fish stocks continue to be depleted.

 

Daring to think big enough to have an effect

 

In 2009 Patrick Walsh was a Professor at the National University of Galway, Ireland, had a vision of reducing the amount of energy in the production of biodegradable plastic. This biodegradable plastic ingredient is lactic acid. Used as a food preservative, curing agent, and flavoring agent. It is also an ingredient in processed foods and is used as a decontaminant during meat processing.

 

When broken down from poly-lactic acid, the lactic acid derived bio-plastic ingredient converts back to CO2 and water.

 

Humble, or destitute beginnings

 

By 2012 this small company, now named Cellulac, was €300,000 in debt but had secured €2.8m of EU grants for a pilot plant, with the conditions for the release of the grant be, that industry and investors had to contribute a further €9m.

 

New management was brought in. Even with the vision and the size of EU grant, finding €9 million for a pilot plant, that was never going to break-even, let alone be profitable, was equally never going to be built.

 

The team, which came from a previously successful company, Alltracel Pharmaceuticals, altered the direction and mission to address the glaring lack of infrastructure needed to commercialize the technology.

 

  • 25% of the solution, the Bacteria, was in place. Bacteria are easier to explain if I use the term Gremlins. Remember the movies from 1984 and 1990? If you spilled water on them, they multiplied. Just like Gremlins, Lactic Acid and Micro-algae multiply in water. They are incidentally, produced in separate tanks.
  • 25% was an industrial scale engineering solution. There was a need to punch the living daylights out of the Gremlin-like bacteria and micro-algae to begin the release of oils and bio-plastic ingredients into a soup-like mixture.
  • 25% was a low-cost recovery method. Enzymes are like the 80’s video game of Pac-Man. They consume the ghosts of the Gremlins shell to release the oils and lactic acid.
  • The last 25% was a requirement for a production facility that would deliver commercial scale production of the bio-plastic ingredient and Omega-3 oils.

 

Pulling the pieces together

 

In July of 2013, Cellulac reached the 50% milestone when it acquired the SoniqueFlo technology from Pursuit Dynamics (PDX).

 

If you know the history of PDX, you are probably thinking, why buy the failed PDX. Right? They had blown through £68 million GBP.

 

Well, for Cellulac, this was the equivalent of being handed the engineering equivalent of Pfizers side-effect for their heart treatment, turned erectile dysfunctional drug, Viagra.

 

SoniqueFlo was designed as an efficient heater that softened up grains before food, ethanol and beer production. The same technology worked 10 times better at smashing up softer cells on the recovery, or end, stage of oil and bio-plastic ingredient production.

 

It was like having millions of mini-Conor McGregors compressed into each SoniqueFlo reactor punching the oils and bio-plastic ingredient out of the Gremlin Bacteria and Micro-algae, preparing them for the final stage.

 

The beauty of this industrial scale solution is that it was already operationally successful in 25 production facilities across the food, bio-fuel and alcohol industries since 2010.

 

Later in 2013, Cellulac reached the 75% milestone when it secured access to the 2nd largest brewery in Ireland. This had the output equal to 100 times the size of the original pilot plant that had been the subject of the EU Grant in 2012. It was the former Diageo, Harp Lager production plant in Dundalk, Ireland. A state-of-the-art facility, fully automated, food and beverage grade facility.

 

The 100% milestone was reached faster than expected in 2015, with the acquisition of Aer-Bio. This was a small Enzyme expression protocol company. They specialized in the recovery of oils from micro-algae and production of Omega-3 using Enzymes (these are Pac-Man-like proteins that consume the outer layers of cells which have oil inside).

 

Cellulac had worked with Aer-Bio on a combination of SoniqueFlo and Enzymes since early 2014 to deliver a solvent-free production process for Omega-3 oils.

 

Proven Commercial Scale Production

 

In 2016, at a UK industry partner site, the conversion from a conventional solvent-based process to a solvent-free process was responsible for an 81% reduction of the downstream recovery cost of Omega-3 oils.

 

The outcome is a commercial scale solvent-free production process with sales of Omega-3 to one of the largest food ingredient companies in the world.

 

By 2017, Cellulac has achieved 3 out of these 4 stages:

 

  • Laboratory
  • Third-party pilot facility in Potsdam, DE. 1 x 1,000 litre vessel
  • Industry Partner commercial scale in Liverpool, UK. 6-Tonne per batch from one 80,000 litre vessel.
  • Cellulac production site, Dundalk, IE. 10 x 100,000 litre vessels and 10 x 400,000 litre vessels.There is a lot more going on and you can expect some major news before the end of this year.

