SG Preston, a Philadelphia-based bioenergy company, and IHI E&C, a Houston-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) subsidiary of IHI Corporation, announced a ground-breaking agreement for a Multi-Facility Program that will include the development and construction of a series of commercial volume, advanced biofuels manufacturing plants, initially in the U.S. Midwest and Canada.
DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Quad County Corn Processors (QCCP) announced a new multi-year contract to supply the enzymes that enable QCCP’s Cellerate™ process in the production of cellulosic biofuel from corn kernel fiber.
Avery Dennison, a global leader in labeling and packaging materials and solutions headquartered in California,
launches two bio-based polyethylene label films. These new products are the first self-adhesive PE filmic labels with a face stock that includes more than 80 percent renewable content and offer brand owners the opportunity to meet their target on renewable resources in packaging, while continuing to benefit from the functionality and performance of a regular polyethylene label.
Rivertop Renewables, a Montana-based specialty chemicals company, and DTI, a custom manufacturer of fine and specialty chemical products based in Danville, Virginia, celebrated the start-up of commercial manufacturing of “Rivertop’s sustainable, high performing, cost-competitive, glucarate-based products”.
Covestro, a Bayer Group company, and Reverdia – the joint venture between Royal DSM and Roquette Frères – have reached an agreement to jointly develop and promote thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) based on renewable raw materials. Covestro will employ Biosuccinium™ succinic acid from Reverdia for the production of its Desmopan® -brand TPU for use in a variety of applications, including in the footwear and consumer electronics industries.
The industrial enzymes market is growing with increase in the applications of industrial enzymes. The industrial enzymes market was valued at USD 4.2 billion in 2014 and is projected to reach USD 6.2 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 7.0% from 2015 to 2020. To say this is a new report published by ReportLinker, a market research company headquartered in France.
“A biobased economy starts from the feedstock and ends at the consumer, and the processing is just the middle: we need thus to tackle the 3 steps if we really want to call it “economy”. Also, we need to bring new technologies regardless of where they come from. Brazil for example may be thought of a place of soccer and samba but the hard fact is that it is the only economy in the world which uses biofuels widely. We should study examples such as that, bring them to Europe, and stop thinking we have the answers, but the H2020 rules basically forbid that, as we found out ourselves”. To say this – in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Al Costa, Ceo of Alkol Biotech, a Spanish genetic engineering company focused on the research of new crops.
With Costa we talk about crops, the role of farmers and the policies to support the bioeconomy.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
“EPA is proposing to change the rules in the middle of the game.” The representatives of advanced and cellulosic biofuels industry – a nonprofit educational organization advocates for the adoption of advanced biofuels as an energy security, military flexibility, economic development and climate change mitigation/pollution control solution – recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable fuel standard (RFS) volume requirement proposal.
In the letter it was emphasized that the May 29th proposal represents a broken promise that is negatively impacting investments and partnerships in advanced biofuels, is sending projects and jobs overseas, and is at odds with the president’s initiatives to combat climate change.
Bio-on and Moore Capital signed a license agreement to build the first Brazil-based facility to produce PHAs bioplastic from sugar cane co-products.
The two companies, operating in sustainable biochemistry and in the development of eco-sustainable industrial solutions, will work together to build a production site with a 10 thousand tons/year output, in the state of São Paulo and/or Acre State.
“I am convinced that what we lack today to confirm the value creation potential of the industrial biotechnology are concrete examples of investments to construct real industrial operations that are profitable and that create manufacturing jobs.
So all national and European initiatives – co-investment, easing of regulatory procedures, tax incentives, etc. – that will facilitate risk-taking in the industrial phase will be welcomed to demonstrate the industrial biotechnology’s potential and accelerate its development”. To say it – in this interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Benjamin Gonzalez, founder and CEO of METabolic EXplorer, a French green chemistry company that develops and patents innovative, fermentation-based industrial processes. Waiting for EFIB, the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy – which will take place next October 27-29 in Brussels – Il Bioeconomista will host a series of interviews with CEOs, who will be guest speakers in Brussels. Today we offer the second, after the first with Ilkka Hämälä, CEO of Metsä Fibre, published last 21 August.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
IL BIOECONOMISTA 