BOSTON, MA July 29, 2010 - Novomer Inc., a sustainable materials company pioneering a family of high-performance plastics, polymers and other chemicals from renewable feedstocks such as carbon dioxide (CO2), today announced it has been awarded $18.4M in federal funding from the Department of Energy. The objective of the project is to convert waste CO2 into a number of polymers for use in the manufacture of bottles, films, laminates, coatings on food and beverage cans, and in other wood and metal surface applications. Novomer is one of only six companies selected as part of a Phase Two, $106 Million Recovery Act investment aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and mitigating climate change. Novomer will work closely with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in execution of the project.

Phase One began in January 2010, and was focused on experiments and preliminary designs for pilot plants to demonstrate the feasibility of capturing and using CO2 exhausted from industrial processes. Phase Two is a 24-month, $23M project, including a 20 percent industry cost share, in which Novomer and its partners will design, construct, and operate materials creation at pilot-scale, in advance of broad commercialization.

Based on the success of Novomer's work in the $2.5M Phase One project, Novomer was chosen from 12 original companies to move into pilot scale development, and will now work to scale-up its products with the Albemarle Corporation at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Orangeburg, South Carolina locations and the Eastman Kodak Co. at its Rochester, New York location. The Phase Two work will result in the creation or maintenance of an estimated 200 jobs across all of the locations above, and Waltham, MA, where Novomer is headquartered.

Leveraging the Company's patented catalyst technology -- developed at Cornell University -- Novomer will produce sustainable polymers and polyols using waste CO2 as a primary raw material. The CO2 for this work will be sourced from ethanol manufacturing and supplied by Praxair. At the end of the project, in addition to enabling commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities for sustainable materials with several contract manufacturers, it is expected that several products will be customer qualified, requiring commercial scale production of PPC polymers on a global basis. 

Novomer's materials and polymers are based on the co-polymerization of carbon dioxide (CO2), and can be designed as both thermoplastic polymers and polyols for the production of various packaging and coating products. As these polymers contain more than 40% CO2 by weight, Novomer's technology requires significantly less petroleum than traditional polymers and converts significant amounts of CO2 into valuable materials, thereby preventing it from being emitted into the environment. 

"These Phase Two awards represent the aggressive and visionary approach that this administration is taking toward addressing climate change, and a validation of the unique impact that Novomer's innovation brings to bear," said Jim Mahoney, CEO of Novomer. "We are extremely proud of the team's efforts and success in Phase One and excited for this next step -- both for the program and Novomer's broader market potential." 

From a materials perspective, when compared to traditional plastics, Novomer's CO2 based polymers are more environmentally friendly, and have mechanical and barrier properties that perform well for a variety of flexible and rigid packaging applications. In addition, Novomer's CO2 based polyols are well suited as resins for protective and decorative surface finishes for metal, wood, and plastic. Potential applications include food and beverage can coatings and linings, coil coating, and automotive and industrial finishes. The first application results have been encouraging and suggest that this project might lead to completely new and unprecedented properties in coatings.

About Novomer 
Novomer (www.novomer.com) is a revolutionary new materials company pioneering a family of low-cost, high-performance, sustainable plastics, polymers and other chemicals. Based on the pioneering catalyst work of Dr. Geoff Coates at Cornell University, Novomer's groundbreaking technology allows carbon dioxide and other renewable feedstocks to be cost-effectively transformed into polymers, plastics and other chemicals for a wide variety of industrial markets. The company is partnered with equity investors Flagship Ventures, Physic Ventures, OVP Venture Partners, DSM Venturing and KensaGroup, and has received support from the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and the State of New York.

About Albemarle
Albemarle's Fine Chemistry Services (FCS) group is a leading provider of products, custom manufacturing and process scale-up assistance to the chemical industry. The FCS division boasts rapid response time and flexible manufacturing, including two cGMP plants in the United States and several custom manufacturing plants in the United States and Europe. The FCS division is part of $2.5B Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and Fine Chemicals. Corporate Responsibility Magazine recently selected Albemarle to its prestigious "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list for 2010. Albemarle employs approximately 4,000 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. To learn more, visit http://www.albemarle.com/.

About Kodak Specialty Chemicals
Kodak Specialty Chemicals has decades of chemical manufacturing experience of over 1500 complex molecules and manage over 500 active items annually with a focus on quality and customer service. Besides serving Kodak's traditional and digital businesses, the unit also performs custom contract manufacturing for the commercial space as well. Our chemical manufacturing facility is located in Eastman Business Park in Rochester, NY. More information is available at www.kodak.com/go/specialtychemicals

About Praxair
Praxair, Inc. (NYSE: PX) is the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, and one of the largest worldwide, with 2009 sales of $9B. The company produces, sells and distributes atmospheric, process and specialty gases, and high-performance surface coatings. Praxair products, services and technologies bring productivity and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, metals and others. More information on Praxair is available on the Internet at www.praxair.com.