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Integumen License Ageement

Today, Cellulac announces that it has signed Heads of Terms to enter into a commercial technology agreement with Integumen (LSE: SKIN). In addition, Integumen has conditionally agreed to acquire 9.35% of the issued shares of Cellulac. Gerard Brandon and Camillus...

What are you doing about ocean pollution?

  To many people watching Sky News and their #OceanFree Campaign, you would think that removing plastic from the oceans will be enough to resolve the problem. Sadly, this is not the case.   The oceans ability to provide food from fisheries and aquaculture is...

Biomassive Revolution

  It's just not your fault   What if I were to tell you that it is not your fault that the seas are polluted with plastic that the fish and whales are consuming? In the same way, I can say that it is not your fault that over-fishing is destroying future fish...

Daring to Dream Big

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result - Albert Einstein   Another 300 million tonnes of plastic every year Since World War II we have consumed 5 billion tonnes of plastic, much of which has ended...

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  The abolition of sugar quotas in 2017 will have such a profound effect on EU sugar producers, used to super profits under the EU supported Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), that many smaller producers will be subject to consolidation or have to cease...

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  In a recent major MIT Study (Covert, Thomas, Michael Greenstone, and Christopher R. Knittel. 2016. "Will We Ever Stop Using Fossil Fuels?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(1): 117-38. ) it was shown that approximately 65 percent of global greenhouse gas...

Butterfly Effect of Oil Price on Renewables

  The butterfly effect is a concept that small causes can have large effects. Initially, it was used with weather prediction but later the term became a metaphor used in and out of science. Now it can easily be related to a single decision made by a Saudi Oil...

Low Energy Microalgae to Biofuel at Commercial Scale

Low Energy Microalgae to Biofuel at Commercial Scale

Low Energy Biomass to Bio-fuel at Commercial Scale

Food and Fuel for the 21st Century

 

Microalgae have come to the attention of the industrial and academic community over recent years because of their ability to harvest the energy of the sun and provide valuable molecules that offer great potential to provide fuel for the coming century and relieve the need and destructive outcomes that are associated with traditional fossil fuels.

 

Solvent-free wet extraction of fuels and sugars

 

For commercial microalgal biofuels to become a reality, the high production cost of oil extraction must be dealt with. A large contributor to the production cost base is the solvent-based process for cell destruction and oil extraction from the algae, which is both expensive and environmentally damaging.

 

4 year pilot to commercial scale success

 

Cellulac recently concluded a 4-year pilot scale to commercial scale project using the SoniqueFlo Sono-Enzymolysis Cell Disruption process with specific objectives to:

 

  1. Demonstrate the technical feasibility of cell wall breakage of Nannochloropsis and Schizochytrium;
  2. Validate a lower cost for enzyme-solvent free extraction compared to the solvent-based process;
  3. Verify environmental benefits of the enzymatic-solvent free process;
  4. Obtain required regulatory approvals for food-grade algal oil extracted using enzymes; and
  5. Leverage project results to commercialize enzymatically extracted algal oil and achieve sales of lysis technology to producers of algal oils.

SoniqueFlo treatment significantly damaged or destroyed cells.

 

Schizochytrium samples post-treated with enzyme:

  • Confirmed a greater than 10 fold reduction in the enzyme dose required for lysis.
  • 87-94 % of available lipid was separated from hydrolysis reaction using a disk stack centrifuge
  • Shortening of hydrolysis time to just 2 hours was also possible.

The success of this trial indicates strongly that SoniqueFlo technology undoubtedly has a role to play in improving the economics of commercial-scale production using an enzyme-based solvent free wet extraction process of algal oils.

 

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Integumen License Ageement

Today, Cellulac announces that it has signed Heads of Terms to enter into a commercial technology agreement with Integumen (LSE: SKIN). In addition, Integumen has conditionally agreed to acquire 9.35% of the issued shares of Cellulac. Gerard Brandon and Camillus...

What are you doing about ocean pollution?

  To many people watching Sky News and their #OceanFree Campaign, you would think that removing plastic from the oceans will be enough to resolve the problem. Sadly, this is not the case.   The oceans ability to provide food from fisheries and aquaculture is...

Daring to Dream Big

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result - Albert Einstein   Another 300 million tonnes of plastic every year Since World War II we have consumed 5 billion tonnes of plastic, much of which has ended...

Have we Reached Peak Biofuel?

