P&G Signs Deal with Biofuel Startup

Biofuel startup LS9has formed a partnership with Procter & Gamble to develop chemicals for use in consumer goods.

Financial terms of the partnership announced Tuesday were not disclosed. But the two said they will work on a “multi-year collaboration” to use the South San Francisco, Calif.-based startup’s technology for products including “sustainable chemicals” and renewable transportation fuels.

LS9 is developing genetically engineered microbes that eat sugar and excrete fatty acid alkyl esters, hydrocarbons that match petroleum-based diesel fuel. But it has also been developing microbes to create various chemicals, spokesman Jon Ballesteros said Tuesday.

“Our vision has always been to be a market leader in both the production of sustainable chemicals and renewable fuels,” he said, though he wouldn’t name any specific chemicals LS9 is seeking to produce.

In addition to LS9, a number of startups are looking to take biofuel technologies and turn them toward industrial chemicals.

“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.”

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,” Mr. 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.”