Day: January 9, 2023

New era for green tech alternatives to replace petrochemical synthesized dyes.

Bedford, Mass., Jan. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Conagen announced the successful scale-up of its sustainable, cost-effective Tyrian purple, a historically coveted and expensive dye found in rare and limited sources in marine nature.

Conagen is the world’s first and only biotechnology company commercializing a sustainable Tyrian purple by fermentation. As with any biologically-sourced textile dye, this color-fast compound reduces pollution and carbon footprints when used as an alternative to petrochemically synthesized dyes commonly used in the textiles industry today.

Also known as Phoenician purple, royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, this rare dye dates back several millennia to the bronze age when the Phoenicians from Tyre, Lebanon, on the Levantine coast, produced it for the ancient Greeks, Persians, Byzantines, and the Roman empire to clad emperors and kings with luxury textiles. Tyrian purple was once worth more than its weight in gold for its prized deep rich purple. In 301 CE, during the Roman Empire, one pound of Tyrian purple dye was priced at approximately three Troy pounds of gold, roughly $66,000 in today’s currency.

Current producers extract and harvest Tyrian purple from the murex shellfish in much the same way as the ancient Phoenicians. Thousands — approximately 10,000 or (54 kilograms (119 lb.) of these predatory sea snails are required to make diminishing quantities of Tyrian purple to produce 1 gram of the dye, making it impracticable, expensive, and environmentally unfriendly. Ancient dye producers all but drove the murex species to extinction along the coasts of Phoenicia, evident in the vast deposits of the shells excavated on the outskirts of Sidon, Tyre, and across the Mediterranean.

Conagen’s Tyrian purple, produced by precision fermentation and bioconversion, is a natural, sustainable dye ideal for textile companies under pressure to deliver fashions more sustainably and with a reduced global environmental footprint, especially from manufacturing.

“Conagen is democratizing the exclusive use of a color once reserved for royalty — now obtainable on a global scale,” said Casey Lippmeier, Ph.D., senior vice president of innovation. “Our fermentation and bioconversion technologies enable us to offer true-to-nature products. By leveraging Conagen’s bioengineering and commercial manufacturing capabilities, we’re unlocking Tyrian purple’s great potential as an accessible and sustainable dye. We expect Tyrian purple to inspire fresh ideas in multiple industries, making this rare and exciting color more marketable with planet-conscious consumers.”

The Tyrian purple technology is based on two of Conagen’s many key bioengineering platforms, which enable accelerated product development timelines for its competitive phenolics, terpenoids, proteins, and peptide molecules.

As an example, Conagen’s phenolics platform was used to make an important antioxidant, hydroxytyrosol, the active health ingredient found in oil, juice, and fruit in olives. Using another platform, Conagen has optimized the production of different amino acid-based products, including the nutraceutical antioxidant ergothioneine, a “longevity vitamin” currently branded as “Ergoactive” by Conagen’s pipeline partner Blue California. To produce the Tyrian purple, Conagen drew from both proprietary platforms to develop novel enzymes which increase the conversion efficiency of precursors to the dye.

“Conagen has further solidified its leadership in the bioeconomy by rapidly producing multiple novel and interesting molecules, such as Tyrian purple,” said Lippmeier. “Our technology platforms have been meticulously engineered and improved upon for over a decade, and they are extremely efficient at making targeted compounds from an expanding array of molecular classes for our internal product development and collaborative ventures.”

Conagen aims to replace petroleum-based ingredients and reduce carbon footprints with green technologies. Tyrian purple adds to Conagen’s natural color offerings, including several carotenoids made by fermentation which have been scaled to global production. As a dye, Tyrian purple is ideal for textile fabrics, clothing, handbags, and related accessories.

About Conagen

Conagen is making the impossible possible. Our scientists and engineers use modern synthetic biology tools to program micro-organisms and enzymes on a molecular level to produce high-quality, sustainable, natural products manufactured worldwide via precision fermentation and bioconversion. We focus on the bioproduction of high-value ingredients for food, nutrition, flavors and fragrances, pharmaceuticals, and renewable materials.

