Metsä Group’s Kuura textile fibre shows competitive greenhouse gas emission level

Metsa Spring’s team. Source: Metsa Group

Metsä Group has completed a new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of its Kuura textile fibre. The assessment shows that Kuura’s global warming potential (GWP100, fossil) score is less than one-third of the next best option, viscose. The Kuura project is currently in a demonstration phase. The new textile fibre is being developed by Metsä Group’s innovation company Metsä Spring. The LCA was made by Etteplan. The LCA study and comparison to alternative cellulosic fibres were critically reviewed by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.

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An interview with Dirk Carrez, Executive Director of BIC (Biobased Industries Consortium).

“Currently, there are policy frameworks for food, feed and bioenergy, but not for bio-based chemicals and derived materials. This gap puts the bio-based chemicals and derived materials sector at a disadvantage, and has also an impact on investments in Europe.”. Dirk Carrez, executive director of BIC (Biobased Industries Consortium) talks to Il Bioeconomista.

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

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Avantium and Amcor Rigid Packaging partner to advance more sustainable packaging with plant-based polymer releaf

CEO Tom Van Aken and Her Majesty Queen Maxima. Source: Avantium

Avantium N.V., a leading company in renewable and circular polymer materials, signed a joint development agreement with Amcor Rigid Packaging USA, a  leader in responsible packaging solutions. This partnership aims to explore the use of Avantium’s plant-based polymer PEF – branded as releaf® – in rigid containers for various products, including food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical, home, and personal care.

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An exclusive interview with Frederic Van Gansberghe, CEO Futerro. The Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEO 2024

Frederic Van Gansberghe, CEO Futerro

“For me and Futerro, innovation in the bioeconomy is all about reinvention and transition. It’s about finding alternative solutions that weave sustainability, circularity, and ecological resilience into the very core of what we do.” To say it – in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Frederic Van Gansberghe, CEO of Futerro and the Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEO 2024.

According to him, “there is a clear gap between Europe’s ambitions and reality. Many industrial players usually ask to reduce the number of regulations and directives; in my case, I would request to increase their quality”

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

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Ecoplanta receives approval: a major step forward with Enerkem’s waste-to-methanol technology

Enerkem in Westbury, Quebec

The Repsol’s Board of Directors has officially approved the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Ecoplanta project, marking a significant milestone in the drive for the supply of sustainable fuel and product.

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The EU Commission presented the Competitiveness Compass. “We must fix our weaknesses”, said President Ursula von der Leyen

Berlaymont, European Commission’s Headquarter in Brussels

Yesterday, the EU Commission presented the Competitiveness Compass, the first major initiative of this mandate providing a strategic and clear framework to steer the Commission’s work. The Compass sets a path for Europe to become the place where future technologies, services, and clean products are invented, manufactured, and put on the market, while being the first continent to become climate neutral.

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Enilive begins SAF production at its plant in Gela (Sicily), capable of meeting one third of Europe’s demand

Source: Eni

Enilive commissioned its first plant to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) at the Gela biorefinery, in Sicily. Production has started at the plant, which has a capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year, representing almost a third of the expected European SAF demand in 2025 (Source: Wood Mackanzie), following the implementation of the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation.

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Neste and Bayer to collaborate on developing novel vegetable oils from regenerative agriculture concepts

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Neste’s headquarter in Espoo, Finland

Neste and Bayer, a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and agriculture, signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at developing a winter canola ecosystem in the U.S, including identifying partners and developing the value chain together, and scaling winter canola production as a raw material for renewable products. 

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The US DOE committed up to $200 million in federal funding to Technip Energies and LanzaTech for commercializing breakthrough CO2 to Ethylene Technology

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Jennifer Holmgren, CEO LanzaTech, at IFIB 2019 in Naples

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) has committed up to $200 million in federal funding and authorized the initiation of Phase 1 of Technip Energies and LanzaTech Global’s Sustainable Ethylene from CO2 Utilization with Renewable Energy Project.

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Happy New Year!

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Dear Readers,

we want to wish all of you a very happy, peaceful and healthy year, where we all will keep working together to make the circular bioeconomy happen.