ICL Innovation
ICL Innovation Focus Areas
ICL’s Technology Incubator seeks innovative early-stage technologies, novel materials and cost-effective production processes, suitable for ICL companies to incorporate into their product lines. The searched areas include Agriculture- commodities and specialty fertilizers, Food Additives, Advanced Additives, Flame Retardants, Biocides, Energy and Specialty Chemicals.
ICL Technology Incubator’s interest is mainly in chemical technologies and innovations, that correlate with ICL's core activities, that make use of ICL's primary source materials, and/or that represent ingenious approaches to address the challenges faced by ICL companies.
Read MoreReducing biocides with the help of signaling molecules
Biofilm formation is a major challenge in water systems. In particular, this issue arises in relation to industrial water, where biofilm grows on heat exchangers and compromises heat transfer. Industrial systems with high organic content are particularly susceptible to biofilm formation.
One such industry which suffers from this phenomena is the pulp and paper industry (which is therefore the first target market for this project). ICL has been supplying biocides to the pulp and paper industry for years.
In recent years, representatives of this industry approached ICL Innovation with the need for a synergist to the ICL biocides that would be able to penetrate the well-protected biofilm structures and significantly improve the biocides efficiency. Typically, biocides applied in common dosages cannot penetrate biofilms, but only kill the external bacterial layers.
This demonstrates the efficiency of biofilms in preventing external attacks, and is the reason why biofilms evolved in the first place. It is a tight mesh of proteins, polysaccharides, genetic material, inorganic minerals that form an exoskeleton, and a complex matrix of materials, living and dead cells.
Following a concentrated technology scouting effort, ICL Innovation contacted one of the leading researchers in biofilm study. He suggested the use of a signaling molecule, which signals bacteria in the colony to shift from a “biofilm” phenotype to a planktonic phenotype. This signaling molecule developed through evolution to allow bacterial colonies to grow to their maximum size possible, taking into account food availability, water ductways and other factors. When the colony reaches its maximum size, the molecule signals some of the outer bacteria to disperse and move away in order to find another location to colonize. Introducing a synthetic signaling molecule interferes with the normal communication between bacteria cells and urges them to leave the protected biofilm environment, making them vulnerable to biocide attacks.
Unlike biodispersants, the amounts of signaling molecules required are miniscule, in the parts-per-billion scale. Another advantage of signaling molecules is that they can be used in segments of the industrial process where biocides are not allowed, such as in biological reactors. They do not stain or bleach, as some biocides do. They also do not have any biocidal properties on their own.
The proof of concept project was concluded successfully in ICL Innovation in 2018, and has since gone through additional optimization in the TAMI/IMI ICL research center. The project has now reached the verge of initial sales and the material will hopefully be the basis for a number of related products for different industries.
