Visolis, founded by Deepak Dugar, is working to decarbonize the production of everything from rubber to jet fuel.

Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels is going to require a transformation in the way we make things. That’s because the hydrocarbons found in fuels like crude oil, natural gas, and coal are also in everyday items like plastics, clothing, and cosmetics.

Now Visolis, founded by Deepak Dugar MIT SM ’11, MBA ’13, PhD ’13, is combining synthetic biology with chemical catalysis to reinvent the way the world makes things — and reducing gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

The company — which uses a microbe to ferment biomass waste like wood chips and create a molecular building block called mevalonic acid — is more sustainably producing everything from car tires and cosmetics to aviation fuels by tweaking the chemical processes involved to make different byproducts.

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[SciTechDaily, 2023.7.20, https://scitechdaily.com/visolis-harnesses-synthetic-biology-to-transform-biomass-into-sustainable-everyday-products/]