The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded a $650,000 Project Grant to Lakril Technologies Corporation under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program (CFDA 10.212). The funding supports the company's development and commercialization of catalysts and processes for producing bio-based acrylic acid and acrylates as sustainable, cost-effective alternatives to petroleum-derived chemicals. Lakril Technologies aims to optimize the conversion of aqueous lactic acid feedstocks into drop-in, renewable acrylic products with greater than 80% lower CO2 emissions compared to petrochemical acrylics. The 2-year project seeks to (A) improve lactic acid feedstock pretreatment, (B) enhance catalyst regeneration, and (C) scale up the process to a 1 kg/day pilot plant. Achieving these technical objectives will demonstrate the commercial feasibility of Lakril's "lactic-to-acrylic" technology and support further scale-up and commercialization.
Generated 2/25/25, 4:00 AM