Business

OMV and AustroCel joined forces in the second-generation bioethanol field

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A bioethanol plant

“Austria’s first plant for the production of second-generation bioethanol is now up and running in Hallein and we have started our trailblazing cooperation with OMV. With our advanced biofuels, we are taking a responsible approach to resources and helping to reduce fossil fuel use. We will continue to pursue our long-term strategy of ‘Green AustroCel’, uniting sustainability and economic success”, said Jörg Harbring, CEO of AustroCel Hallein.

The first successful trial delivery of advanced bioethanol marks the start of the long-term cooperation between OMV, the integrated, international oil, gas and petrochemicals company headquartered in Vienna, and AustroCel Hallein GmbH. The Hallein-based bioethanol plant has an annual capacity of up to 35 million liters, making it the world’s largest bioethanol plant based on wood. In the first year AustroCel Hallein will already supply more than 1.5 million liters per month of second-generation bioethanol to OMV. With this, the cooperation partners are contributing to climate protection. 

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UPM Biochemicals grows lignin business with new Domtar Paper supply agreement

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Biofore Concept Car. Full rights owned by UPM. Photographer: Sami Kulju

UPM and the US-based pulp and paper producer Domtar Paper Company LLC signed an agreement for UPM to acquire the total annual kraft lignin production of Domtar’s Plymouth Mill in North Carolina, USA as of January 2021. This step enables UPM to expand its role in the growing lignin business and different application segments.

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Welcome 2021: we want you to be the year of the real turning point

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2020 has been a terrible year. And there is certainly no need to say why. The pandemic has clearly shown how urgent it is to solve the climate crisis and move towards a more sustainable economic and social model. Our liberal democracies and our community spirit have also been severely tested.

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LanzaTech and TeselaGen Biotechnology signed a multi-year contract

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Jennifer Holmgren, Ceo of LanzaTech

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.

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Canada goes green with Enerkem in the Greater Montréal area

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Enerkem Varenne

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.

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ECBF raised €93 million from private and public investors for its second closing

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Michael Brandkamp, Head of ECBF, at IFIB 2020 in Rome

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. 

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An interview with Jason Camp, CTO at Circa Group

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“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

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Simão Soares, CEO of SilicoLife, is the Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEO 2020

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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.

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Danish partnership sets out to build world’s first commercial-scale green ammonia plant

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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.

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The 10 Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEOs in 2020. Now choose the number 1

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“Bioeconomy in everyday life” @ BioBased World 2015 in Frankfurt am Main

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)