Aquafil and Genomatica have announced a multi-year agreement to create sustainable caprolactam, a key ingredient to producing 100% sustainable nylon. The collaboration aims to develop a commercially-advantageous bioprocess (Genomatica’s GENO CPL™ process) to make caprolactam using plant-based renewable ingredients, rather than the crude oil-derived materials traditionally used by the nylon industry. Enabling more sustainable nylon products: Used in a variety of nylon-based products including carpets and apparel, caprolactam has a worldwide market of over five million tons per year. Genomatica’s GENO CPL™ process aims to provide an environmentally-friendly way to make caprolactam with better economics, including for smaller-scale plants. Additionally, it will enable licensees and their customers to differentiate themselves by offering a more sustainable bio-based product whose performance will be fully comparable with nylon made from crude oil-derived caprolactam, and which will not require any machine or process adjustments by the nylon supply chain. Genomatica is the licensor of the GENO CPLTM process. Genomatica invites other leaders in the nylon value chain to join its bio-nylon program – and Aquafil encourages further collaboration with supply chain partners. By joining the program, companies ranging from chemical producers and product makers to agriculture companies and major brands can engage, influence priorities and gain access to Genomatica’s technologies and supply of bio-based chemicals.