![]() We launched Ameva to demonstrate that brands can leverage synthetic biology to turn carbon-negative ingredients into high-performing products.” But we’re also producing molecules for skin that are better for you, so you can put something much more sustainable and healthier on your body instead of petrochemicals. “It made sense to clean up the isoprene part of the rubber supply chain rather than the entire supply chain. “We are working throughout the supply chain,” Dugar says. The company offers refillable bottles and even offsets emissions from the shipping of its products. Today, in addition to isoprene, Visolis is selling skin care products through the brand Ameva Bio, which produces mevalonic acid-based creams by recycling plant byproducts created in other processes. ![]() ![]() Visolis has since patented other chemical conversion processes that turn mevalonic acid to aviation fuel, polymers, and fabrics.ĭugar left his consulting job in 2014 and was awarded a fellowship to work on Visolis full-time at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab via Activate, an incubator empowering scientists to reinvent the world. From there, he developed a chemical catalysis process that converted mevalonic acid to isoprene, the main component of natural rubber. After graduation, he took a consulting job at a large company, spending his nights and weekends renting lab space to continue trying to make his sustainable rubber a reality.Īfter 18 months, by applying engineering concepts like design-for-scale to synthetic biology, Dugar was able to develop a microbe that met 80 percent of his criteria for making an intermediate molecule called mevalonic acid. He participated in the MIT Clean Energy Prize and worked with others at MIT to prove out the idea. Everything from the clothes we wear to the furniture we sit on is often made using petroleum.”īy analyzing recent advances in synthetic biology and making some calculations from first principles, Dugar decided that a microbial approach to cleaning up the production of rubber was viable. “It was about replacing petroleum not just as a fuel but as a material as well. “I wanted to work on something that could have the largest climate impact, and that was replacing petroleum,” Dugar says. The experience inspired him to start a company. He also took classes at the MIT Sloan School of Management on sustainability and entrepreneurship, including the particularly influential course 15.366 (Climate and Energy Ventures). That was an insight I had about 10 years ago at MIT.” Finding a pathįor his PhD, Dugar explored the economics of using microbes to make high-octane gas additives. That allows us to not only reduce climate change but start reversing it. That means our production can be carbon-negative depending on the emissions of the production process. ![]() “Generally speaking, most of that material at the end of its life gets recycled, for example to tarmac or road, or, worst-case scenario, it ends up in a landfill, so the CO2 that was captured by the plant matter stays captured in the materials. “Our process is carbon-negative because plants are taking CO2 from the air, and we take that plant matter and process it into something structural, like synthetic rubber, which is used for things like roofing, tires, and other applications,” Dugar explains. Visolis has already partnered with some of the world’s largest consumers of isoprene, a precursor to rubber, and now Dugar wants to prove out the company’s process in other emissions-intensive industries. “Carbon-negative” is a term Dugar uses a lot. So in everything from personal care to apparel to industrial goods, our platform is enabling decarbonization of manufacturing.” Tires can be carbon-negative, personal care can lower its footprint - and we’re already selling into personal care. “We started with isoprene as the main molecule we produce, but we’ve expanded our platform with this unique combination of chemistry and biology that allows us to decarbonize multiple supply chains very rapidly and efficiently,” Dugar explains. The startup Visolis, founded by MIT alumnus Deepak Dugar, is using synthetic biology to decarbonize the production of everything from jet fuel to rubber to skin care. ![]()
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