Is there really an energy security risk?   Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is calling on Europe to increase the production of biofuels from an energy security perspective because of geopolitical risks. This is a tough ask if such increase in...

Biofuels Perfect Storm

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  In a recent major MIT Study (Covert, Thomas, Michael Greenstone, and Christopher R. Knittel. 2016. "Will We Ever Stop Using Fossil Fuels?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(1): 117-38. ) it was shown that approximately 65 percent of global greenhouse gas...

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  The butterfly effect is a concept that small causes can have large effects. Initially, it was used with weather prediction but later the term became a metaphor used in and out of science. Now it can easily be related to a single decision made by a Saudi Oil...

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Cellulac Formally Requests Metabolix Shareholders to Consider Merger Proposal

Cellulac Formally Requests Metabolix Shareholders to Consider Merger Proposal

Cellulac Formally Requests Metabolix Shareholders to Consider Merger

Cellulac merger proposal to Metabolix worth $40m in assets and offtake agreement of $38m rejected in favor of closing biopolymer business and spending $35m over 7 years on crop science project with no revenue.

 

DEAR METABOLIX SHAREHOLDERS

 

me

London, UK. 25th July, 2016: Cellulac plc (@cellulac), is an industrial biochemicals investment technology company. Cellulac have been interested in Metabolix Inc., ($MBLX) for some time and after their announcement, in May 2016, of a strategic review, Cellulac made a formal proposal via the CEO to merge both companies. The proposal meant Cellulac would contribute industrial scale production assets with biochemical and biopolymer capacity, independently valued at up to $40m. In addition, terms for a manufacturers licensing agreement of the combined Metabolix and Cellulac biopolymer assets with access to debt and equity funding from Cellulac assets and shareholders for a commercially focused growth strategy of the enlarged entity.

 

The Board of Directors of Metabolix decided the $40m merger offer was not important enough to inform shareholders

 

A merger with Cellulac, based on the biopolymer intellectual property and associated institutional knowledge, would reduce Metabolix development overhead to a more manageable level where manufacturing license fees and future royalties would transform Metabolix, for the first time in 24 years, into a profitable part of an enlarged bio-based company. Synergies would contribute shared management and development costs across a larger corporate group, multiple revenue streams comprising of production equipment installations, recurring revenue from biochemical production, manufacturing product licensing agreements, process licensing with biopolymer offtake agreements worth $38m already in place.

 

Right up to July 2016, Metabolix continued to burn $2m a month. This was no surprise considering the content of the presentation at the Roth Investor Conference on the 15th March 2016 and reiterated in the year-end report later that month.

 

March 29th Metabolix conference call to investors the CEO stated:

 

“Looking ahead the company is turning its attention to the next step, moving from commercial pilot-scale operations to a commercial-scale specialties business”.

 

Yet within 7 weeks Metabolix had sold the exclusive global rights and future royalties on PHA use in medical devices for the price of less than one month’s burn rate.

 

Astonishingly, after wasting 2 months and what appears to be a further $4m in costs, the Metabolix Board declined the Cellulac merger offer.

 

The Board of Metabolix has been responsible for:

 

  1. The supervision, over 24 years, of $326m invested by shareholders in biopolymer research and development
  2. Appointing the current CEO in January 2014
  3. Raising and overseeing the current CEO spend $40m on the biopolymer business
  4. Presiding over an 89% drop in shareholder value in the last 30 months; and
  5. A 99% drop from all-time high
The same Board has now decided to:

 

  1. Write off the entire biopolymer business
  2. Dismiss 48 people relating to the biopolymer business
  3. Pursue a path of further shareholder value destruction in questionable scientific research for the next 7 years as a public company.
In a written note a former Metabolix Senior Scientist said:

 

In the case of PHA producing plants the PHA content in one leaf could not represent the low overall content of PHA in the biomass. Many public presentations were not telling the exact picture, but rather the ‘nice numbers’. As a scientist I always challenged this phenomena. The plant project today is on the table for rapid growing biomass. But knowing the rate limiting factors in growing plants it will not solve the world problems…

Cellulac Core Terms

 

  1. Cellulac merge on a 50/50% share for share basis with Metabolix
  2. The immediate cessation of the current business model of Metabolix avoiding further unnecessary expenditure
  3. The restructuring/divestment of the high R&D overhead and associated costs of Metabolix
  4. The business model focused on the commercial activities at the core of Cellulac technology
  5. Metabolix is renamed Cellulac to indicate a change of business model away from the R&D to a commercially focused Company
Questions for the Board

