Mr. Tony Duncan, the CEO of the Circa Company, will give a lecture on the manufacturing and the applications of levoglucosenone and a range of its derivatives.

Presently, significant effort is being devoted to the development of processes using non-food renewables amongst which includes cellulose. Circa’s proprietary Furacell™ technology utilizes cellulosic waste to manufacture levoglucosenone, a valuable platform molecule. 

Recently, Circa has teamed up with the multinational Norske Skog to build a 50 ton per year commercial plant in Tasmania, Australia. Norske Skog is one of the world’s largest producers of publication papers, with headquarters in Oslo, Norway. The Circa group is also very active in the development of solutions to current health and environmental concerns. An example is dihydrolevoglucosenone, also known as Cyrene, which shows vast potential as a bio-based alternative to traditional polar aprotic solvents, including NMP and DMF, solvents which are under regulatory pressure in Europe, North America and elsewhere. To exploit the unique functionality of levoglucosenone, Circa is building a collaborative network of researchers around the world to develop performance-based derivatives with a wide application span. The group is strongly committed to sustainable development, and all wood used in production must come from sustainable forestry. For more information, or if you would like to meet up with Tony Duncan, please email Dr. Mario De bruyn at debruyn@wisc.edu by Aug. 23, 2017 end of day.