Why the Department of War Is Backing Visolis to Scale Bio-Based Solvents

Why the Department of War Is Backing Visolis to Scale Bio-Based Solvents

While much of synthetic biology has focused on high-margin products, Visolis is building its business in factories, refineries, and maintenance depots that underpin modern infrastructure. The company is demonstrating that biology’s greatest impact may come from displacing petroleum for fuels, materials, and chemicals that are critical to defense and industry.

That view received a strong nod from the U.S. Department of War, which expanded Visolis’ award under the Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program by $2.86 million, bringing the company’s total DBIMP funding to more than $5 million. The expansion funding supports scale up of a non-toxic, bio-based solvent designed to replace hazardous legacy chemicals used in maintaining aircraft landing gear with a better and safer alternative.

“This award expansion reflects continued confidence in our technology and its relevance to critical defense manufacturing needs,” said Deepak Dugar, founder and CEO of Visolis. “With more than $5 million in total DBIMP support, we are able to accelerate scale up of a safer, domestically produced solvent that addresses real operational challenges while strengthening U.S. bioindustrial manufacturing capacity.”

The DBIMP award is part of a broader $60.2 million Department of Defense effort to rebuild domestic capacity across fabrication, firepower, fitness, food, and fuel. For Visolis, the relevance is practical and immediate. Its solvent technology enables safer removal of coatings from aircraft landing gear, improving inspection quality while significantly reducing exposure to toxic chemicals.

“Through Phase 1 of the DBIMP program, we validated both the defense relevance of the technology and its technical performance, which now exceeds incumbent products while maintaining a safer profile for workers and the environment,” said Dugar. “As a result, we now have a clear path to securing an alpha commercial customer for our novel, non-toxic solvent, along with a line of sight to a domestic commercial production site.”

At the core of Visolis’ platform is a hybrid approach that combines biology and chemistry, each used where it performs best. The company engineers microbes to ferment biomass into mevalonic acid (MEV), a versatile platform molecule. Chemical catalysis then converts MEV into products including isoprene, sustainable aviation fuel, and specialty solvents. This allows Visolis to move efficiently across multiple large markets without reinventing the process for each new product.

Beyond defense applications, Visolis has steadily built credibility with major industrial partners. The company collaborates with Zeon Corporation to commercialize bio-isoprene monomers and sustainable aviation fuel, including plans toward a commercial-scale production facility.

What distinguishes Visolis is not just that its products are greener, but that they are designed to slot into existing industrial systems with key benefits across health and supply chain resilience. MEV is non-toxic, biodegradable, and shippable, enabling distributed manufacturing that reduces geopolitical risk and dependence on centralized refineries.

If synthetic biology is to remake the economy, Visolis offers a good example. Start with molecules that matter, engineer for scale from day one, and tie innovation directly to national priorities. In doing so, the company is not just making sustainable alternatives to petroleum, but helping define what a secure, bio-based industry could look like.