Bolt Threads’ Post

🌴💋DIY Palm Oil As January came to an end, Unilever, L’Oréal, and Kao launched a joint venture to produce and commercialize drop-in alternatives to common cosmetic, personal care, and cleaning product ingredients. The 3 multinational beauty makers have teamed up with fermentation-based technology development company Geno—perhaps best known in our industry as the makers of Brontide butylene glycol. The company launched that first ingredient at in-cosmetics global back in 2018, which was one of the first times that I spoke with the team at (what was then) Genomatica. Now as a joint venture, Unilever, L’Oréal, Kao, and Geno are developing “sustainable alternatives for everyday ingredients to help reduce dependence on palm.” Those ingredients are surfactants, namely fatty alcohols and acids. The palm oil (derivatives) supply chain is notoriously difficult to trace; and all too often sourcing directly impacts climate change (through deforestation and emissions), diminishes biodiversity (destroying the habitats of orangutan and other species), and violates human rights. Biotech, fermentation in particular, seems to be the best solution we have right now. “By establishing such new supply chains that are traceable and transparent, we will further promote responsible raw material sourcing,” says Masahiro Katayose Senior Executive Officer and President of the Chemical Business at Kao, in a release publicizing the launch of Future Origins. The beauty makers and their biotech partner announced the launch of the joint venture Future Origins at the American Cleaning Institute's Innovation Showcase on January 31. Geno is the majority owner of Future Origins, while the beauty makers involved are financial bakers. A first commercial facility is expected to go on line before 2029. And construction is expected to start next year. So far, Future Origins has “completed [several] 63,000-liter pilot-scale fermentation runs [and] produced several tons of material,” according to the release. Some of that was processed into detergent alcohols. And the venture’s commercial partners are working with the ingredients now, gathering data that will help scale production over the next 5 (or fewer) years. The key to these types of biotechnology processes are patented micro-organisms that are fed some sort of sugar and, through their metabolic process of fermentation, generate the desired molecule. The micro-organisms are sometimes called ‘designer’ or are said to have undergone ‘editing’; but basically, they’ve been tweaked so that the waste they would naturally produce is of value to industry.... #beauty #skincare #supplychain