Danimer Scientific is a producer of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a biodegradable plastic feedstock, sold under the brand-name Nodax, derived from the bacterial metabolism of vegetable oils (e.g. canola oil).
There are still commercial challenges and uncertainties preventing a full de-risking of PHA bio-plastics. They include slow processing (especially long crystallization times), lower tensile strength, higher brittleness and 4-5x higher costs than conventional plastics (screen here).
Nevertheless Danimer scores a solid 3.5/5 on our technology framework. Our review of its recent patents shows specific and reasonably intelligible innovations, which are especially focused upon improved processing, high-quality copolymers and boosting demand for PHA products.
Our conclusions and underlying details are laid out in the data-file.