Elevance is the leader in natural oil metathesis, a technology that transforms plant oils into high-performing, environmentally friendly specialty chemicals. Our products are helping industries move beyond petrochemicals to something better, a new generation of chemistry with a smaller environmental footprint.
Elevance’s low-pressure, low-temperature process uses a highly efficient, selective metathesis catalyst to derive value-added, specialty chemicals and olefins from natural oils, thus reducing source pollution, energy consumption, production costs and capital expenditures.
Elevance products are made from a variety of natural oil feedstocks, including palm oil. In 2013, Elevance joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an organization that promotes the growth and use of sustainable palm oil products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. As of March 2016, the Wilmar Gresik facility, including our joint venture processing equipment, was found to be in compliance with RSPO Supply Chain Certification Systems.
Elevance leverages proprietary processes that utilize Nobel Prize-winning olefin metathesis catalysts to convert natural oils into a portfolio of products. The word “metathesis” means to change places. Thus, olefin metathesis is a chemical reaction where unsaturated molecules exchange substituents around carbon-carbon double bonds to form different molecules. The emergence of well-defined, highly active and functional group tolerant metathesis catalysts now allows for the industrial scale conversion of native triglycerides into novel, unsaturated esters and olefins at attractive economics.
Central to the Elevance biorefinery process is the cross metathesis of natural oils with light olefins such as 1-butene to yield a series of higher-value specialty intermediates. Metathesized triglycerides (mTAGs) are truncated versions of the natural oil feedstock with unique terminal unsaturation content. Following separation of renewable olefin coproducts, mTAGs are further converted into novel mid-chain length unsaturated methyl esters using standard oleochemical processes.
Secondary metathesis of our biorefinery intermediates can produce additional products. Through the cross metathesis of our C10 and C12 unsaturated esters, Elevance produces its C18 diesters. While secondary metathesis of our olefin intermediates can be used to produce longer chain olefins, such as, C15 and C18 olefins.
Self-metathesis of natural oils and/or mTAGs can be used to build a novel series of branched, unsaturated polyesters with unique physical and chemical properties.
Today, Elevance is commercially supplying customers and partners across multiple industries.
Elevance and Wilmar International Limited operate a joint venture that includes a world-scale biorefinery in Gresik, Indonesia, based on Elevance’s proprietary metathesis technology. The 180 kMT (~400 million pounds) per year commercial-scale manufacturing facility, which was commissioned in 2013, is located within Wilmar’s Gresik oleochemical complex in Gresik, Indonesia, and operates using refined palm oil and palm olein feedstock. A second biorefinery plant in Sabah, Malaysia, is currently in the design phase as well.
To supplement production, Elevance also utilizes various tolling manufacturing partners throughout the U.S to produce products.
