(By David Ehrlich) - A licensing deal from Exxon Mobil boosts Sigma’s nanotechnology-based green chemistry offerings in the rubber and polymers space.

New York’s Sigma Chemistry takes the hazard out of hazardous materials in the lab, and now the company has expanded its green chemistry offerings with a license for a new catalyst from Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM).

Founded just five years ago, Sigma’s nanotechnology-based catalysts are already distributed to companies around the world by St. Louis, Mo.-based Sigma-Aldrich (Nasdaq: SIAL), a leading chemical supplier.

Currently, Sigma’s products are mostly used in the pharmaceutical industry, but its catalysts also have applications in environmental remediation, hydrogen production and biofuels.

Sigma’s core products make it safer for labs and industry to use alkali metals, which are very useful in labs and industry, but tend to burst into flames when exposed to moisture or air.

"That danger, and that explosion potential, has limited the use of these reactive metals for a very long time," Michael Lefenfeld, president and CEO of Sigma, told Cleantech.com.

The workarounds for this problem usually involve extra steps that can be costly for industry as well as involve toxic materials.

The exclusive license from Exxon Mobil boosts the company’s offerings in the production of rubber and polymers.

Without Sigma’s technology, handling the metals can be tricky. Lefenfeld gave an example from chemistry class.

"They take a lump of sodium metal that’s usually covered in oil. And they throw it in, usually, what’s too small a container of water," he said.

"And what happens is they drop this too large a chunk of sodium metal in, and you get that big fireball and sort of an explosion because the hydrogen that’s released from it ignites."

The sodium metal produces heat when in contact with water, which ignites the hydrogen.

Sigma’s technology makes an inert, safe to handle powder from the alkali metals and silica gel. The company’s name comes from Si for silicon, G for gel and Na for sodium, an alkali metal.

Exxon Mobil isn’t the only company that’s taken notice of Sigma. Just over the past year, the company completed a Series A funding round from Boston’s Provenance Venture Partners, and was named a Technology Pioneer by Geneva, Switzerland’s World Economic Forum.

The amount of the funding round was not disclosed, but Lefenfeld said it was "several million."

The use of nanotechnology in cleantech got a boost last week as well when Saudi Arabia teamed up with Armonk, N.Y.’s International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) on a new project to look into the tiny technology for desalination, solar power and recyclable materials (see Nanotech gets cleantech boost from IBM, Saudi Arabia).

With the Exxon Mobil deal, Lefenfeld expects Sigma to ramp up production.

"The ability of Sigma to be able to inlicense these catalysts really opens up a very large market in plastics and rubbers," he said, adding that Exxon Mobil has held that market pretty close to home until now.

Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest integrated oil company, is also a major petrochemical producer.

"It would probably be hundreds of metric tons for this material annually once we get it fully into the market," said Lefenfeld.

He said Sigma’s manufacturing facility in Tennessee has the ability to make over a metric ton a day.

In addition to helping make plastics more efficiently, the company’s materials can also safely remove polluting sulfur from petroleum and there are also uses in environmental remediation, biofuels and hydrogen production.

Lefenfeld said hazardous materials are typically destroyed using alkaline metals, but in a liquid ammonia process.

"Ammonia is not an environmentally friendly material," he said, pointing out that to liquify it you have to cool it down to cryogenic temperatures. He said other processes that are done catalytically are done at very high temperatures.

"Our material is the only one that works at room temperature in a very safe, benign fashion."

In biofuels, Sigma’s catalysts are used in drying.

"Ethanol and biofuels typically have to be very water free," said Lefenfeld. "We can dry ethanol almost to 100 percent purity dry."

The company also gets some funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for hydrogen research.

Sigma’s powder catalyst for hydrogen production is benign when exposed to air, making it safe to transfer and store, but reacts and produces hydrogen gas as soon as it comes into contact with water.

Lefenfeld said the material "produces greater than 10 weight percent hydrogen, which exceeds the 2015 DOE requirement."

Instead of putting a tiger in your tank, as the old Exxon ad goes, one day we could be putting in powder.