Cargill and Materia, Inc. have announced the expansion of a development agreement for Cargill's use of Materia's proprietary olefin metathesis technology for converting biobased oils to industrial chemicals, feedstocks and consumer products. The agreement provides Cargill with an expanded field and exclusive license while providing Materia increased funding for accelerated research. Specific terms were not disclosed. The original agreement, announced in Sept. 2003, was based on a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant for ethenolysis development that will continue. Progress achieved through the grant has encouraged both companies to expand the commercial and technical scope of their work.

For more information, visit http://www.material-inc.com or http://www.cargill.com.