 

 

I have three questions for the Metabolix Board of directors:

 

  1. Why did you decline a merger proposal, without informing shareholders, valuing Metabolix in excess of $35m offering industrial scale biochemical and future biopolymer production capacity, access to asset backed debt and equity funding for commercial growth delivering multiple revenue streams from a combined technology platform that would make Metabolix a profitable contributor of the enlarged corporate entity?
  2. Was there a Board decision in May 2016 to close the biopolymer business when the Board signed off on the sale of patents for the exclusive global use of PHA in the high margin medical device sector for $2m, and if so, why was management allowed to burn through another $4m until the end of July 2016?
  3. Why are you willing to subject shareholders to 7 more years of equity value destruction by dilution, at $5m costs a year, with no foreseeable revenues, in an early stage research and development project, other than for survival with access to government grants?
In Closing

 

 

In my opinion, by declining the offer from Cellulac, current management and Metabolix Board demonstrate a complete lack of business acumen or commercial vision. Displaying utter contempt for shareholder value they are adopting a strategy that requires investment of $35m over the next 7 years leading to further destruction in equity value with no visibility of revenue, other than government grants.

 

It is incumbent upon the Board members, but especially Independent Directors, majority and minority shareholders to immediately review the reasons for this illogical decision and become vocal about Cellulacs’ offer that adds $40m in biochemical and biopolymer assets for commercial scale production and manufacturer licensing and offtake agreements. This is likely to be the last opportunity to transform Metabolix, a 24 year loss making company, into part of a high growth enlarged group with multiple revenue streams for biochemicals and biopolymers, which would be cash generative this year.

Gerard Brandon
Chief Executive

 

Address

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Finsgate, 5-7 Cranwood Street, London EC1V 9LH

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Call us from US +1 (310) 421 2910

NOTES TO EDITORS:

 

Cellulac is an industrial biochemicals investment technology company that collaborates with, and acquires, companies to exploit the combined production, intellectual property assets and institutional knowledge. We out-license non-core technology and expertise in exclusive and non-exclusive agreements, while at the same time, developing and extracting maximum value from the remaining core production and intellectual property assets that we acquire.

 

We seek to identify enzyme, bacteria, chemical process, fluid dynamic, electrical and software engineering efficiency opportunities within the bio-industrial technology sector that offer management synergies and hybrid integration and value added benefits to our existing technology platform. Such various technology combinations deliver valuable additions to production processes, improving margins and reducing costs in the bio-fuel and bio-chemical sector.

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Integumen License Ageement

Today, Cellulac announces that it has signed Heads of Terms to enter into a commercial technology agreement with Integumen (LSE: SKIN). In addition, Integumen has conditionally agreed to acquire 9.35% of the issued shares of Cellulac. Gerard Brandon and Camillus...

What are you doing about ocean pollution?

  To many people watching Sky News and their #OceanFree Campaign, you would think that removing plastic from the oceans will be enough to resolve the problem. Sadly, this is not the case.   The oceans ability to provide food from fisheries and aquaculture is...

Daring to Dream Big

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result - Albert Einstein   Another 300 million tonnes of plastic every year Since World War II we have consumed 5 billion tonnes of plastic, much of which has ended...

Have we Reached Peak Biofuel?

Is there really an energy security risk?   Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is calling on Europe to increase the production of biofuels from an energy security perspective because of geopolitical risks. This is a tough ask if such increase in...

Biofuels Perfect Storm

Biofuels Perfect Storm   Since August 2015, ethanol has traded at a premium to gasoline which is unusual by historical standards. This is likely to continue until oil prices rebound into the $45-50 per barrel range. Even with this situation, 2015 ethanol...

Corny Problem for EU Sugar Producers

  The abolition of sugar quotas in 2017 will have such a profound effect on EU sugar producers, used to super profits under the EU supported Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), that many smaller producers will be subject to consolidation or have to cease...

Big Oil Can’t Alter Climate Change

  In a recent major MIT Study (Covert, Thomas, Michael Greenstone, and Christopher R. Knittel. 2016. "Will We Ever Stop Using Fossil Fuels?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(1): 117-38. ) it was shown that approximately 65 percent of global greenhouse gas...

Butterfly Effect of Oil Price on Renewables

  The butterfly effect is a concept that small causes can have large effects. Initially, it was used with weather prediction but later the term became a metaphor used in and out of science. Now it can easily be related to a single decision made by a Saudi Oil...