Amsterdam spin-out Photanol is partnering with industry to develop new chemical building blocks.
Photanol, a cleantech spin-out of Amsterdam University, is entering a collaboration agreement with AkzoNobel, a Dutch multinational specialising in chemicals. The goal of the new partnership will be to create eco-friendly chemical building blocks that could replace fossil fuel.
The spin-out was founded in 2008 and is based on research by the Molecular Microbial Physiology group at the university’s Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, led by Klaas Hellingwerf and Joost Teixeira de Mattos. The technology uses light to convert carbon dioxide into acetic acid and butanol, with the only by-product being harmless oxygen.
The partnership will exploit this technology, and look towards developing chemicals currently used at AkzoNobel. The two companies are hoping to produce commercial quantities of environmentally friendly organic chemicals that could replace fossil-fuel-based chemicals currently sold by AkzoNobel and used in cleaning products, the food, paper and synthetics industries and the construction industry.
A timeline has not been announced.
Hans Amman, executive board vice-president at the university and in charge of commercialisation, said: “Wonderful news. This collaboration will provide a major boost for Amsterdam Science Park, where Photanol is based, and for the entire city as a centre for knowledge and innovation. Amsterdam University promotes spin-outs as a means to make the results of research available to the wider world beyond the university and to contribute to economic growth and employment in the Amsterdam region. This latest partnership between Photanol and AkzoNobel, like the recent acquisition of Euvision – another spin-out born of research at Amsterdam University – by Qualcomm, proves that we are really achieving these aims.”
