1. Circa Sustainable Chemicals Ltd
Jeff Eaves
Circa Sustainable Chemicals Ltd

2. What is Circa?
Developers of world’s first continuous process to manufacture the platform molecule Levoglucosenone from waste cellulose.

3. Where are we active?

4. Our proprietary Furacell™ technology
World’s first and only continuous process to manufacture LGO
Proven over 7 years and 4 pilot plants
Entered a JV with Norske Skog in 2015 to prove business case
Commissioning FC5 - a 4M€ demonstration plant with a 50 tonne/year capacity

5. LGO in UK top 3 bio-based chemicals

6. Why Levoglucosenone (LGO)?
LGO is a ‘bioprivileged molecule’
“A biology derived chemical intermediate that can be efficiently converted to a diversity of chemical products including both novel molecules and drop-in replacements” (Shanks,2017)

7. Both new and existing products from LGO
Existing products in existing markets – e.g. F&F
New product in existing market - Cyrene
Exiting products in new markets
New product in new market - Cyrene

8. A new polar aprotic solvent made from renewable cellulose
Cyrene®
A new polar aprotic solvent made from renewable cellulose

9. The basics
Developed with a focus on the 1,000,000 tonne solvent market in the pharmaceutical and speciality chemical industries
Highly efficient one-step process from LGO (developed in York)
Becoming available in commercial quantities through FC5

10. Market focus
Key driver - polar aprotic solvents such as NMP, DMF and DMAc are under significant regulatory pressure worldwide due to their toxicity
Cyrene® trialled in over 40 applications so far

11. Performance: Polyamideimides (PAIs) production
PAIs production – largest user of NMP in European Union1
Wide range of application incl. corrosion resistant coatings
Cyrene® showed to outperform NMP
Additional benefit – doesn’t produced NOx during curing
“It has surprisingly been found that the application of dioxabicycloalkane derivatives instead of conventional polar aprotic solvents like NMP as solvent for the polycondensation of carboxylic acid anhydrides and diisocyanates not only facilitates rapid curing but also provides coatings having enhanced solvent resistance.”
WO 2017/050541
1 EU Restriction report for NMP

12. Safety
REACH registration to allow sales into EU:
Annex VII registration (1-10T) - completed
Annex VIII registration (10-100T) - expected by end of Q3 2018
All REACH toxicity testing results to date indicate that Cyrene® could provide a safer alternative

13. Distribution Commercial volumes in the Benelux region: Will & Co
Research volumes world-wide: MERCK (formerly Sigma Aldrich)

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