Seeking Technologies to Reduce, Remove, or Separate Hydrocarbon Compounds

The technology seeker is a manufacturing company that operates a range of industrial processes to isolate and purify products from raw materials. They are looking for technologies for removing or reducing to a non-detectable (less than 1ppm) level, various species of long chain saturated hydrocarbon compounds and (poly)aromatic hydrocarbon compounds from a mixture of triglycerides. The compounds of interest have hydrocarbon chains with a carbon number up to C50.

The company is actively searching for partners with expertise in technologies for reducing, removing, or separating hydrocarbon compounds. They are interested in connecting with universities and other research organisations, start-ups and established companies who are developing suitable or applicable technologies.

They have an established customer base and global processing operations. The company can provide significant resources to scale up potential processes and relevant businesses, including financial investment and joint development. The client is interested in working with technology developers and would consider a variety of ways of working from research collaboration to technology licensing, joint venture and acquisition. 

Potential solutions could come from (but are not limited to) the following:

• Technologies that act as adsorbents / absorbents for ≤C50 hydrocarbon compounds
• Technologies that could specifically cleave or digest hydrocarbon compounds to a lower carbon number (e.g. <C10)
• Chemical processing technologies including solvents, anti-solvents, chemical reactants, enzymes
• Membrane technologies that could separate off saturated or aromatic ≤C50 hydrocarbons
• Short-path distillation or thin-film evaporation technologies, with lower operating temperatures and short processing times
• Use of steam, vacuum, light or other physical separation methods to separate and remove hydrocarbon fractions

Solutions that achieve one or more of the following would be of particular interest:

• Separate non-volatile hydrocarbon compounds according to molecular size and / or chain length
• Use processing temperatures below 215°C (higher might be possible for short time periods)
• Technologies compatible with a medium of triglycerides
• Technologies that target specific saturated or aromatic ≤C50 hydrocarbon chemicals
• Potential for scale up to manufacturing scale within 5 years

Industries which may have applicable technologies include: 

• Consumer healthcare
• Food and beverage (e.g. manufacturing flavours, extracting volatiles or essential oils, purification of micronutrients)
• Biopharma, (e.g., purification of APIs)
• Water treatment, environmental remediation (e.g. removal and separation of hydrocarbons)
• Oil and gas manufacture

• Business Collaboration (Joint Venture)
• IP Acquisition
• Licensing
• Others
• R&D Collaboration