ILMA Compoundings – September 2019 - 37

Miller: "We are 100% laser-beam
focused on production, getting
products out to the lubricant marketplace and working with customers
and prospects to incorporate into
their products. We're also focused a
little bit on looking at other markets
- personal care, plastics and maybe
rubber. We're always trying to move
in a variety of different directions
within the molecule to make it better,
faster, cheaper - to improve the
quality, to improve the pour point,
to keep stretching what it can do.
Longer changeout intervals is another
environmental aspect that's coming.
The beauty of the estolide is that it's
such a customizable molecule that you
can do all kinds of really cool things
with it.
"Everybody's chasing the holy grail
that is engine oil. It's always a difficult
market because the testing is so expensive and the conditions are so severe.
We want to work with the major oil
companies to formulate this into their
BioPreferred products."
Continued from page 34
Compoundings: What are the
major hurdles to overcome in the
marketplace and in formulations?
Miller: "We just figured out how to
make commercial quantities. That's
always been an issue, but now we're
scaling up to volumes. If you get a
customer who's buying into your
product and has a commercial success,
you have to be able to support them.
The only thing worse than not having
anybody embrace the product is having everybody embrace the product
and not being able to supply it.
"The beauty now is that we're
outsourcing our manufacturing. We
can scale up easily by just bringing on
more manufacturers. It's a very simple
process, and we don't have to build a

new plant. We don't have to find new
people. We know who's out there and
can give the industry whatever it needs
very easily and very quickly."
Compoundings: What have been
the hurdles to scaling up?
Miller: "Building a brand-new plant
would have been expensive and
time-consuming. We've developed a
batch process. We can use hardware
that exists with the manufacturer's in a
simple and cost-effective and scalable
way. It's really important to be able to
supply the product and not have to
build a several-hundred-million-dollar
facility right out of the gate."
Compoundings: What's on the horizon in terms of research and potential?

Compoundings: Are you tracking
any legislative or regulatory developments?
Miller: "We're always watching regulatory and compliance requirements,
and they change on a daily basis.
We'd love to see more governmental
initiatives like BioPreferred mandating
environmentally preferred fluids. I
don't see any coming down the pike,
but you never know."
Compoundings: Sounds like you
see a future in biosynthetics.
Miller: "There's no doubt that the
environmental movement is coming.
There's no doubt that the BioPreferred
program is going to have more impact.
The concept of sustainability is not
going away. It's an idea that's arrived
and is only [going] to get bigger."

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ILMA Compoundings – September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ILMA Compoundings – September 2019
