WICHITA, KAN. — Invista has announced a partnership with U.K.-based Ingenza Ltd. to pursue the development of bio-derived chemicals.
Based in Wichita, Invista is a producer of chemical intermediates, polymers and fibers, while Ingenza is an industrial biotechnology and synthetic biology company.
The collaborative work with Ingenza will take place primarily at Ingenza's labs in Edinburgh, Scotland, Invista spokeswoman Kim Conlee said. The team will also work closely with Invista's scientists in Wilton, England, she said.
"The collaborations Invista is pursuing right now center around bio-derived chemicals, one of the potential uses of these intermediate chemicals could be for the manufacture of polymers and other industrial materials," Conlee said in an emailed statement.
In a statement, Warren Primeaux, president of Invista Intermediates, said they the two companies being very complementary to one another.
"Invista believes biotechnology has the potential to significantly improve the cost and availability of several chemicals and raw materials that are used to produce its current products," he said.
Ian Fotheringham, president of Ingenza, said in a statement that the partnership could "establish a new generation of transformational bio-manufacturing technologies for industrial chemicals and polymers."
Invista has approximately 10,000 employees in more than 20 countries. It is a subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc.