Amyris, a leading synthetic biotechnology company headquartered in the United States of America, executed a binding term sheet for the acquisition of Gen Z-focused beauty brand, EcoFabulous Cosmetics. The acquisition furthers Amyris’s growth and market leadership in clean beauty and complements Amyris’s family of consumer brands, consisting of Biossance®, Pipette®, Rose Inc., JVN, Terasana, and Costa Brazil.
UPM Plywood, Arctic Astronautics and Huld are ready to launch the first ever wooden satellite, WISA WOODSATTM, into Earth’s orbit by the end of 2021.
WISA Woodsat will go where no wood has gone before. With a mission to gather data on the behavior and durability of plywood over an extended period in the harsh temperatures, vacuum and radiation of space in order to assess the use of wood materials in space structures.
“I think the overall policy framework is clear about the strategic role of bio-based industries in achieving the EU sustainability objectives. There is also clarity about the direction of EU support in the coming decade.” Philippe Mengal, executive director of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking talks to Il Bioeconomista.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
European oil giant Shell joined as an investor in LanzaJet to advance the Illinois-based company’s global growth, accelerate commercialization of its technology, and scale the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Shell joined founding investors in LanzaJet, including LanzaTech, Suncor Energy Inc., Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and more recently, British Airways, as well as participation from All Nippon Airways. In addition to its initial investment in LanzaJet and similar to the phased investment approach used with all of the LanzaJet investors, Shell will have the opportunity to make further investments in the construction of larger-scale production facilities over the coming years.
“Simplification of the European regulatory framework could also go a long way toward accelerating and promoting the circular bioeconomy surge.“ Nicolas Sordet, founder and CEO of AFYREN, talks to Il Bioeconomista. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in France, AFYREN collected more than €70 million funding in 2019, which allows the company to grow from a pilot stage to industrial-scale production.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Afyren and Südzucker reached an unprecedented long-term agreement on the supply of sugar beet co-products as feedstock for Afyren Neoxy, the zero-waste, low-carbon biorefinery that will begin producing seven 100% biobased organic acids at industrial scale in early 2022. The partnership is in accordance with both companies’ sustainability strategies. Using these co- products to produce bio-based organic acids provides a high level of revalorization and does not affect the food chain.
Novamont, a world leader in the world bioplastics market headquartered in Novara (Italy), and Italian utility Iren signed a three-year collaboration agreement in the field of integrated waste collection systems, the aim of which is to reduce non-recyclable waste at source and fully implement the objectives of the circular bioeconomy.
The two companies have agreed to develop specific projects for the optimised management of compostable products and packaging, to be recycled and recovered together with the organic fraction of solid municipal waste in Iren’s treatment plants.
Braskem is expanding its production capacity of green ethylene, the main feedstock derived from sugarcane ethanol which is used in the production of renewable resins. These materials can therefore claim to capture CO2, a greenhouse gas. This raw material is produced at the company’s plant in Triunfo, Rio Grande do Sul, whose capacity will be increased from the current 200 kton/year to 260 kton/year. The expansion project, budgeted at US$61 million, will be rolled out in 2021 and should be concluded in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Univar Solutions Inc., a global chemical and ingredient distributor and provider of value-added services, and Novozymes, the world leader in biological solutions, signed an agreement, effective April 1, to expand the existing partnership into the U.S. and Canadian homecare, industrial cleaning, and beverages markets. The ongoing and expanding relationship between the two companies demonstrates a shared commitment to providing customers with a portfolio of ingredients designed to help improve product performance and enable solutions that have the potential to bring more sustainable products to the homecare, industrial cleaning and beverages markets through better performing formulations.
DMC Biotechnologies has successfully demonstrated full commercial scale (85m3 fermentation at EW Biotech, Germany) for its first product, the amino acid L-alanine. The scale-up results identically tracked the performance at bench and pilot scales, further validating the predictability and scalability of DMC’s Dynamic Metabolic Control technology, inform the US company. Importantly, commercial performance metrics were demonstrated, meaning that no further strain improvements are required to achieve the target selling price.
