Name: 揭密改變兆元化學產業的創新新創公司！ (Inside The Startup Reinventing The $6 Trillion Chemical Manufacturing Industry)
Uploaded: 2026-03-22T21:41:07.000Z
Duration: 13 min 8 s

This reactor in Houston, Texas represents a whole new approach to chemical manufacturing.

休士頓，德州的這個反應器代表了化學製造的全新方法。

We make chemicals in a completely new way.

我們用一種全新的方式製造化學品。

We started off by making hydrogen peroxide.

Now we sell products for water treatment, national defense, infrastructure, agriculture.

現在我們販售用於水處理、國防、基礎設施、農業的產品。

任何你想得到的，我們都有相應的化學品。

The story of Soligen is as scrappy as it gets.

Soligen 的故事，就是一個白手起家的最佳範例。

It all started with this prototype built out of PVC pipes the founders bought from Home Depot.

一切都始於這個由創辦人從 Home Depot 買來的 PVC 管組成的原型機。

In its heyday, this did 12,000 bucks a month in revenue.

在全盛時期，這個原型機每個月能創造 12,000 美元的營收。

Soligen is a billion dollar company shipping out tanker trucks of products that power critical US industries.

Soligen 已經是一家兆美元公司，運送槽車的產品，為美國關鍵產業提供動力。

So how did they go from this single beaker of hydrogen peroxide to this full scale manufacturing plant?

他們是怎麼從這一個過氧化氫燒杯，發展成現在這個規模化的生產工廠的呢？

I visited Solugen HQ in Houston, Texas to find.

我到德州休士頓的 Solugen 總部一探究竟。

We use biology to create chemicals that allow us to create smaller chemical plants and have a cleaner, safer, more environmentally friendly footprint.

我們運用生物學來製造化學品，這樣我們就能打造更小的化學工廠，並留下更乾淨、更安全、更環境友善的足跡。

We've invented a process called chemiensomatic processing, where we take the specificity of biology by taking an enzyme and pairing it with a metal catalyst, which is what's traditionally used in industry.

我們發明瞭一種叫做化學酶處理的製程，我們結合了生物學的專一性，透過取得一種酶，並將它與傳統工業使用的金屬催化劑配對。

What we've done with these is by marrying these two, you can actually create more efficient reactions.

透過結合這兩者，你們實際上可以創造出更有效率的反應。

So instead of having a 60% yield, you can have 96% yield, which is what we have at scale precisely because of these two catalysts.

所以，與其有 60% 的產率，你們可以達到 96% 的產率，這正是我們規模化生產的關鍵，全是因為這兩種催化劑。

Cygen is the first company to fuse biology and chemistry in this way.

Cygen 是第一家以這種方式結合生物學和化學的公司。

Pulling enzymes from living cells, in this case corn syrup, and pairing them with novel metal catalysts.

從活細胞中提取酶，在這裡是以玉米糖漿為例，並將它們與新型金屬催化劑配對。

The output is chemicals that can be used in everything from agriculture to skincare.

產生的化學品可以用於從農業到護膚品的各種用途。

Traditionally, chemical plants relied on fossil fuel feedstock, which has led to all kinds of unintended consequences.

傳統上，化學工廠依賴化石燃料原料，這導致了各種意想不到的後果。

This new approach is cleaner, safer, and more efficient.

這種新方法更乾淨、更安全、效率更高。

We receive railcars of corn syrup and then we run our utility system.

我們接收槽車運來的玉米糖漿，然後啟動我們的公用事業系統。

The way that the enzymes are reacting, the way that the metal catalysts are reacting to oxidize the corn syrup how we want.

酶的反應方式，以及金屬催化劑如何反應以按照我們期望的方式氧化玉米糖漿。

We take the final products, we store them in finished good tanks, or we send them to a blend farm to get blended with other chemicals.

我們會將最終產品儲存在成品儲槽中，或者將它們送到混合場與其他化學品混合。

Cyanogen started with a true eureka moment, the kind of freak invention that normally happens only in science fiction.

