Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels requires changes to the way we manufacture. This is because hydrocarbons found in fuels such as crude oil, natural gas and coal are also found in everyday items such as plastics, clothing and cosmetics.
Now, Visolis, founded by Deepak Dugar SM ’11, MBA ’13, PhD ’13, is combining synthetic biology with chemical catalysis to reshape how the world makes things and reduce billions of tons of greenhouse gases in the process emission.
The company uses microorganisms to ferment biomass waste such as wood chips and create a molecular building block called mevalonate. By adapting the chemical process to create different by-products, it can more sustainably produce everything from car tires to cosmetics to aviation fuel. and other products.
“We started from [the rubber component] Isoprene as the main molecule we produce [from mevalonic acid], but we’ve expanded our platform with a unique combination of chemistry and biology that allows us to decarbonize multiple supply chains very quickly and efficiently,” Dugar explains. “Imagine carbon-negative yoga pants. We can do this. Tires can be carbon negative, personal care products can reduce the carbon footprint – we already sell personal care products. So, from personal care to apparel to industrial goods, our platform is decarbonizing manufacturing. “
“Carbon negative” is a term Dugar uses frequently. Visolis already has partnerships with some of the world’s largest consumers of isoprene, a rubber precursor, and now Dugar hopes to prove the company’s process in other emissions-intensive industries.
“Our process is carbon negative because plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and we process the plant matter into structural things like synthetic rubber for roofing, tires and other applications,” Dugar explains. “Generally speaking, most materials are recycled at the end of their useful life, for example by being recycled onto tarmac or roads, or, in the worst case scenario, it ends up in landfill, so plant matter captures The CO2 will still be trapped in the material. This means that our production can be carbon negative, depending on the emissions of the production process. This allows us to not only reduce climate change, but also start to reverse it. This is me about 10 Insights gained years ago at MIT.”
find path
Dugar explored the economics of using microorganisms to create high-octane gas additives while working on his PhD. He also took courses in sustainability and entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, including the particularly influential course 15.366 (Climate and Energy Ventures). The experience inspired him to start a company.
“I want to work on the thing that has the biggest impact on the climate, which is replacing oil,” Dugar said. “It’s not just about replacing oil as a fuel, but also as a material. Everything from the clothes we wear to the furniture we sit on is typically made from petroleum.”
By analyzing recent advances in synthetic biology and doing some calculations based on basic principles, Dugar concluded that a microbial approach to purifying rubber production was feasible. He participated in the MIT Clean Energy Prize and worked with others at MIT to prove the idea. But it’s still just an idea. After graduating, he found a consulting job with a large company, renting lab space on nights and weekends and continuing to work on making his sustainable rubber a reality.
Eighteen months later, by applying engineering concepts like scale design to synthetic biology, Dugar developed a microbe that met 80 percent of his criteria for making the mevalonate intermediate molecule. Since then, he has developed a chemical catalytic process to convert mevalonate into isoprene, the main component of natural rubber. Visolis has since patented other chemical conversion processes that convert mevalonate into aviation fuel, polymers and fabrics.
Dugar quit his consulting job in 2014 and received a scholarship to work on Visolis full-time at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory through Activate, an incubator that helps scientists reshape the world.
From rubber to jet fuel
Today, in addition to isoprene, Visolis sells skin care products through the Ameva Bio brand, which produces its mevalonate cream by recycling plant by-products from other processes. The company offers refillable bottles and even offsets emissions from shipping its products.
“We’re working across the entire supply chain,” Dugar said. “It makes sense to clean up the isoprene portion of the rubber supply chain rather than the entire supply chain. But we also produce molecules for your skin that are better for you, so you can use something more sustainable and healthier on your body, and Not petrochemicals. We launched Ameva to prove that brands can use synthetic biology to transform carbon-negative ingredients into high-performance products.”
Visolis is also beginning to gain regulatory approval for its sustainable aviation fuel, which Dugar believes may have the greatest climate impact of all the company’s products through the production of clean commercial flight fuel.
“We are working with leading companies to help them decarbonize aviation,” Dugar said. “If you look at the life cycle of fuels, the current petroleum-based approach is that we dig hydrocarbons out of the ground and burn it, releasing CO2 into the air. In our process, we take plant matter, which attaches to the CO2 and capture the renewable energy in those bonds, which we then convert into aviation fuel as well as synthetic rubber, yoga pants and other materials that continue to retain carbon. So our factories can still operate with net-zero carbon emissions. “
Visolis has already generated millions of dollars in revenue, and Dugar said he aims to scale the company quickly now that its platform molecule has been proven.
“We’ve been scaling our technology 10x every two to three years, and now we want to increase deployment of our technology at the same rate, which is very exciting,” Dugar said. “If you extrapolate that, pretty soon you can have a huge impact. That’s our goal.”