Higher Performance, Carbon Negative Plastics, Maybe for Less: The Digest’s 2021 Multi-Slide Guide to ReSource Chemical

December 27, 2021

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by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) Emerging out of stealth and the hallways of Activate along Berkeley Lab’s Cyclotron Road is ReSource Chemical, seen recently on the ABLC stage. What makes this interesting are three factors: 1. Higher Performance, Carbon Negative Plastics. 2. Maybe For Less. 3. A new Company Punching Above its Weight. Let’s look at the slides as presented at ABLC and make some comments along the way, although I have to say, this is a job for the ABLC Due Diligence Wolfpack.

Gotta like this slide, has better, sustainable and plastic in the one line. That’s not only the right topic, but the right way to compress a value proposition.

Already, this slide is mature enough that it looks like a company already at commercial scale or quite close. Interesting that this company is actually more towards the other end of the spectrum, it’s a tiny firm called ReSource that’s affiliated with the Activate program (a/k/a Cyclotron Road), which is to say, the company is emerging from stealth after beginning as a two-year fellowship at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. But, stick with me on this one, this is a company with a lot of potential and is well worth a close look.

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This is a remarkable deck from a company punching way above its weight. It’s early days, the dependence of someone else’s furfural will probably not be a problem, but strategics will ask about it. It’s an interesting case for the Due Diligence Wolfpack to assess. For now, let’s summarize what’s the “Great, So Far” of this company.

Working on a Big Problem in a Big Market that is Obvious to Everyone, and for which there’s Obvious Value in the Solving.
Start with a Molecule Lots of people know how to make, Get to one that Everyone Wants and Few Know How, and do it with much lower CAPEX than anyone else.
Get Carbon-Negative with a Product that is Famously Not Carbon-Negative, at a time when everyone is going to need some offsets from the small Carbon Footprint of wind and solar in order to Reach Net Zero.
Avoid having to Aggregate Agricultural Residues for Industrial Processes until Later.
Bring forward a Molecule which is Higher Performance as well as a Defossilizer, and more Cheaply than the Other Folk can do it.
Get out of Stealth Early enough that the investment asks are still pretty small for Early-stage Investors, i.e. build a pilot rather than build a first commercial. READ MORE

Resource Chemical emerges from stealth with a big answers to the What Do We do About Plastic Bottles question (Biofuels Digest)