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it started with Lucy
​
after reading a newspaper article about the vast amount of carbon flowing into the air from landfills, power plants, and cows like Lucy, we thought:
there must be some way to use greenhouse gas as a resource.
​
it turns out, there is.
​
it started with Lucy
​
after reading a newspaper article about the vast amount of carbon flowing into the air from landfills, power plants, and cows like Lucy, we thought:
there must be some way to use greenhouse gas as a resource.
​
it turns out, there is.
​
It started with Lucy.
​
After reading a newspaper article about a cow named Lucy and the vast amount of carbon flowing into the air from power plants, farms, and other places, we thought:
there must be some way to use greenhouse gas as a resource.
OCEAN
CO2e
water + minerals
water + minerals
CO2e
CO2e
CO2e
water + minerals
water + minerals
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​
Every day, microorganisms in the ocean eat methane and carbon dioxide as food, and turn it into a biomaterial called PHB.
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​
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Since it is meltable, PHB can be used as a
replacement for plastic, fiber, and leather.
So, our founding goal was simple: mimic this natural process on land.
Step 1:
find the right microorganism.
Step 2:
give them a home on land.
All we had to do was find the microorganisms in nature that could do it, and figure out what they needed to be happy to make PHB efficiently on land. Unfortunately, this had not been done before.
Step 3:
figure out what makes them happy to produce PHB biomaterial from air and greenhouse gas.
It turns out, there is.
Our view back then was the same as it is today:
that large-scale impact requires the ability
to compete on performance and price.
NAPKIN
First, it was a napkin sketch.
After finding microorganisms in California that could convert air and greenhouse gas dissolved in saltwater into PHB, we had to figure out how to get them to do that in a scalable way.
Then, it was a pilot plant.
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In our pilot plant from 2007 to 2017, we made advances in reactor design, biocatalyst design, purification, and material performance.
PILOT
Newlight's Generation 5 pilot production reactor
Our aim: produce a cost-effective, high-performance,
carbon-negative biomaterial.
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After 10 years of research,
we were able to do that.
​
Biomaterial of the Year
2013, Nova Institute
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R&D 100 Award
2013, R&D Magazine
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Innovation of the Year
2014, Popular Science
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Company of the Year
2014, CleanTech OC
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Technology Excellence Award
2014, PC Magazine
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Technology Pioneer Award
2014, World Economic Forum
Leadership Award
2015, Energy Vision
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New Energy Pioneer Award
2016, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Bloomberg
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Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award
2016, US EPA
Biomaterial of the Year
2013, Nova Institute
​
R&D 100 Award
2013, R&D Magazine
​
Innovation of the Year
2014, Popular Science
​
Company of the Year
2014, CleanTech OC
​
Technology Excellence Award
2014, PC Magazine
​
Technology Pioneer Award
2014, World Economic Forum
Leadership Award
2015, Energy Vision
​
New Energy Pioneer Award
2016, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Bloomberg
​
Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award
2016, US EPA
Newlight's pilot plant from 2007-2017.
EAGLE 3
Finally, it was an Eagle.
In 2019, we built Eagle 3: the world's first fully-integrated commercial-scale production system using air and greenhouse gas to make our biomaterial, AirCarbon.
Eagle 3 is the world's first commercial-scale operation harnessing
microorganisms found in nature to pull carbon out of greenhouse gas and turn it into a resource
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