Penford and Novomer Enter into Joint Development Agreement

Penford and Novomer will Partner to Drive Development and Commercialization of Innovative Sustainable Packaging Materials

CENTENNIAL, Colorado - 01/17/2012 — (CRWENEWSWIRE)– Penford Corporation, (NASDAQ:PENX), a company with significant business and expertise in specialty starches and sustainable bio-products and Novomer Inc., a new materials company pioneering a family of high-performance plastics and polymers using renewable feedstocks such as carbon dioxide, announce that they have entered into a Joint Development Agreement that will leverage the two companies’ core technologies and expertise.

The new alliance was created to accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative Starch-Polypropylene Carbonate polymer composites. Unmodified starch use has been limited due to inherent performance characteristics but has long been targeted as a cost effective, renewable material for a broad range of packaging applications. When modified, specialty starches can be compatible with other polymers to extend the use and modify the properties of those polymers for targeted uses. Polypropylene Carbonate (PPC), a thermoplastic polymer composed of nearly 50% by weight of waste CO2, has superior mechanical and barrier properties and a chemical backbone that is compatible and likely synergistic with specialty modified starch. It is anticipated that the creation of starch-PPC composites will yield low cost, environmentally sustainable packaging polymers suitable for the multi-billion dollar global packaging materials market.

“This is an exciting opportunity to further expand our efforts to develop and commercialize cost effective, sustainable bio-products,� said Penford’s Director of Business Development, Michael Friesema. Adding to this, Dr. Wallace Kunerth, Penford’s Chief Science Officer, said, “Novomer’s expertise in sustainable polymers combined with Penford’s expertise in specialty starch based formulations provide an opportunity to create highly-functional, cost-effective, and renewable thermoplastics to extend or replace petroleum based plastics in barrier films and structured articles.�

“Governments and companies, especially those in packaged goods markets around the globe, continue to place a heavy emphasis on initiatives aimed at reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere and creating alternatives to petroleum based plastics,â€� said Peter Shepard, Executive Vice President of Novomer. “We believe that the combination of Novomer’s extensive PPC technology with Penford’s lower cost, renewable specialty starch products will create truly novel and cost effective packaging materials and a new avenue to address these market needs.â€�

About Penford

Penford Corporation is a publicly traded company (www.penford.com) that develops, manufactures and markets specialty ingredients for a variety of industrial and food applications. Products include a broad line of modified starches for paper and packaging, biofuels, sustainable bio-products to displace petroleum-based chemicals and specialty food ingredients. Penford has seven manufacturing and/or research locations in the United States.

About Novomer

Novomer (www.novomer.com) is a revolutionary new materials company pioneering a family of low-cost, high-performance, sustainable plastics, polymers and other chemicals. Based on the pioneering catalyst work of Dr. Geoff Coates at Cornell University, Novomer’s groundbreaking technology allows carbon dioxide and other renewable feedstocks to be cost-effectively transformed into polymers, plastics and commodity chemicals for a wide variety of industrial markets. The company is partnered with equity investors Flagship Ventures, Physic Ventures, OVP Venture Partners and DSM Venturing and has received significant financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and the State of New York.

The statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that represent management’s beliefs and assumptions based on currently available information. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “believes,� “may,� “will,� “looks,� “should,� “could,� “anticipates,� “expects,� or comparable terminology or by discussions of strategies or trends. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot give any assurances that these expectations will prove to be correct. Such statements by their nature involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect expected results. Actual future results could differ materially from those described in such forward-looking statements, and the Company does not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are the risks and uncertainties discussed in this release and those described from time to time in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission which include, but are not limited to: competition; the possibility of interruption of business activities due to equipment problems, accidents, strikes, weather or other factors; product development risk; changes in corn and other raw material prices and availability; the Company’s inability to comply with the terms of instruments governing the Company’s debt or preferred stock; changes in general economic conditions or developments with respect to specific industries or customers affecting demand for the Company’s products, including unfavorable shifts in product mix; unanticipated costs, expenses or third party claims; interest rate, chemical and energy cost volatility; changes in returns on pension plan assets and/or assumptions used for determining employee benefit expense and obligations; unforeseen developments in the industries in which Penford operates; and other factors described in the “Risk Factors� section in reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source: Penford Corporation

Contact:
Penford Corporation
Steven O. Cordier, 303-649-1900
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
steve.cordier@penx.com

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