LanzaTech receives a $4 million award to build a demonstration plant for low carbon fuels

Jennifer Holmgren, Ceo of Lanzatech
Jennifer Holmgren, Ceo of Lanzatech

US carbon recycling company LanzaTech has been selected by the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) to receive a $4 million award to design and plan a demonstration-scale facility using industrial off gases to produce 3 million gallons/year of low carbon jet and diesel fuels. The facility will recycle industrial waste gases from steel manufacturing to produce a low cost ethanol intermediate “Lanzanol”. Both Lanzanol and cellulosic ethanol will then be converted to jet fuel via the “Alcohol to Jet” (ATJ) process developed by LanzaTech and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

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2016: a great year for Il Bioeconomista. Thank you and happy 2017!

happy-new-year-2017-images-1024x576Dear Readers,

thank you very much, again. 2016 was another great year for Il Bioeconomista: 14% more visits to our blog. This shows us how the bioeconomy is increasingly a phenomenon that attracts the attention of global public opinion and gratifies us as journalists, observers of a reality that we have always defined as the industrial revolution of the Third Millennium.

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UK bioeconomy supports over 5 million jobs. An interview with Margaret Smallwood, CEO BioVale

BioVale Steering Group. Margaret Smallwood is the fourth from the right. Copyright BioVale
BioVale Steering Group. Margaret Smallwood is the fourth from the right. Copyright BioVale

“In 2015 the UK Government published its first report demonstrating how important the bioeconomy is to the UK. They commissioned a second report in 2016, ‘Evidencing the bioeconomy’, which estimated the bioeconomy generated £220bn in Gross Value Added and supported over five million jobs in the UK”. Margaret Smallwood, CEO of BioVale, an innovation cluster supporting development of the bioeconomy in Yorkshire and the Humber, talks to Il Bioeconomista. In this exclusive interview she talks about the bioeconomy in UK after Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as US President.

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

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Ken Richards, the Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEO 2016, talks to Il Bioeconomista

mcpartners-160602-51-copy1“It is great recognition of where Leaf has got to in the bioeconomy in a very short space of time. It is also recognition of our compelling technology.” Ken Richards, CEO of Leaf Resources, who has been voted by our readers as the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2016, talks to Il Bioeconomista.

In this interview Richards talks about the achievements of its company, its team and the Australian bioeconomy.

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

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NexSteppe expands in South Africa

Anna Rath, founder and Ceo of NexSteppe
Anna Rath, founder and Ceo of NexSteppe

The South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has approved four NexSteppe sorghum hybrids for commercial sale in country. Approved hybrids include both Malibu sweet sorghum and Palo Alto biomass sorghum hybrids. NexSteppe is a US company dedicated to pioneering the next generation of scalable, reliable, cost-effective and sustainable feedstock solutions for the biofuels, biopower, biogas and biobased products industries.

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A EU project for efficient algae cultivation integrated into wastewater treatment

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Pilot glasshouse for algae production, Budapest Sewage Works Ltd
We received and publish with pleasure this contribution by a project consortium coordinated by Miklós Gyalai-Korpos at PANNON Pro Innovations Ltd. about a project that develops protocol and operational strategy for efficient algae cultivation in wastewater treatment using the leachate of sludge dewatering and flue gas.

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Ken Richards, CEO of Leaf Resources, is the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2016

Our readers have voted Ken Richards as the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2016
Our readers have voted Ken Richards as the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2016

Our readers have voted: the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2016 is Ken Richards, CEO of Leaf Resources, the Australian company focused on making sustainable products from plant biomass.

We heartily congratulate him on this important recognition and sincerely thank our readers for the great participation in the survey. Our blog has seen a boom of visits in these two days. The bioeconomy revolution is a reality thanks to visionary managers like Ken Richards, the other nine selected along with Richards in the list of the 10 most innovative bioeconomy CEOs and to all those who in different roles contribute to research, develop and commercialize new bio-based products.

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The 10 Most Innovative Bioeconomy Chief Executive Officers in 2016

imageThe bioeconomy is innovation, the result of the skills and passion of researchers and managers able to create value and new high-qualified jobs. At the end of 2014 Il Bioeconomista launched a new initiative: The 10 Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEOs.

We have asked a panel of world bioeconomy experts to tell us the Chief Executive Officers that have stood out as the most innovative during the last year. This year we want to engage our readers, asking you to choose the most innovative CEO responding to our survey.

This is the result in 2016 (in alphabetical order)

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Tetra Pak launched a new package that boasts up to 17% lower carbon footprint

Tetra Pak's headquarter in Sweden
Tetra Pak’s headquarter in Sweden

Tetra Pak launched a new version of Tetra Brik® Aseptic 1000 Edge with Bio-based LightCap 30. This is the first aseptic carton package in the world to receive the highest class of Vinçotte certification for its use of renewable materials.

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Leaf Resources and Novozymes join forces in the conversion of biomass to functional sugars

Ken Richards, managing director of Leaf Resources
Ken Richards, managing director of Leaf Resources

Leaf Resources, the Australian company which is focused on making sustainable products from plant biomass, today announced a collaboration with Novozymes, the world’s largest producer of industrial enzymes, to further increase the yields and efficiency associated with Leaf Resources’ innovative biomass conversion technology, Glycell, which is a unique combination of well-established process engineering and advanced chemistry.

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