INTRODUCING SOLEIC™ TECHNOLOGY

High Performance | Renewable | Fully Biodegradable
Plastic Material from Plants

Soleic™ Products

Clean Technology with Applications Across Multiple Industries

Soleic™ BENEFITS

Key Benefits For A Better Impact

High Performance

Fully Biodegradable

CARBON Reducing

Soleic™ BIODEGRADATION

Built to Last...Made to Disappear
SOLEIC™ BENEFITS

Key Benefits for Better Impact

High Performance

100% Biodegradable

CO2 Reducing

SOLEIC™ BIODEGRADATION

Built to Last...Made to Disappear

3RD PARTY VALIDATION

Certifications

52% Bio-Content

View Certification

ASTM 5338 Aerobic
Biodegradation Report

Certification — in Process

USDA Bio-Preferred

Certification — in Process

Peer Reviewed
Science Paper

View Paper

LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) on Polymer and Product

Certification — in Process

HOW WE COMPARE

Soleic™ Achieves 52% Bio-Content
HOW WE COMPARE
The Problem

Petroleum Plastic

Existing petroleum plastic materials continue to damage our environment.

Air Pollution

Petroleum plastic materials as a category are responsible for 850 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. Unless we cut production, that number will increase.

Land Pollution

532 billion pounds of plastic are landfilled or incinerated each year. These materials take over 450 years to degrade in the natural environment. Because they can never biodegrade, they photodegrade which means the sun breaks the material into harmful microplastics.

Sea Pollution

18 billion pounds of plastic flow into the ocean each year. Unfortunately, most of the larger pieces of plastic break down into harmful microplastics. Microplastics threaten wildlife because animals mistake the plastic for food and eat it.

THE PROBLEM

Petroleum Plastic
Existing petroleum plastic materials continue to damage our environment.

Air Pollution

Petroleum plastic materials as a category are responsible for 850 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. Unless we cut production, that number will increase.

Land Pollution

532 billion pounds of plastic are landfilled or incinerated each year. These materials take over 450 years to degrade in the natural environment. Because they can never biodegrade, they photodegrade which means the sun breaks the material into harmful microplastics.

Sea Pollution

18 billion pounds of plastic flow into the ocean each year. Unfortunately, most of the larger pieces of plastic break down into harmful microplastics. Microplastics threaten wildlife because animals mistake the plastic for food and eat it.

THE SOLUTION

Soleic™ Technology

Three world-class scientists from UC San Diego, along with a team of PhD students and Post-doctoral fellows, worked for over 5 years to develop Soleic™, a fully biodegradable polyurethane plastic made from plants.

Dr. Stephen Mayfield, PhD,
Molecular Biology

Dr. Michael Burkart, PhD,
Organic Chemistry

Dr. Skip Pomeroy, PhD,
Analytical Chemistry


With support and funding from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, we were able to develop polyurethanes (PU) with the same high performance as petroleum PU, but that were biologically sourced and biodegradable. Introducing Soleic™ technology.

HOW DOES THIS ALL WORK

1 The crude petroleum oil we dig up out of the ground, is simply ancient fossil algae oil

2 Since algae oil is similar to petroleum, we can use algae oil as the raw material to manufacture polyurethane monomers that are similar to petroleum monomers

3 Algae oils can be extracted from living algae, that can be grown on land not needed for farming

4 Algae grown to produce oils, trap carbon dioxide, whereas petroleum oils emit carbon dioxide

5 Algae is a renewable oil resource, meaning it grows like any plant

6 Algae oil can be used to make products just like petroleum oil

7 Polymer materials built from algae or other plants can be designed to biodegrade

STEPS WE TOOK

Our Process

01

Raw Materials

We get algae oil and other raw materials from our algae growing partners and other biological sources

02

Bioplastic

We engineer these raw materials into custom bioplastic at the molecular level in our labs at UCSD

03

Design

We design the molecules so that the chemical bonds can be broken by micro-organisms that exist
in nature

04

Product

Once we have stable bioplastic in the lab, we design products using these materials that still meet the performance specifications of petroleum polymers

05

Algae Surfboards

We made an algae surfboard and it went viral—it was really popular

06

Soft Foams

Shoe companies then contacted us to help them produce soft foams for midsoles

07

Performance

We experimented with our formulas until they met strict performance specifications for our brand partners

08

Fully Biodegradable

Currently our foams are 52% bio-content, but we have a clear path to foams that will be 98% bio-content. All of our foams are fully biodegradable.