ENI goes green. Oil giant reached an agreement with labour unions and Sicilian authorities on upgrading its oil refinery near the town of Gela to make it environmentally friendly. Under the deal ENI will invest 2.2 billion euros in the 60-year-old refinery to make it eco-friendly.
Renewable Matter. This is the name of a new International magazine dedicated to the bioeconomy and circular economy, published by Edizioni Ambiente, the leading Italian publisher on green issues. Available in an online edition, as well as in print edition, the magazine – which this month celebrates its first release – will be published bi-monthly.
The opportunities for the forest sector in the transition to a bioeconomy, the challenges it faces and its essential contribution to combating climate change was discussed at the high-level seminar “Forests and the bioeconomy: future steps” organised by the ThinkForest forum at the European Parliament in Brussels on 13 November.
The Eurozone economy expanded by 0.2 percent in the third quarter, official data showed Friday, a slight acceleration that will do little to quell fears that a sluggish Europe is hurting world growth, Agence France-Press reported.
Last Tuesday, Norwegian – the second largest airline in Scandinavia and the third largest low-cost airline in Europe with approximately 4500 employees – carried out its first ever flight with biofuel. Norwegian’s flight DY631 from Bergen to Oslo took off with almost 50 percent biofuel; a flight that emits over 40 percent less than an average flight with regular fuel.
Perstorp, the world leader in ε-polycaprolactones (PCL) technology, marketed under the Capa brand, is stepping up its investment into the fast growing bioplastics market. “World demand is expected to continue to grow at over 20% pa for the foreseeable future, and Capa Thermoplastics are already playing a vital role in enhancing biopolymer performance and biodegradability across a range of bioplastic applications”, Swedish company writes in a note.
The European Union will need a new political framework for rolling out its bio-based economy by 2020 at the latest. The existing framework does not create sufficient market pull for implementing innovative, bio-based technologies. To say it are Michael Carus, Lara Dammer and Roland Essel in the latest policy paper of nova-Institute “Options for Designing a New Political Framework of the European Bio-based Economy – nova-Institute’s contribution to the current debate”.
Reverdia, the joint venture between Royal DSM and Roquette Frères, has earned the USDA Certified Biobased Product Label for its Biosuccinium bio-succinic acid. The USDA Certified Biobased Product Label verifies that the product’s amount of renewable biobased ingredients meets or exceeds levels set by US Department of Agriculture.
Enerkem Inc., a Canadian waste-to-biofuels and chemicals producer, last week signed an agreement with Qingdao City Construction Investment Group Co. Ltd., to develop a project partnership to jointly build a municipal solid waste-to-biofuels facility in Qingdao, China. In this new project partnership, Enerkem will license its exclusive technology to convert local urban waste from China into biofuels and chemicals.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released a comprehensive report synthesizing current literature that explores opportunities in the emerging bioeconomy. The report, entitled “Why Biobased?”, was created as a precursor for a more comprehensive economic study to be released in the coming months by the USDA BioPreferred program on the economic impacts of the biobased products industry.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 