Cyanogen 的誕生源於一個真正的靈光乍現，這種奇特的發明通常只會發生在科幻小說裡。

Sean was working in the chemicals industry and Gaura was in medical school studying pancreatic cancer.

Sean 當時在化學產業工作，而 Gaura 則在醫學院攻讀胰臟癌。

I was working on this, like, skunk works project to try to do direct hydrogen peroxide synthesis, where you react hydrogen and oxygen gas directly together over a metal catalyst.

我當時正在進行一個實驗性的專案，試圖直接合成過氧化氫，也就是讓氫氣和氧氣在金屬催化劑上直接反應。

And then, you know, I was working on this project, and

然後，你知道的，我正在進行這個專案，

then Gore was like, oh, yeah, no, Like, I found this, like, really crazy mechanism in pancreatic cancer where it's, like, locally 50% hydrogen peroxide concentration.

結果 Gore 說，哦，對，不，就像，我發現了這個，非常瘋狂的胰臟癌機制，那裡，局部過氧化氫濃度高達 50%。

It turned out that an obscure enzyme found in pancreatic cancer cells that Gaurav was studying was the key to a new process for making industrial hydrogen peroxide.

結果發現，Gaurav 研究的胰臟癌細胞中一種不起眼的酶，竟然是製造工業級過氧化氫新製程的關鍵。

So these pancreatic cancer cells, they put out peroxide.

所以這些胰臟癌細胞會釋放出過氧化氫。

Peroxide creates almost like an invisibility cloak around the pancreatic cancer that makes it difficult for immune cells to come in.

過氧化氫會在胰臟癌周圍形成一層幾乎像隱形斗篷的東西，讓免疫細胞難以進入。

It was like, that's a very interesting discovery, but why?

我說，這是個很有趣的發現，但為什麼呢？

And so once we asked the question why, we found out the reason was an enzyme.

當我們問了為什麼之後，我們發現原因是一種酶。

It was just a mutated enzyme that's found only in pancreatic cancer.

這只是一種在胰臟癌中才發現的突變酶。

And so that's when we said, what if the two worlds could collide?

所以那時候我們就想，如果這兩個世界可以結合呢？

What if enzymes and metal catalysts could coexist?

如果酶和金屬催化劑可以共存呢？

Cyagen feeds corn syrup to the enzymes, the same ones from the pancreatic cancer cells, which transform it into new compounds.

Cyagen 將玉米糖漿餵給這些酶，也就是來自胰臟癌細胞的那些酶，它們會將其轉化為新的化合物。

They then use metal catalysts to further process those into the final chemicals that can be used to build all kinds of products we use in our everyday lives.

然後他們使用金屬催化劑進一步處理，製成可以用來打造我們日常生活中各種產品的最終化學品。

In most chemical plants, the feedstock comes from oil and gas, which inevitably produces toxic byproducts.

在大多數化學工廠中，原料來自於石油和天然氣，這不可避免地會產生有毒的副產品。

Solugen 的起始原料其實就是糖。

People believe that anything to do with biology and chemicals, it's just a bad mix because, oh, biology is too sensitive, it's going to break down, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

人們總認為生物學和化學品搭在一起就是個爛組合，因為，噢，生物太脆弱了，它會分解，諸如此類。

But we said, let's suspend that criticism for a second and just look at the numbers and we say, if we can make the enzyme lasts this long on stream and the product is this concentration, we can make a lot of money.

但我們說，不如暫時放下這些批評，只看看數字，如果我們能讓酶在製程中持續這麼久，而且產品濃度達到這樣，我們就能賺大錢。

This insight that organic enzymes could operate at industrial scale and efficiency was the company's first key breakthrough.

有機酶能在工業規模和效率下運作的洞見，是公司第一個關鍵突破。

Today, Cyagen operates both a biology and metals lab, where it produces its own enzymes and metal catalysts in house.

