AWARD YEAR
2017
CATEGORY
Work
GOALS
Responsible Consumption & Production
KEYWORDS
sustainability, technology, chemicals
COUNTRY
United States of America
DESIGNED BY
DR. Eric Steen, founder & CEO and DR. JEFFREY DIETRICH
CTO & FOUNDER - Lygos Inc.
WEBSITE
https://lygos.com
Lygos
Focusing on chemicals with no environmental impact and at lower cost
Lygos uses microbugs to convert low-cost sugar into specialty chemicals used in manufacturing, and is now releasing a technique to make malic acid, an ingredient needed in the mass production of electronics.
Lygos uniquely has the technology to produce a stable supply of industrial chemicals with no environmental impact and at lower cost. They are building better products that are clean, sustainable and have cost and quality advantages over their petrochemical counterparts.
The startup engineers its special microbes to produce the chemicals in-house, combining software and new biochemistry technology to make its materials at scale, and it started shipping the first bio-malonic acid-producing microbes to customers.