By Jonathan Eisenthal
Advanced materials firm Valerian Materials is creating a new molecule that will be used to make recyclable plastic derived from corn. The young company has taken a significant step towards commercialization, following a pilot plant scale production run funded by a grant from Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council.
The grant allowed Valerian to conduct test production runs in a facility in Augusta, Georgia, where they made use of 300-liter fermentation tanks—a major scale up from earlier bench lab tests made using 5-liter vessels.
Valerian CEO Mike Arbeiter said the company has just concluded an investment round and is ready “to begin producing material at demo scale for customers that are seeking sample material from us.”
He anticipates commercial revenue to flow in from sales in 2026, and he credits the Minnesota Corn investment for helping Valerian assess cost factors and begin to plan their scale-up, so they can be fully competitive with fossil fuel-sourced plastics.
NuvoneÒ, the proprietary monomer innovated by Valerian, could serve as the basic building block for anything from foam used in products like yoga mats and seat cushions, elastomers in things like rubber bands and leggings, the polymers used in plastic cups, or material for athletic shoe soles. Nuvone is derived through a fermentation process using corn. Beyond being recyclable and compostable, one of Nuvone’s most appealing characteristics is that it is regenerative. For instance, when the athletic shoe is worn out, the sole can be chemically recycled to capture back the original Nuvone monomer, for re-use over and over again. There are tremendous implications for the reduction of fossil fuel use, and greenhouse gas emissions.
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