Atlanta, USA – November 30, 2021 – AVAPCO, a subsidiary of GranBio Technologies, announces that it has been awarded $500,000 in funding from P3Nano, a public private partnership between the U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities and the USDA Forest Service (USFS), along with an additional $230,000 from the USFS under a separate program to advance scale-up and commercial introduction of the Nanocellulose Dispersion Composite (NDC™) rubber masterbatch for the tire and rubber goods markets.

The breakthrough NDC masterbatch is the result of a four-year Joint Development Program between Birla Carbon and GranBio, designed to address growing sustainability demands from the tire industry in terms of improving both tire rolling resistance and vehicle fuel economy through enabling the incorporation of sustainable, bio-derived nanocellulose into commercial rubber compounds.

P3Nano’s funding program targets projects designed to advance the commercialization of cellulosic nanomaterials. Under the competitive Award, the companies will demonstrate continuous scale-up of production of the NDC at GranBio’s Biorefinery in Thomaston, Georgia for anticipated full-scale factory and on-road tire trials by global partners within the tire and mechanical rubber goods industries.

Under the additional competitive award from the USFS’s Wood Innovations program, designed to expand and accelerate market growth for wood products,  the companies will prepare an engineering package, market analysis, and financial modeling for the first NDC commercial plant.

“The NDC project demonstrates how Birla Carbon continues to drive innovation in sustainability supporting our ambitions and those of our customers,” said John Loudermilk, Chief Executive Officer, Birla Carbon. “The partnership with GranBio  allows us to ‘Share the Strength’ in support of our aspiration to achieve net zero carbon emissions, including the development of novel materials from biomass.”

According to Bernardo Gradin, Chief Executive Officer of GranBio Technologies, “The NDC is a key example of GranBio’s mission to “Enable Net Zero^TM” solutions through the development and deployment of sustainable biomass-based technologies across the biofuels, biochemicals, and advanced biomaterials sectors. The partnership with Birla Carbon materializes a common strategy to enable net-zero emission in tires and the automotive value chain.”

For more information about the NDC masterbatch, please contact the development teams at Birla Carbon (charles.herd@adityabirla.com) and GranBio Technologies (knelson@granbio.com).

About Birla Carbon

Birla Carbon is a leading global supplier of carbon black. As one of the flagship businesses of the leading Indian multinational conglomerate, the Aditya Birla Group, Birla Carbon provides innovative sustainable carbon black solutions that enhance the performance of paints and coatings, inks and toners, plastics, adhesives, sealants, textile fibers, mechanical rubber goods, and tires. The company’s footprint extends across 12 countries with 16 manufacturing facilities and two state-of-the-art technology centers in Marietta (USA) and Taloja (India), providing industry-leading innovation. Its Sustainable Operational Excellence (SOE) strategy focuses on employee safety, environmental stewardship, efficient use of carbon sources, and operating in a socially and ethically responsible manner.

About GranBio Technologies

GranBio Technologies is a subsidiary of GranBio Investimentos S.A. (São Paulo, Brazil), an industrial biotechnology company focused on developing renewable technologies to enable biomass-based net zero emission solutions for biofuels, biochemicals, and advanced renewable materials, including nanocellulose and colloidal lignin.

GranBio Technologies holds an extensive patent portfolio in the biorefinery and nanocellulose fields including over 300 worldwide granted and patents pending. Visit – www.granbio.com.

 About the United States Endowment for Foresty and Communities, Inc.

The United States Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc. (the “Endowment”) is a not-forprofit corporation that works collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities.