Trillium awarded DOE funding for bio-based acrylonitrile demonstration plant 

Trillium Renewable Chemicals (Knoxville, Tenn., U.S.) has been selected by the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Manufacturing Office to receive $2.5 million to accelerate commercialization of Trillium’s process to manufacture bio-based acrylonitrile (bio-ACN), which will then be supplied to Solvay (Brussels, Belgium) to validate its use in developing sustainable, bio-carbon fiber and perform an independent ISO 9001 lifecycle analysis of Trillium’s product.

Trillium and its development partner, Matric, are currently operating a pilot plant in Charleston, West Virginia, U.S. This non-dilutive funding, in combination with Trillium’s recent Series A closing of $10.6 million — raised in a Series A financing round by investors Hyosung Advanced Materials Corp. (Seoul, South Korea), Capricorn Partners (Leuven, Belgium) Helm AG (Hamburg, Germany) — provides funding to Trillium and Matric to design, build and operate a market demonstration unit, the next step in Trillium’s commercialization plan. Koch Modular (Paramus, N.J., U.S.) will provide a front-end loading engineering design of a first commercial plant.

Acrylonitrile is a chemical intermediate typically made from petroleum-based feedstocks like propylene, and is the primary raw material used in the production of carbon fiber, acrylic fiber, acrylamide, ABS plastic, nitrile butadiene rubber and other valuable products. Trillium’s bio-ACN process delivers acrylonitrile from plant-based feedstocks, such as glycerol, with a lower carbon footprint. By starting with bio-based raw materials, Trillium’s product offers the potential to decarbonize a wide range of industrial and consumer products. 

“Demonstration of the bio-ACN process at larger scale is an exciting next step,” Corey Tyree, CEO of Trillium, says. “Thanks to the Department of Energy, this project brings together participants across the supply chain to accelerate progress by supporting our next major commercial milestone. The unit will produce the volumes needed to qualify as a supplier. And it will provide the information we need to further de-risk and design a commercial plant. Trillium is proud to be amongst the awardees.”