Centennial, CO, January 17, 2012 – Penford Corporation, 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,” 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.”

About Penford
Penford Corporation is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: PENX ‐ 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 costeffectively
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.

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