Chemtex and Codexis announce milestone reaching in developing detergent alchohols technology

In Italy, Chemtex and Codexis announced the successful scale-up in the production of CodeXol detergent alcohols using cellulosic sugars. The scale-up was achieved at a 1,500 liter demonstration facility at Chemtex’s R&D complex in Tortona, Italy and is a key milestone in the ongoing effort initiated by the two companies to develop a fully integrated biomass to detergent alcohols technology. A combination of Chemtex’s commercially proven PROESA cellulosic sugar technology and Codexis’ CodeXyme were used to produce cellulosic sugars from non-food biomass, while the CodeXol detergent alcohol fermentation process technology – which includes Codexis’ proprietary microorganism strain – converted these cellulosic sugars to detergent alcohols.