The European Commission has adopted a new Circular Economy Action Plan – one of the main blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth.
The new Action Plan announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of products, targeting for example their design, promoting circular economy processes, fostering sustainable consumption, and aiming to ensure that the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible.
Nouryon and INEOS Nitriles have broken ground on new facilities to be built at INEOS’ Köln site in Germany. The units will produce raw materials for Nouryon’s high-quality, readily biodegradable chelates, used in detergents and other industries. The plants are due to be completed in 2021-2022.
The Bioeconomy is led by women. This year, as every year, for the International Women’s Day, we dedicate a tribute to all women who are making the bioeconomy happen all around the world. With their huge competences and their infinite passion, they are the stars of the world bioeconomy. Our best and warmest wishes to all women.
This is just a partial list.
Ylwa Alwarsdotter, Executive VP Sekab (Sweden)
Iris Aquilina Anderson, leader of the Bioladies Network (UK)
Catia Bastioli, CEO at Novamont (Italy)
Véronique de Bruijn, CEO at Photanol (Netherlands)
Joanna Dupont at EuropaBio (UE)
Carina Håkansson, DG at The Swedish Forest Industries Federation (Sweden)
Sarah Hickingbottom, CEO at BioVale (UK)
Jennifer Holmgren, CEO at Lanzatech (USA)
Virginia Klausmeier, CEO at Sylvatex (USA)
Christine Lang, chairwoman at German Bioeconomy Council (Germany)
Electra Papadopoulou, co-founder Greek Bioeconomy Forum (Greece)
Theodora Retsina, CEO at American Process (USA)
Kathryn Sheridan, CEO at Sustainability Consult (Belgium)
Mariagiovanna Vetere, Global Public Affairs at NatureWorks (USA)
Mari Walls, President and CEO at Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)
Alex Ward, President at Origin Materials (Canada)
Marie Wheat, Industry Economist at USDA BioPreferred Program (USA)
Eleni Zika, Head of Programme at BBI JU (EU)
The EU bio-based industry is quickly evolving but clear data on the development of this emerging sector are still missing. A new JRC report illustrates the work of the JRC in building an extensive database of EU facilities producing different categories of bio-based products:
Comet Bio, a Canadian manufacturer of award-winning healthy and sustainable ingredients, has been selected by Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s largest brewer, to join its 100+ Accelerator to pilot technology on brewers’ grain. Through the 100+ Accelerator, AB InBev partners with companies who can deliver breakthrough advancements in sustainability. The 100+ Accelerator builds off of AB InBev’s 2025 Sustainability Goals, with six challenges around smart agriculture, water stewardship, circular economy and climate action.
Japanese materials maker Toray Industries is going to start mass production of polyester made entirely from plants, a breakthrough poised to cut reliance on petroleum and slash carbon emissions, Nikkei has learned. Toray developed what is being described as the world’s first 100% plant-based polyester jointly with Virent, a U.S. biofuels company. Production is set to begin in the early part of this decade, people familiar with the matter said.
INEOS, the global manufacturer of petrochemicals, speciality chemicals and oil products headquartered in UK, and UPM Biofuels signed a long-term agreement to supply a renewable raw material for new and innovative bio-attributed polymers to be produced at INEOS Köln, Germany. INEOS will use UPM BioVerno, a sustainable raw material from a renewable residue of wood pulp processing, to produce bio-attributed polyolefins.
Working to drive the circular economy in packaging as well, one of its main business segments, Braskem signed a partnership to leverage the development of sustainable solutions. All 1-liter and 5-liter packaging of the Brazilian company Biowash , a pioneer in the development of 100%-biodegradable natural homecare products, now will be made from a mixture of renewable plastic, made from sugarcane , and post-consumer resin (PCR).
DMC Biotechnologies, the US BioBased specialty chemical company, has successfully produced its lead product, L-alanine at pilot scale. Commercial key performance metrics were achieved and performance from the bench scale was also demonstrated at 3m3scale fermentation and for each of the downstream purification unit operations. The robustness of DMC’s Dynamic Metabolic Control technology to the process environment was also validated.
Neste and Outotec have jointly verified the viability of applying Neste MY Renewable Isoalkane™ as a fully bio-based diluent for extracting metals in hydrometallurgical processes. The diluent is based on Neste’s NEXBTL technology and produced entirely from bio-based waste and residue raw materials.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 