The bio-butadiene (bio-BDE) technology developed by Versalis (Eni) in partnership with Genomatica has been named winner of the Environmental Achievement of the Year within the “Tire Technology International Awards for Excellence and Innovation”, the European independent award program for the tire industry.
Finnish oil refiner Neste is considering investing in U.S. production of biofuels in a move seen as a response to possible policy changes by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
The Traveling Sauna was inaugurated in Minneapolis on January 14, 2017. The sauna will be Finland’s centennial mascot in the United States. During the next twelve months it will travel all across the continent, driving altogether over 10,000 miles. At the inauguration ceremony Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi revealed the name of the sauna: it will be called Sisu.
The bioeconomy is also new biolubricants, a market segment that is tempting the big oil industry. It is no coincidence that Chevron Products Company, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc, has made an equity investment into Novvi LLC (a joint venture of Amyris, Inc., Cosan S.A., and American Refining Group, ARG).
The bioeconomy speaks French. Yesterday the Government led by François Hollande endorsed its national Bioeconomy Strategy. After Spain and Italy last year, France is one of the last major biobased EU Member States to publish an official framework for the production and valorization of renewable resources.
Antoine Peeters, Head of External Relations and Partnerships at IAR – The French Bioeconomy Cluster, talks to Il Bioeconomista.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has approved the pathway for isobutanol produced at Gevo’s Luverne, MNplant to be an advanced biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard Program (“RFS”). This is the first time that the EPA has approved a pathway for an advanced biofuel that uses starch from feed corn to produce an alcohol. With a partial substitution of fossil based energy sources that are currently used at Luverne with green energy sources, such as biogas, it should be possible for Gevo, which a leading renewable technology, chemical products, and next generation biofuels company, to achieve the 50% or greater greenhouse gas emissions (“GHG”) reduction needed to claim the advanced D5 Renewable Identification Number (“RIN”) according to the pathway approval.
Avantium, the Dutch leading chemical technology company and forerunner in renewable chemistry, has acquired the assets of Liquid Light Inc., a renowned developer of electrochemical processes. Liquid Light has developed proprietary process technology to make major chemicals from low-cost, globally-abundant carbon dioxide (CO2). The acquisition combines the technologies of both Liquid Light and Avantium to develop a world leading electro-catalysis platform and to commercialize new process technologies using CO2 as feedstock to produce sustainable chemicals and materials. The integration of the Liquid Light assets into Avantium is complete and effective immediately. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
US carbon recycling company LanzaTech has been selected by the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) to receive a $4 million award to design and plan a demonstration-scale facility using industrial off gases to produce 3 million gallons/year of low carbon jet and diesel fuels. The facility will recycle industrial waste gases from steel manufacturing to produce a low cost ethanol intermediate “Lanzanol”. Both Lanzanol and cellulosic ethanol will then be converted to jet fuel via the “Alcohol to Jet” (ATJ) process developed by LanzaTech and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
Dear Readers,
thank you very much, again. 2016 was another great year for Il Bioeconomista: 14% more visits to our blog. This shows us how the bioeconomy is increasingly a phenomenon that attracts the attention of global public opinion and gratifies us as journalists, observers of a reality that we have always defined as the industrial revolution of the Third Millennium.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 