VWR, a US leading, independent provider of laboratory products, services and solutions, announced that it has acquired National Biochemicals (NBC), a full service raw material manufacturer and supplier to the biochemical industry. This acquisition will enhance VWR’s growing custom chemical and biochemical manufacturing portfolio, building upon previous successful acquisitions in this segment.
French Global Bioenergies, one of the few companies worldwide, and the only one in Europe, that is developing a process to convert renewable resources into hydrocarbons through fermentation, announces having reached the first milestone of the BioMA+ project which is financed by the French “Investissements d’Avenir” State program. The project aims at developing a renewable value chain to methacrylic acid, a key constituent of acrylic paints. Achieving this first milestone result unlocks a €1.7 million payment.
Using creativity and unconventional ideas, researchers and engineers at Evonik, one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals, have achieved a significant breakthrough in the biotechnological production of amino acids based on fermentation. They integrated the separating methods of chromatography and reverse osmosis and an online analytical method based on spectroscopy—all of which tend to be used in other industry sectors—in a biotechnological process. This created an outcome experts had previously considered nearly impossible. The researchers’ objective was to achieve optimal separation of the desired amino acid from a fermentation broth.
Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in The Netherlands, announced yesterday a “substantial investment” in its Wilmington, Massachusetts (USA) manufacturing facility in order to produce waterborne resins for inks and coatings. Driven by its commitment to grow the sustainable coatings market, DSM will
upgrade its facilities to produce state-of-the-art waterborne resins for inks and coatings.
Chemical giant Basf has decided to exit the current R&D collaboration with Novozymes and Cargill to develop a bio-based process for producing 3-hydroxypropionic (3-HP) and acrylic acid from renewable raw materials.
“A project to establish an agricultural sector which respects the region, which enhances the value of abandoned and unirrigated land in order to feed into the first integrated biorefinery model in the region. It will be in synergy with the food production chain and centred on high value-added products which can reduce and replace higher-impact raw materials sourced from further afield.” This is the core of the agreement signed by Catia Bastioli, CEO of Novamont and Matrìca (a 50/50 joint venture between Novamont and Versalis), Roberto Moncalvo, chairman of Coldiretti, and Mauro Tonello, chairman of Consorzi Agrari d’Italia (CAI), for the creation of innovative agro-industrial chains to create short-chain biolubricants and bioplastics.
Alkol Biotech – a Spanish research company focused on the development of new plant varieties adapted to the needs of specific biofuel markets – has started shipping of its EUnergyCane sugarcane hybrid grown in Spain. The customer, a danish provider of cellulosic ethanol technologies, will use the hybrid to test its technologies aiming to the increasingly large cellulosic ethanol in Brazil, and is receiving it as dry bagasse.
Led by growth in the U.S. and Brazil, the global capacity to produce bio-based materials and chemicals (BBMC) from emerging technologies will rise to over 7.4 million metric tons in 2018, more than tripling from 2008 levels, according to Lux Research.
The French energy ministry issued a decree on Dec. 31 that raised the maximum level of biofuels in diesel sold at services stations in France to 8 percent by volume, higher than the EU-agreed limit of 7 percent.
Avantium, a leading technology company specialized in the area of advanced catalytic research and renewable chemistry, announces today the successful sale of its crystallization systems business to the Technobis Group, a group of companies providing development and supply of high-tech instruments and modules for companies worldwide.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 