Economy

Scotland aims at playing a leading role in the £360 bln global industrial biotechnology market

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John Swinney, Finance Secretary of Scotland
John Swinney, Finance Secretary of Scotland

A new innovation centre for industrial biotechnology is forecast to increase industrial biotechnology-related turnover to up to £3 billion by 2030, create 1500 jobs within five years and put Scotland at the forefront of a global transformation. Funded by the Scottish Funding Council and supported by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise, the new Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) – hosted at the University of Strathclyde – is a key element of the National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology – Towards a Greener, Cleaner 2025. It brings together academic and private sector partners to play a leading role in the potential £360 billion global industrial biotechnology market. Industrial biotechnology is the use of biological substances, systems and processes to produce intermediate and final products such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, materials and energy – both cost-effectively and with minimal adverse environmental impact.

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UN Report: Rising demand for energy, from biofuels to shale gas, is a threat to freshwater supplies

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The UN Building in New York City
The UN Building in New York City

Rising demand for energy, from biofuels to shale gas, is a threat to freshwater supplies that are already under strain from climate change, the United Nations said in a report last Friday. March 22 was World Water Day in the UN calendar. It urged energy companies to do more to limit use of water in everything from cooling coal-fired power plants to irrigation for crops grown to produce biofuels.

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Bio-based tourism in the Maldives

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Cardia Bioplastics, a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of sustainable resins derived from renewable resources based in Melbourne (Australia), announced the delivery of 60,000 large waste management bags as initial order by Maldives Truly Green, an entrepreneurial start-up venture in the Maldives, dedicated to both the awareness of and fight against environmental degradation of the Maldives. As an initial step towards a greener Maldives, Truly Green offers environmentally friendly products that are made from renewable resources with a lower carbon footprint replacing traditional plastics packaging and waste management products. The Cardia Biohybrid waste management bags will be used throughout Maldives resorts and by the expansive tourism sector, with annual orders of more than 1,000,000 bags expected.

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Lux Research: Biofuel industry is poised for a huge slowdown in capacity growth

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Crescentino Plant View: 2G biofuels biorefinery
Crescentino Plant View: 2G biofuels biorefinery

The 53.2 billion gallon a year (BGY) biofuel industry is poised for a huge slowdown in capacity growth, to a 3.2% annual rate from 2013 to 2017 – reaching 60.4 billion gallons – off from 19.6% annually from 2005 to 2013, according to Lux Research. The sharp decline is on account of a significant industry transition to novel fuels and feedstocks, to enable long-term growth in the face of impediments like the food vs. fuel debate and the imminent blend limits for biodiesel and ethanol. Next-generation biofuels – such as renewable diesel and butanol – that can offer higher blends, in contrast, are not quite mature.

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Exclusive interview with Barbara Secchi, Bridgestone Technical Center Europe: “The tire’s future is bio-based”

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Bridgestone trucks. The Japanese company is MotoGP tires supplier
Bridgestone trucks. The Japanese company is MotoGP tires supplier

“The bioeconomy is challenged by the fact that bio-products have to be anyway competitive vs traditional ones, but it can also open new opportunities if we set our minds not (only) to make copies of petroleum products but also to take completely new approaches to the material world”. To say it in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista is Barbara Secchi, Senior expert Bio-materials and EU network at Bridgestone (the world’s largest tire and rubber company) Technical Center Europe based in Rome. With Mrs Secchi we talk about bioeconomy and the bio-based future of the tire’s industry, “possibly using biomass that is not competing with food (2nd generation biomass)”.

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

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The American Chemistry Council creates a new Biobased Chemistry Network

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The American Chemistry Council
The American Chemistry Council

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) – focused on anticipating and preventing accidents, as well as on educating the public about how to use chemical products safely – created a new Biobased Chemistry Network to help educate policymakers on how to develop workable regulatory programs for the growing biobased chemistry industry. Global sales of this segment range from $13.5 billion to $20 billion, with the US accounting for approximately 20 percent of those sales, or $2.7 billion to $4 billion.

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Succinity produces first commercial quantities of biobased succinic acid for the global market

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Headquarter of Basf in Ludwigshafen
Headquarter of Basf in Ludwigshafen

Succinity GmbH, the joint venture between Corbion Purac, the worldwide market leader in lactic acid, lactic acid derivatives and lactides, and BASF, German chemical giant, for the production and commercialization of biobased succinic acid, has announced the successful start-up of its first commercial production facility.

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Novozymes launches LpHera, an enzyme to make starch conversion more efficient

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Novozymes Headquarter
Novozymes Headquarter

Novozymes – the Danish biotech company which is world leader in industrial enzymes  – announced yesterday the launch of a new enzyme solution (LpHera) that helps make starch conversion more efficient.  The starch industry is one of the longest-standing markets for enzymes, and within the food industry helps to produce a wide range of sweeteners and ingredients used in products ranging from soft drinks to sauces.

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Italian new government: “Demolition Man” Matteo Renzi doesn’t seem to have scrapped much

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Renzi presents his government at the Quirinale Presidential Palace
Renzi presents his government at the Quirinale Presidential Palace

A new government. The fourth in three years. The third of these four non-elected by a democratic vote. Welcome to Italy. Rudyard Kipling said about us: “An Italian is a good person. Two Italians a discussion. Three Italians three political parties.” That’s right, historically we divide and we don’t know the political stability.

The new government led by Matteo Renzi, who is 39 years old (he is the youngest premier in the history of the Italian Republic) and known as “Demolition man” for his plans to scrap the old political class, was created with the old ways of the old politics: a palace coup. The man – who certainly doesn’t lack ambition – grew up as an opponent of the Palace of power today is in the same Palace, without democratic legitimacy.

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Iowa cellulosic ethanol plant of POET-DSM will be operating by June

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Headquarter of Royal DSM in Heerlen (The Netherlands)
Headquarter of Royal DSM in Heerlen (The Netherlands)

An Iowa ethanol plant that will be one of the first producers of biofuels made from crop waste will be operating by June, Steve Hartig, General Manager for Licensing of POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels, said at the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, Florida.

POET-DSM, a joint operation between leading U.S. ethanol maker POET LLC and Dutch food and chemicals group DSM, will be among the largest to make so-called advanced biofuels on a commercial scale. The $250 million facility in Emmetsburg, in the north-central part of the No. 1 corn-growing state, will produce 7 million to 12 million gallons of ethanol this year using cobs and other corn “stover”.

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