ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, December 4th, 2018— Ecovia Renewables Inc. announced today that their AzuraGel™ 100 product earned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Certified Biobased Product Label at 100% biobased content. As an Ecovia Biopolymer, AzuraGel is based on a water-swellable and water-dispersible cross-linked biopolymer. It forms biobased and biodegradable hydrogels with outstanding functional properties.

Third-party verification for a product's biobased content is administered through the USDA BioPreferred® Program. AzuraGel is the first Ecovia Biopolymer product to receive USDA biobased certification and is now able to display a unique USDA label that highlights its percentage of biobased content. Furthermore, AzuraGel 100 qualifies under the mandatory federal purchasing program as both a personal care product component and chemical intermediate.

“The team is excited to have confirmation of 100% biobased content in AzuraGel,” says Drew Hertig, Chief Business Officer of Ecovia. “It represents a big step toward offering a complete biobased solution for manufactures of personal care products, especially superabsorbents for hygiene.”

In addition to hygiene superabsorbents, the unique properties of AzuraGel™ makes it well suited for a broad range of other applications, including as thickeners, texturizers, and soil amendments for water retention. Biodegradability and composability trials for AzuraGel are set to commence next year. Likewise, biobased content is being testing for AzuraBase™, Ecovia’s linear biopolymer product offering.

Biobased materials are seeing rapid adoption across the world. According to Inkwood Research, the market for biobased chemicals is expected to grow to $24 billion at a 16.2% CAGR between 2017 and 2025. This growth is simultaneous with the ongoing pressured faced by petrochemical producers, of which conventional, non-biobased plastics are made. Single-use plastics make up about 15% of all non-combusted oil and are threatened by worldwide bans.

“Thanks to innovative companies like Ecovia Renewables, Inc., the USDA BioPreferred Program has certified another intermediate ingredient that offers manufacturers biobased alternatives when designing products for consumers,” said Kate Lewis, USDA BioPreferred Program. “We commend Ecovia on their latest certification and look forward to the launch of their AzuraGel™ 100 product.”

Although there is a waitlist, samples may be requested here. AzuraGel is expected to launch next year and will be sold as off-white granules.

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About Ecovia Renewables

Ecovia Renewables Inc. is a privately-held biotechnology company focused on the research and development of high-performing biobased ingredients and materials. It was spun-out from the University of Michigan in 2014 to commercialize the pioneering research of Dr. Xiaoxia “Nina” Lin and Dr. Jeremy Minty. Their research in designing, constructing, and modulating microbial ecosystems inspired the original basis of Ecovia’s fermentation platform. More information about Ecovia Renewables is available on the company website at www.ecoviarenewables.com or can be requested by emailing bd(at)ecoviarenewables(dot)com.

About the USDA BioPreferred Program

The BioPreferred Program is a USDA-led initiative that assists in the development and expansion of markets for biobased products. The BioPreferred Program is transforming the marketplace for biobased products through two initiatives: mandatory purchasing requirements for Federal Agencies and Federal contractors and voluntary product certification and labeling.

Biobased products span a diverse range of applications, such as lubricants, cleaning products, chemicals, and bioplastics. The USDA Certified Biobased Product label communicates a product's biobased content. Expressed as a percentage, biobased content is the ratio of non-fossil organic carbon (new organic carbon) to total organic carbon in a product. New organic carbon is derived from recently-created materials. The total organic carbon in a product consists of new organic carbon and old organic carbon that originates from fossil carbon materials, such as petroleum, coal, or natural gas. More than 3,000 products have earned the USDA Certified Biobased Product label. To learn more about the USDA Certified Biobased Product label please visit www.biopreferred.gov, and follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BioPreferred.