Spero Renewables LLC, a Green chemistry company, announced April 9 a $1.6 million cooperative agreement with the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable energy division of the Department of Energy to develop and scale-up production of the company’s SPERLU technology.

Spero’s proprietary SPERLU technology produces polymers from plant-based sources, like wood pulp. The resulting polymers are renewable, much more environmentally friendly than current polymers, free of off-gassing emissions, and formaldehyde-free vs. current polymers that come from petrochemicals and are manufactured with formaldehyde. Polymers are used in huge quantities for many industrial applications, including to make the particleboard that is used to manufacture furniture and laminate flooring. Through these greener polymers, the SPERLU technology is a game changer, enabling economically viable biofuels made from the cellulose byproduct of SPERLU.

The grant is part of a recently announced $80 million DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office initiative supporting 36 projects in bioenergy research and development. In addition to biobased products, projects include renewable hydrocarbon fuels and power from non-food Biomass and waste feedstocks.

Commenting on the award, senior scientist Ian Klein, stated, “Through this work we are transforming a portion of biomass (lignin) which has been considered a waste material in the paper pulp industry for over 100 years, into valuable chemicals used in making polymers. Spero’s technology has been proven on the lab-scale and this award will allow us to increase the scale of our operations, producing larger volumes and studying the properties of our green chemicals and polymers. Commercialization of the SPERLU technology will finally allow for development of an integrated and profitable biorefinery, a major step forward in meeting the growing consumer demand for green products.”