The final event of the European project FIRST2RUN will take place at the Square Convention centre in Brussels on June 20. Co-ordinated by Italian biochemical company Novamont and funded by the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, FIRST2RUN is a flagship project involving four companies and universities from Italy, UK and The Netherlands.
Finnish company UPM launches a new advanced wound care product for the European market. FibDex® is the first wound dressing created from wood-based nanofibrillar cellulose to receive regulatory approval and be awarded a CE mark. Nanofibrillar cellulose, which has been shown to be biocompatible with human cells and tissue, forms the core of the dressing. UPM’s proprietary nanotechnology, combined with over a decade of research into nanofibrillar cellulose and a highly professional R&D, has resulted in the development of this unique product.
Nouryon and Gasunie are studying an expansion of a planned green hydrogen unit at Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The feasibility study follows a deal to convert sustainable electricity into green hydrogen for SkyNRG. The plant, which would convert renewable electricity into green hydrogen via water electrolysis, could be scaled up from 20 megawatts to at least 60 megawatts – which allows for a conversion of 9,000 tons of green hydrogen a year.
SkyNRG, the Amsterdam-based global market leader for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), has chosen Haldor Topsoe’s world-leading technology for production of renewable diesel and jet fuel for their planned facility at Delfzijl, the Netherlands.
The production processes of the most important basic chemicals are responsible for around 70 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the chemical industry. “BASF experts – the German chemical giant claims – are working intensely on new technologies to substantially reduce emissions in these processes. The company has bundled all of this work under the roof of its ambitious Carbon Management Program”.
Now, for the first time, Novozymes’ enzymes are available online through Alibaba’s platform for industrial products, 1688.com.
“We want to be a front runner in providing biological solutions online as well as offline. By partnering with Alibaba, we will get even closer to our end-customers, address local market needs faster and explore new application opportunities,” says Thomas Videbæk, COO and Executive Vice President, Novozymes.
King of Prussia-based Renmatix is introducing Celltice™, the beauty industry’s first zero-chemical self-emulsifying active. A brand-new ingredient consisting of botanical building blocks cellulose and lignin, Celltice delivers a variety of benefits in personal care and cosmetic applications, functioning both as an active and an excipient in formulations.
The viability of Anellotech’s Bio-TCat™ technology has now been proven by achieving commercially-targeted yields in its TCat-8® pilot unit in Silsbee, Texas during six months of continuous process operations.
Enerkem Inc., a global leader in biofuels production from solid waste, closed last April a new round of financing totalling C$76.3 million. The financing comes from Enerkem’s existing investors, as well as a new investor, Suncor Energy Inc. This injection of additional capital will help foster the company’s growth by continuing the development of its other projects, including in Varennes, Québec, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
“No, less, better plastic”. This is the mission of Unilever, one of the leading companies in the Food & Refreshment, Home, Beauty & Personal Care markets, in the fight against plastic. A complex challenge in which everyone must do their part given that, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s report on the “New Plastics Economy”, only 14% of the plastic packaging used worldwide reaches up to recycling plants and only 8% is actually recycled. Meanwhile, a third ends up in fragile ecosystems and 40% in landfills.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 