U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today 38 new National Laboratory collaborations with small businesses through its Small Business Vouchers (SBV) pilot. In this third round the following National Laboratories are included: Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Savannah River National Laboratory.

Berkeley Lab will collaborate with four small businesses. One of them is Kalion Inc. based in Milton, Massachusetts who will use the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Demonstration Unit’s capabilities. ABPDU and Kalion’s goal is to reach full manufacturing-scale production of glucaric acid and glucuronic acid by creating a manufacturing-ready production strain and then scaling up that strain to generate an appropriate process. The availability of such a process will expand the food, pharma, and polymer applications requiring a purity of more than 99 percent. Read more in the Berkeley Lab Newscenter.