Bio-on, the Italian company operating in the high quality bioplastic sector, yesterday inaugurated its first owned plant designed to produce 100% natural and biodegradable special PHAs bioplastics for high added value niche markets, such as the microbeads used in the cosmetics sector.
Scandinavian multinational company Stora Enso opened Europe’s largest wood fibre-based biocomposite plant. The opening ceremony took place last June 4 at the company’s Hylte Mill outside of Halmstad in South-west Sweden, and was attended by more than 150 guests. Stora Enso’s investment of €12 million in a biocomposite plant is part of the company’s ongoing process of becoming a renewable materials company. It aims at showing that Stora Enso is a leader in the bioeconomy, with the ability to provide innovative, more sustainable alternatives to plastic.
BASF Venture Capital is to invest in LanzaTech, a biotech company headquartered in Chicago (USA). Using special microbes, LanzaTech has developed a technology for gas fermentation that first enables ethanol to be produced from residual gases containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen. By re-using waste streams instead of incinerating them, industrial companies can reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
“The future of the chemical industry is the global migration to chemicals and chemical processes that improve the environmental impact of chemicals and reduce the negative health effects associated with chemicals and their production”. To say it in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista is Virginia Klausmeier, founder and CEO of Sylvatex, the California-based company which has developed a renewable nano-chemistry platform that has applications in solutions for industry processing, materials stability, and fuels.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
There is a new company in the world bioeconomy: Metsä Spring Ltd, the new innovation company established by Metsä Group. The company will, together with partner organisations, invest in new endeavours with the target to identify and develop new business opportunities in sustainable forest-based bioeconomy and circular economy. Niklas von Weymarn has been appointed CEO of the company. He transferred to Metsä Spring from the position of VP, Research in Metsä Fibre, also part of Metsä Group. The office of Metsä Spring is in the heart of the internationally-acknowledged Otaniemi innovation campus in Espoo, Finland. The establishment of the new innovation company – the Finnish multinational company underlines – does not affect the current research and development activities of Metsä Group’s current business areas.
“The bioeconomy promises to lead the next rising wave of global economic development. Renewable energy, renewable raw materials and recyclable products pose a positive challenge to our current fossil fuel dependence”. John Bell, Director at the European Commission in charge of bioeconomy, talks to Il Bioeconomista.
In this long exclusive interview, he talks about the new strategy on bioeconomy, the EU’s new research and innovation programme, the role of member states and regions and the connection between bioeconomy and society.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
“Governments and development partners should provide policy and economic incentives to industry to transition into smart manufacturing that meets our needs and decarbonizes our world”. Julius Ecuru, programmemanager at BioInnovate Africa Programme, talks to Il Bioeconomista. BioInnovate Africa supports scientists and innovators in the region to link biological based research ideas and technologies to business and the market. It is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and is based at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya. Current BioInnovate Africa partner countries are: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
“The bioeconomy is a relatively new sector and so one could hope it is not yet ‘contaminated’ with the prejudices. In a way, it is a perfect territory for women to conquer and showcase the plethora of their skills.” To say it – in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Iris Aquilina Anderson, leader of the Bioladies Network. Iris has 35 years of policy, business and research experience specialising in the bioeconomy, agriculture, energy and sustainability issues. She is an evaluator for BBI JU and H2020 and is currently the First Ambassador of BBIA, a trade association promoting the bioeconomy in the UK and a Committee member of the Natural Materials Association, part of IOM3.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
The Pasadena Fire Department, a California city northeast of Los Angeles, switched much of its fleet of apparatus from operating on petroleum diesel to using Neste MY Renewable Diesel, produced by the Finnish company Neste. The department plans to transition all its fleet apparatus to renewable diesel by 2019.
BioAmber Inc. filed a voluntary petition for relief under chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code and that its two Canadian subsidiaries, BioAmber Sarnia Inc. and BioAmber Canada Inc., filed a Notice of Intention to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada), with a view to strengthening the company’s financial health and solidifying its long-term business prospects.
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