Business

Reims center of gravity of the world bioeconomy. EFIB 2014 goes to France

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The beautiful cathedral of Reims, France
The beautiful cathedral of Reims, France

EuropaBio and Smithers Rapra, in association with IAR, unveil the highly-anticipated agenda for the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology (EFIB) from 1-2 October 2014 taking place in Reims, the heart of Champagne-Ardenne (France). Committed to creating a forum to address opportunities and challenges for the biobased economy, EFIB is consistent in attracting an unrivalled calibre of speakers from across the fields of both policy and business. This year’s high level plenary includes a French ministerial address from this year’s host nation, complemented by the European Commission’s take on the future of the European biobased economy. Followed by a discussion on shale gas and how it is impacting investments and market development in petrochemical and biobased value chains, featuring representatives from Shell and European Bioplastics.

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Addax Bioenergy starts sugarcane bioethanol and power production in Sierra Leone

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Bioethanol project in Sierra Leone
Bioethanol project in Sierra Leone

Addax Bioenergy, a sugarcane-based renewable energy company, announced that its facility in Makeni, Sierra Leone, has started producing sugarcane bioethanol and renewable electricity. The company will produce 85,000 m3 of bioethanol per year by end 2016. The pioneering project involves the development of a Greenfield 10,000 hectare sugarcane plantation, the construction of a bioethanol refinery and a biomass-fuelled co-generation plant to produce green power and contribute about 20% of Sierra Leone’s national electricity requirements. It has been developed in partnership with eight Development Finance Institutions, and is the only bioethanol project to be brought to financial close in Africa.

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Invista launches bio-based Lycra

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Headquarter of Invista in Wichita, Kansas

Invista, one of the world’s largest integrated producers of polymers and fibers, and owner of the Lycra brand, introduces the only commercial offering of a bio-derived spandex available globally and for use in a wide variety of apparel fabrics and garments. Approximately 70% by weight of the new Lycra bio-derived spandex fiber comes from a renewable source made from dextrose derived from corn. The use of a renewable feedstock in the making of this new Lycra bio-derived fiber results in a lower CO2 emissions footprint than spandex produced using traditional raw materials.

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The upcoming elections are crucial for the future of the bioeconomy in the European Union

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European Parliament, Brussels
European Parliament, Brussels

From Thursday to Sunday we European Union citizens will be called to elect a new parliament. These elections are important, not only because for the first time will decide who will lead the European Commission. But mostly because the next 5 years represent a crucial point to understand whether the European Union will remain nothing more than a geographical expression (as Metternich called Italy in the Nineteenth century, before its Unification), or will be able to achieve a common economic and monetary policy, and with it a tax policy, a labor policy, etc. In one word: Policies.

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Tetra Pak: “All of the packages we produce in Brazil are now bio-based”

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Tetra Pak Headquarter in Lund (Sweden)
Tetra Pak Headquarter in Lund (Sweden)

Tetra Pak, the world leader in food processing and packaging solutions, headquartered in Sweden, announced that all of the packages it produces in Brazil are now using bio-based low-density polyethylene (LDPE). ​​Combined with paperboard, the use of bio-based LDPE made from sugar cane increases the content of materials from renewable sources to as much as 82% in a Tetra Brik Aseptic​ 1000ml Base package, the world’s best selling carton package range for beverages.​​

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Dyadic launched a new enzyme to enhance paper and textile quality

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South Australian Forest

Dyadic International, a global biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of enzymes and other proteins for the bioenergy, bio-based chemicals, biopharmaceutical, food and feed industries, announced that it has launched Fibrezyme® G4, a high performance cellulase enzyme product designed to enhance paper and textile quality, while improving the economics of our customers’ manufacturing processes.

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Exclusive interview with Jukka Kantola, NISCluster: EU policies for the use of biomass are short-sighted

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“At the moment focus in European policies is to endorse biomass utilization for the energy applications. This is short-sighted, as on those applications biomass does not bring the best added value. Also there is not enough biomass in Europe to meet up all energy and climate target in EU-level. Biomass is more valuable on chemical and material applications”. To say it, in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista, is Jukka Kantola, CEO of NISCluster, a Finnish private bioeconomy company with a focus on the woody biomass. With Kantola we talk about the bioeconomy in Finland, the EU policies and the different uses of biomass.

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

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Air travel is more biobased: Lufthansa will test Gevo’s isobutanol-derived jet fuel

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Air travel is more bio-based. Gevo, Inc., the world’s only commercial producer of renewable isobutanol, announced last Tuesday that it has come to an agreement with Lufthansa to evaluate Gevo’s renewable jet fuel with the goal of approving Gevo’s alcohol-to-jet fuel (ATJ) for commercial aviation use. Lufthansa’s testing is being supported through work with the European Commission. 

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US study: biofuels from the leftovers of harvested corn plants worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term

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US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz

“Removal of corn residue for biofuels can decrease soil organic carbon  and increase CO2 emissions because residue C in biofuels is oxidized to CO2 at a faster rate than when added to soil. Net CO2 emissions from residue removal are not adequately characterized in biofuel life cycle assessment”. A $500,000 study – paid for by the U.S. federal government and released last Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change – concludes that biofuels made with corn residue release 7% more greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional gasoline.

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Bio-based chemicals: Rivertop Renewables has raised $26 million from Cargill and others investors

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Missoula, Montana: here is located the headquarter of Rivertop
Missoula, Montana: here is located the headquarter of Rivertop

Rivertop Renewables, a U.S. producer of novel chemicals derived from natural plant sugars, based in Montana, has raised $26 million from Cargill (an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services), First Green Partners (an enterprise focused on commercializing advanced technologies in the carbon value chain) and existing investors.

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