Amyris, Inc. (Emeryville, Calif.; www.amyris.com) and Chevron Products Company, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (San Ramon, Calif.; www.chevron.com), announced that Novvi LLC and Chevron have entered into an agreement to jointly develop and bring to market novel renewable base oil technologies. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Novvi LLC is a renewables-focused venture of Amyris, Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Cosan S.A. Industria e Comercio and Hansen & Rosenthal Group. Novvi produces targeted hydrocarbon molecules from plant sugar for automotive, industrial, marine, and construction applications at unbeatable economics.
Novvi’s base oil products and technology are recognized by the global lubricant market to deliver sustainable, high-performance solutions in a range of lubricant applications. Since launching its first commercial production in 2014, Novvi has been steadily increasing its base oil production to keep up with robust and growing demand for a variety of automotive, marine and industrial applications.
Chevron is a leading manufacturer of premium base oils and one of the world’s largest suppliers of finished lubricants. Chevron has one of the world’s largest base oil manufacturing platforms through its own refining network and its base oil technology licensing position. In 2016, Chevron announced an equity investment in Novvi.
“We are very pleased that Chevron and Novvi have expanded our relationship to include base oil development and commercialization. The combination of our organizations’ technical and operational capabilities will deliver the highest performing renewable base oils to market at scale, defining a new performance standard,” stated Jeff Brown, Novvi’s CEO. “The technology opportunities for our partnership are immense. We will work together with Chevron to ensure the industry is at the forefront of sustainability and delivers the best renewable base oils to customers around the world,” he continued.
“We at Chevron are quite excited to enter into this joint development agreement,” said Dr. Brent Lok, Manager, Chevron Base Oils Marketing and Business Development. “Novvi and Chevron each bring complementary technologies to the table; Novvi with its industry-leading expertise in working with renewable feeds and Chevron’s long-standing expertise in hydroprocessing technology,” he added.