Ingeo Technology
Nature looks at greenhouse gases, like atmospheric carbon, as a feedstock, a raw material. It's what trees, plants, and coral reefs, are built from. At NatureWorks, we're doing the same thing – using our best technologies to turn greenhouse gases into a portfolio of polylactic acid (PLA) performance materials called Ingeo.
Our Process Starts with Greenhouse Gases
Nature looks at greenhouse gases, like atmospheric carbon, as a feedstock, a raw material. It's what trees, plants, and coral reefs, are built from. At NatureWorks, we're doing the same thing – using our best technologies to turn greenhouse gases into a portfolio of polylactic acid (PLA) performance materials called Ingeo.
We use plants like corn, cassava, sugar cane or beets to capture and sequester CO2 transforming it into long-chain sugar molecules.
Our R&D team is assessing new technology to skip plants and use microorganisms to directly convert greenhouse gases into lactic acid.
Creating Lactic Acid, the Building Block of Ingeo
The plants are put through a milling process extracting the starch (glucose). Enzymes are added to convert the glucose to dextrose via a process called hydrolysis. Microorganisms then ferment this dextrose into lactic acid.
Transforming Lactic Acid to Lactide
A proprietary two-step process transforms lactic acid molecules into rings of lactide, which is a valuable chemical on its own and the core of our customizable platform of chemical intermediates.
Polymerizing Lactide into Ingeo PLA
In the process of polymerization, the lactide ring is opened and linked together to form the long chain of polylactide polymer we call Ingeo. We form this long chain of Ingeo PLA into pellets that are shipped around the world to our customers and partners who transform them into a wide-range of innovative products including coffee capsules, yogurt cups, baby wipes, and appliances.