• Genomatica, a California-based producer of plant-based plastic and textile fiber products, has announced that it has successfully completed demonstration-scale production runs for its plant-based nylon material “nylon-6” with European nylon producer Aquafil.

• As part of the company’s pre-commercial launch in Europe, Genomatica and Aquafil have produced “several tons” of nylon-6 raw material and are in the process of converting it into yarn to evaluate applications in textile and carpet as well as engineering plastics. Genomatica plans to target global brands and their value chain partners who want to produce sustainable products using nylon-6. 

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: This announcement follows Genomatica and Aquafil’s partnership in November 2020 to build the first demonstration-scale facility to produce nylon-6, increasing its existing production capacity by 50x. Nylon-6 is Genomatica’s third product in addition to bio-based butanediol (BDO) and bio-based hexamethylenediamine (HMDA). For its bio-nylon product, Genomatica has also partnered with leading brands such as lululemon and Asahi Kasei .</ul>