LanzaTech signed a new multi-year contract with TeselaGen Biotechnology, extending their relationship through 2025. The two companies have been collaborating since 2016 on the informatics behind high-throughput synthetic biology workflows. Over that time, LanzaTech has continued to experience rapid growth, shopping the feasibility to synthesize more than 100 different molecules using its carbon-eating bacteria, and demonstrating the need for a significant scaleup of its R&D operations.
Canadian Enerkem, with a group of strategic partners, that include major investor Shell, along with Suncor and Proman and Hydro-Québec supplying green hydrogen and oxygen, and with the support of the Québec and Canadian governments, will build a biofuel and renewable chemicals plant in Varennes, in the Greater Montréal area.
Varennes Carbon Recycling (VCR) will produce biofuels and renewable chemicals made from non-recyclable residual materials as well as wood waste. The plant will leverage green hydrogen and oxygen produced through electrolysis, transforming Quebec’s excess hydroelectricity capacity into value-added biofuels and renewable chemicals. VCR will be a major creator of quality local direct and indirect jobs during its construction and operation.
ECBF Management GmbH yesterday announced a second closing of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). Reaching €175 million, ECBF has more than doubled its fund-size within two months after starting its operations. ECBF is the first venture fund exclusively focussed on the bioeconomy and circular bioeconomy in Europe. With a targeted fund-size of €250 million, it will be an important financial instrument contributing to the European Green Deal making Europe climate neutral by 2050.
“It is in everyone’s interests for life-sustaining chemicals to be manufactured both safely and reliably. We would argue that it is also extremely important that those chemicals be as sustainable as possible, so that future generations will have a habitable plant to use them on.” Jason Camp, CTO at Circa Group, talks to Il Bioeconomista. The Australia-based company is converting waste biomass into advanced biochemical materials.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Our readers have voted. The most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2020 is Simão Soares, CEO of SilicoLife, the Portuguese company founded in 2010 which designs optimized microorganisms and novel pathways for industrial biotechnology applications. “Based on metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches, the company shortens the development time and costs of new highly effective processes for the production of specific target compounds such as chemicals, food ingredients or biopolymers.” Soares succeeds to Ken Richards (Leaf Resources), Tony Duncan (Circa Group), Jürgen Eck (BRAIN AG) and Alex Michine (MetGen), respectively most innovative CEO 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Green ammonia, produced from renewable energy, is an excellent fuel and fertilizer that can potentially replace significant volumes of fossil fuels and help accelerate the transition to a world powered by renewable energy. A partnership of industry leaders now announces an ambition to realize this potential as soon as in 2022 with the world’s first green ammonia plant at the commercial scale of 10 MW power.
The 2020 that is drawing to a close has been a really tough year for the world population. The pandemic has exposed many of the limitations of our economic and social model. It’s time for a profound change that cannot ignore the circular and sustainable bioeconomy. The circular bioeconomy is innovation, the result of the skills and passion of researchers and managers able to create value and new high-qualified jobs, reconciling economy, society and the environment. 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.
Now we ask you to choose the most innovative CEO responding to our survey (open till December 11 at 7.30 am, Western European Time).
The most innovative CEO 2016 was Ken Richards (CEO of Leaf Resources, Australia)
The most innovative CEO 2017 was Tony Duncan (CEO of Circa Group, Australia)
The most innovative CEO 2018 was Jürgen Eck (CEO of BRAIN AG, Germany)
The most innovative CEO 2019 was Alex Michine (CEO of MetGen, Finland)
This is the result of 2020 (in alphabetical order)
Catia Bastioli, Novamont (Italy)
Veronique de Bruijn, Photanol (Netherlands)
Jennifer Holmgren, LanzaTech (USA)
Matt Lipscomb, DMC Bio (USA)
Christophe Schilling, Genomatica (USA)
Simão Soares, SilicoLife (Portugal)
Marcus Steilemann, Covestro (Germany)
David Sudolsky, Anellotech (USA)
Peter Vanacker, Neste (Finland)
Sytze van Stempvoort, Peelpioneers (Netherlands)
Versalis enters the market for bio-based products in the agriculture sector for the protection of crops. Thanks to an agreement with AlphaBio Control, a research and development company with offices in the United Kingdom and Italy specialised in the production of natural formulations for the protection of crops with its products already known in the pesticides market, Eni’s chemical company will develop bio-based and biodegradable herbicides and also biocides for the disinfection of surfaces, using as active ingredient productions from the bio-chemical platform in Porto Torres, Sardinia.
Perstorp, a global leader in the specialty chemicals market, has developed a production concept to produce methanol from a large variety of recovered end-of-life streams and hydrogen from electrolysis.
“We are hoping that the next US government will take climate change seriously and will take material steps to improve its leadership on the global stage.”
To say it – in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Matt Lipscomb, CEO of DMC Bio, the US company which is producing bio-based chemicals using fermentation.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
IL BIOECONOMISTA 