Attachments

• Bolinus brandaris, also called sea snail or purple dye murex
• Tyrian purple dye for textiles

Ana Arakelian, Head of Public Relations and Communications
Conagen
+1-781-271-1588
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8725973

Grid connection and power quality solution for the MFW Baltyk II and MFW Baltyk III offshore wind farms will help Poland progress towards its renewable energy goal and provide emission-free electricity for more than 2 million Polish homes.

Zurich, Switzerland, Jan. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zurich, Switzerland, January 9, 2023 – Hitachi Energy, a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all, today announced it has won two major orders from Equinor and Polenergia to provide an AC grid connection and power quality solution for their jointly owned MFW Baltyk II and MFW Baltyk III offshore wind farms, with a combined generating capacity of 1,440 megawatts in the Polish sector of the Baltic Sea.

Hitachi Energy will provide each of the two wind farms with an offshore grid connection that will receive the power from the wind turbines and transfer it to shore, a mainland grid connection that will transmit the power into the national transmission system, and a STATCOM power quality solution to ensure that power flows reliably and stably at optimal capacity and at all times, despite the often high variability of wind power.

MFW Baltyk II and MFW Baltyk III are pending a final investment decision in 2024, and are scheduled to deliver first power in 2027. They will be one of the first offshore wind farms in Poland and part of the country’s ambitious program to develop its offshore wind potential and increase the use of renewables in its electricity mix, which historically is dominated by coal. The government aims to have around 11 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity either operational or under development by 2027¹.

Hitachi Energy was selected in a competitive procurement process on the strength of its front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies and optimized solutions, its long track record of project execution excellence, and its close working relationships over many decades with Equinor and PSE (Poland’s transmission system operator) and, most recently, Polenergia.

“Integrating large-scale renewable energy sources with the power grid is a key enabler of the energy transition and a field in which we have been a pioneer for decades,” said Niklas Persson, Managing Director of Hitachi Energy’s Grid Integration business. “Our grid connection technologies feature in offshore wind farms worldwide, and our power quality solutions resolve bottlenecks and keep the voltage stable and the energy flowing in power systems globally.”

These project awards further underscore Hitachi Energy’s position as a global leader in the offshore wind market and the partner of choice for wind farm developers, combining solid experience with grid technologies to help make the world’s energy system more sustainable, flexible and secure by enabling new solutions and business models to be deployed at scale and with speed.

The company has been continuously developing its portfolio to better serve this market with the recent launch of its Grid-eXpand range of modular and prefabricated grid connection solutions that make it faster, simpler and more efficient to connect offshore wind farms to mainland grids, and with its complete portfolio of STATCOMs and E-STATCOMs for all power ranges, ensuring grid stability and power quality at all times.

The announcement follows a recent global agreement between Hitachi Energy and Equinor to collaborate on high-voltage transmission systems (AC and DC) to connect Equinor offshore wind farms and production facilities to mainland power grids worldwide.

1Global Wind Energy Council – Global Offshore Wind Report 2022

About Hitachi Energy Ltd.

Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all. We serve customers in the utility, industry and infrastructure sectors with innovative solutions and services across the value chain. Together with customers and partners, we pioneer technologies and enable the digital transformation required to accelerate the energy transition towards a carbon-neutral future. We are advancing the world’s energy system to become more sustainable, flexible and secure whilst balancing social, environmental and economic value. Hitachi Energy has a proven track record and unparalleled installed base in more than 140 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ around 40,000 people in 90 countries and generate business volumes of approximately $10 billion USD.

https://www.hitachienergy.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/hitachienergy

https://twitter.com/HitachiEnergy

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society with data and technology. We will solve customers’ and society’s challenges with Lumada solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products, under the business structure of Digital Systems & Services, Green Energy & Mobility, Connective Industries and Automotive Systems. Driven by green, digital, and innovation, we aim for growth through collaboration with our customers. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal year 2021 (ended March 31, 2022) totaled 10,264.6 billion yen ($84,136 million USD), with 853 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 370,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at https://www.hitachi.com.

Attachment

• Hitachi Energy awarded major orders to integrate two large offshore wind farms with Poland’s power grid

Jocelyn Chang
Hitachi Energy
+41793847775
jocelyn.chang@hitachienergy.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8725982