Engineering efficient And cost-effective Routes for production of High-Performing Biobased Ingredients and Materials
Our Mission
It is our mission to develop and commercialize high-performing biobased ingredients and materials from sustainable processes at the best value for our customers. We do this by having microbes work for us, making better biobased ingredients and materials through sustainable innovation.
Ecovia Renewables team in 2019. Not pictured: Rika Regentin
What We Do
Ecovia Renewables is an early-stage biotechnology company commercializing a proprietary bioprocess and companion chemistry platform to create a variety of biopolymer products for end-markets. Our suite of Ecovia Biopolymers are based on polyglutamic acid, a polymer of the amino acid glutamic acid. Created from a proprietary fermentation process, our biopolymer products are affordable, biobased, biodegradable, and functional alternatives to conventional acrylate and acrylamide polymers and starch-based biopolymers. Applications range from soil additives for water retention to super-absorbents in infant diaper cores to ingredients for personal care and industrial uses, among many others. We offer R&D products, prototype ingredients and materials based on our Ecovia Biopolymers for in-house and out-sourced production.
Our History
Ecovia Renewables Inc. was founded in 2014 to commercialize the pioneering research of Dr. Xiaoxia “Nina” Lin and Dr. Jeremy Minty at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Their research in designing, constructing, and modulating microbial ecosystems inspired the original basis of Ecovia’s fermentation platform. The first proof-of-concept demonstration of the Ecovia™ platform involved one-step production of isobutanol from lignocellulose. The team published this work to raise awareness of our technology and share our results with scientific community. Through on-going research at the University of Michigan, Dr. Lin is optimizing this system to improve performance. For further information please see:
J. Minty, M. Singer, S. Scholz, C.H. Bae, J. Ahn, C. Foster, J.C. Liao, and X. Lin. “Design and characterization of synthetic fungal-bacterial consortia for direct production of isobutanol from cellulosic biomass”. PNAS (2013), 110 (36)
Using a community of fungus and genetically modified E. coli, a Michigan Engineering professor has developed a way to turn corn stalks and leaves into biofuel. The process breaks down waste plant materials into a sugar, which is then turned into isobutanol.