May 18, 2026 12:46

U.S.-based Trillium Renewable Chemicals has raised $13 million to scale up its thermochemical process for converting plant-based glycerol into acrylonitrile from pilot to demonstration scale, as an alternative to propylene ammoxidation.

The funding adds to a previous $10.6 million financing round and a $2.5 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The company had already selected Ineos Nitriles’ Green Lake site in Port Lavaca, Texas, as the location for the demonstration plant, known as Project Falcon.

Construction has been completed, and the new unit will be commissioned in the second quarter of the year, with shipments of the first product batches to follow in subsequent months.

The funding will be used to cover the plant’s operating expenses, continued pilot-scale research and advanced engineering design work for the first commercial plant, for which discussions are already under way with potential strategic partners and customers.

Acrylonitrile is one of the constituents of ABS copolymer, used in applications across numerous sectors, including toys, automotive spare parts, aerospace components and medical equipment. It is also used in the synthesis of polyamides, in nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) formulations and in acrylic or carbon fibres.

Production of this intermediate exceeds 6 million tonnes per year worldwide and is almost entirely based on fossil feedstocks.

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