如今，Cyagen 同時營運生物實驗室和金屬實驗室，自家生產酶和金屬催化劑。

所以我們做的是，培養微生物。

We break the bugs open, we take the enzymes and we put them in these reactors and we can stress them out and figure out what they're capable of doing at scale.

我們把微生物打散，取出酶，然後放入這些反應器裡，我們可以對它們施壓，找出它們在大規模生產下能做到什麼。

We have outfitted this with probably some of the best analytics that you can ever have for enzymes, which gives us a good insight into how things will scale.

我們在這裡配備了可能是你能擁有的最頂尖的酶分析設備，這讓我們對規模化有很好的瞭解。

Across from the biology lab is Silagen's metals lab.

生物實驗室的對面就是 Soligen 的金屬實驗室。

But basically now we pair that enzyme with the right metal and so you can basically mix and match which metal and which enzyme you want to pair together.

但基本上，我們現在將酶與合適的金屬配對，所以你可以隨意組合你想配對的金屬和酶。

Their next big insight was a commercial one.

他們下一個重大的洞見是商業上的。

Previous startups that had tried to do something like this all started by raising a huge amount of funding and building a large scale plant.

過去嘗試做類似事情的創投公司，都是先籌集大量資金並建造大型工廠。

They built their first reactor for just $10,000 and then started selling to customers almost immediately.

他們僅用 1 萬美元就建造了第一個反應器，並幾乎立即開始向客戶銷售。

Gradually they scaled up to larger and larger plants.

接著他們逐漸擴大規模到越來越大的工廠。

So you did this techno economic analysis and you're like, wait a second, this could actually work.

所以你做了這項技術經濟分析，然後你會想，等等，這其實是可行的。

So May 2016, we got unofficial second place in the MIT 100k competition.

所以2016年5月，我們在MIT 100k競賽中獲得了非官方的第二名。

I think capital constraint forces very creative thinking because like with 10 grand, like you have a very confined space of what you can afford to buy to try to make the product.

我認為資本限制會迫使人進行非常有創意的思考，因為像是用1萬美元，你會有一個非常有限的空間來決定你能買什麼來試圖製作產品。

And so ours ended up being pvc, like a Walmart shelf.

所以我們的最終成品是PVC，就像沃爾瑪的貨架一樣。

You know, we couldn't even afford the metal catalyst parts.

你知道的，我們甚至買不起金屬催化劑零件。

這就是 Solugen 的第一個反應器。

Yep, this is the first one, complete with Schedule 80 PVC from Home Depot.

對啊，這是第一個，用 Home Depot 的 Schedule 80 PVC 製成的。

This is like a bubble column with a membrane.

Inside there's the liquid with the corn syrup and the enzyme and it's kind of spinning in a loop.

裡面是玉米糖漿和酵素的液體，它會以循環方式旋轉。

Then they're reacting, which makes the peroxide.

然後它們會反應，產生過氧化氫。

And so the membrane keeps the enzyme in the bubble column and then the permeate on the membrane is the peroxide product.

這個膜會把酵素留在氣泡柱裡，膜上的滲透物就是過氧化氫產品。

Armed with just their $10,000 reactor but no customers, Sean and Gorb applied and were accepted into yc, where they deferred a few months and set out to first try and sell the tiny volumes of peroxide they could make.

僅憑著他們 1 萬美元的反應器卻沒有客戶，Sean 和 Gorb 申請並被 yc 錄取，他們推遲了幾個月，並開始嘗試銷售他們能生產的少量過氧化氫。

We made our first product in like September 2016.

我們大約在 2016 年 9 月生產了我們的第一項產品。

我們當時根本買不起任何控制設備，對吧？

We'd come in, in the morning, we would try to get this reactor to a steady state.

我們早上會進來，試著讓這個反應器達到穩定狀態。

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揭密改變兆元化學產業的創新新創公司！ (Inside The Startup Reinventing The $6 Trillion Chemical Manufacturing Industry)

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