Founded in 2013 as an early leader in AI and machine learning applications, Citrine Informatics is a proprietary software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform enabling materials optimization and discovery across the specialty chemicals and performance materials industry.
How have you changed the chemical industry as an early adopter of AI?
We started the company in 2013 as a group of three material scientists. I was the experimental guy in the lab mixing things. We brought machine learning and AI into the chemicals world to help companies innovate materials faster, and started Citrine to improve performance, costs and sustainability. We have removed toxic ingredients like forever chemicals, developed biodegradable plastics and made processes more energy-efficient to reduce emissions. We believe every company wants to be more sustainable and that people are not environmental supervillains at heart–they just need better choices.
What were some early breakthroughs?
When we started out, conceptions of AI were very different from what they are now. Nobody had anything like ChatGPT on their radar, and people were skeptical that machines could build on 30 years of experience in an industry. Early on, we came in with software and helped customers do everything. One of our first projects led to a totally new class of thermoelectric materials–semiconductor materials that absorb heat and emit electricity for cooling, such as in silent wine fridges. These unexpected discoveries showed scientists and engineers the power of AI to change perspectives in a big way. We also helped HRL Labs, owned by GM and Boeing, to develop the first 3D-printable aluminum alloy for aerospace. Traditionally, 3D-printing created weak, cracked aluminum–we modified the material to maintain its strength. Initially, three alloys were legal in the U.S. for aerospace parts; HRL used Citrine to invent all three.
How have government partnerships influenced the company’s trajectory?
The HRL project was unclassified, and allowed us to build capabilities to work with the government in addition to big commercial companies. The government expresses its needs and priorities through its programs. Government programs want something revolutionary, and they are willing to pay for it and take risks. Early in our company’s life we did a lot of work in sustainability and energy–batteries and solar panels. Those technologies continue to be good business for us whether or not the government is sponsoring them. Our government work now lays the groundwork for what our commercial products can do in the future and helps us push the frontiers of possibility and test whether people can use our system to develop critical new materials for defense or energy.
How does the new “chemically aware” Citrine Informatics platform work?
When we say the platform is chemically aware, we mean it understands atoms and molecular structures from the outset. In the materials world, there is a tetrahedron of process, property and performance. How all three affect each other can capture steps that seem minor but strongly affect performance. I always use baking as an example. If you use different flour or oven temperature you get a different result.
Our system analyzes interconnections in the entire materials process history and can broaden as few as 25 or 50 data points to explore entire space, enabling new materials development while optimizing what exists with varying inputs. Customers call, wanting this product to be 5% better in this way and 10% better in that way, or else they will suffer a 2% loss in this other way. Our system is very good at tailoring and configuring the system to companies’ specific needs. Often, people refer to the Coke recipe as one of the best kept secrets on Earth. Clients put formulas like this into our platform and entrust us with them regularly to figure out improvements.
What global forces have been driving demand for sustainable solutions?
The chemicals industry is changing because of regulatory requirements, performance demands and cost pressures. Tariffs and geopolitical events are realigning supply chains like never before. Companies are completely changing their inputs and most everybody around the world now wants to make their materials domestically. The U.S. has a ton of critical minerals under the ground, but extracting and refining them is expensive. The global economy has historically relied on countries with low labor costs and low environmental regulation to do this. Now, amid consumer preferences for sustainable products, companies and governments are investing in cleaner, safer but still cheaper means of extraction to feel good about opening facilities in North America, Australia or Europe. We help clients find more efficient chemistries that get more out of ore to take less out of the ground. We also work to lower the impact of cosmetics and personal care products, which is interesting – removing Vaseline from lotion while maintaining a good product is hard to do.
Another solution is the BioMADE public-private partnership for biological cement. We use a bacterium that attaches itself to soil and add urea and calcium chloride–basically, table salt. The calcium breaks off, and the bacteria consume the urea and the calcium chloride, producing calcium carbonate crystals, a hardener that increases surface strength. The result is a temporary material trucks can drive over. Since the cement is made of naturally occurring compounds, all you need to do when you are done with it is till the soil.
How do you view the role of AI now?
Human-computer symbiosis is a strong improvement over a computer or human alone. Materials companies care most about consistency–AI can quickly analyze variations and recommend adjustments to deliver this quickly to customers.
The world is changing faster than ever and AI is a long lever to make the industry more efficient and exciting than ever. We need new material, and can use AI as a very talented lab partner to give us more choices to test and prove as we always have.
