LS9, P&G team up for sustainable chemicals

South San Francisco, Calif.-based LS9 now has one of the world’s largest consumer product companies on its side.

LS9, which calls itself The Renewable Petroleum Company, joined forces today with Cincinnati, Ohio-based Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG). The partners will jointly develop and commercialize LS9’s technology to produce sustainable chemicals used within P&G’s portfolio of consumer products.

“Innovation has been and always will be P&G’s life blood,” said P&G spokesman Paul Fox. “We’re always looking for new ideas, new ways of doing things. It’s part of our core being.”

Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. LS9 still has to reach the stage where its chemicals can be produced in commercial volume.

But Fox told the Cleantech Group the partnership is expected to help the company meet some of its ambitious sustainability goals.

In March, P&G increased its 2012 sustainability targets. The revised goals include developing $50 billion in sales of sustainable innovation products, which are products with a 10 percent reduced environmental footprint versus previous or alternative products. P&G’s original target was $20 billion.

P&G also plans to deliver a 20 percent reduction (per unit of production) in carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, water usage and disposed waste from P&G plants, for a total reduction over the decade of 50 percent. P&G’s original target was 10 percent.

“We have a proven track record for taking sustainable innovations such as LS9’s and commercializing them,” Fox said. “This is an exciting partnership not just for LS9 and Procter & Gamble, but for the 3 ½ billion consumers we serve every day.”

LS9 is a private, industrial biotechnology company developing biofuels and sustainable chemicals made through synthetic biology. Fox said one of the ways P&G is interested in improving its products is through sustainable feedstocks, so LS9 was a good match.

“Basically what LS9 has is a technology platform in which we have created designer microbes that convert renewable materials into transportation fuels and chemicals,” said LS9’s Director of External Affairs Jon Ballesteros.

The same microbe can be modified to produce a portfolio of solutions.

“We’re rapidly moving toward commercialization,” Ballesteros said. “We’re beyond the proof of concept.”

The multi-year partnership is intended to help LS9 accelerate its business model and the adoption of its technology. Ballesteros said in working with a partner that has such broad market reach it should allow LS9 to bring its technology to market faster, although he did not specify how much faster.

Fox said P&G envisions a wide range of consumer product applications for LS9’s technology.

“For example, we could see the use of surfactants in laundry detergent,” he said, as alternative to current petrochemicals used today, which are highly volatile.

Fox said the length of the partnership is unspecified, as they are just at the beginning of the process.

“This couldn’t be a better strategic partnership. What it does is it really enables LS9 to be market leaders in sustainable chemicals and renewable fuels,” Ballesteros said. “Sustainable chemicals are what P&G is looking for here. They have a commitment to reducing the carbon profile of their operations and products, and this collaboration will continue that.”

LS9 has raised $20 million in two rounds from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures and Khosla Ventures (see LS9, latest Khosla investment, gets $5M).

Vinod Khosla, who has heavily invested in cellulosic ethanol, backing companies such as Mascoma, Range Fuels, LS9 and others, said a 100 percent replacement of petroleum transportation fuels with biofuels is achievable (see Cellulosic ethanol to be cost-competitive by 2009 says Khosla).

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