Californian biotech company Genomatica (Geno) alongside longtime collaborator Aquafil successfully completed the first demonstration scale production runs for plant-based nylon-6. The material is intended to reshape the $22 billion nylon industry, enabling brands to meet demand from consumers for sustainable everyday materials from apparel to automotive parts to carpets.
Finnish giant Neste and Fly Victor, the on-demand private jet company, started a partnership which sets a new sustainability benchmark in business aviation. Victor members can now purchase Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel™ (SAF) for every private jet booking globally. This enables private jet charterers to reduce the carbon footprint of their private air travel in a credible and measurable way.
In 2021, the bioeconomy in EU4 (France, Germany, Italy and Spain) has reached a value of production of €1,500 billion, employing over 7 million people. Germany is confirmed as a leader with a value of €436.6 billion, then France (379.4 billion), Italy (364.3 billion) and Spain (251.5 billion). This is according a new Report realized by the Intesa Sanpaolo Research Department (Intesa Sanpaolo is one of the major banking group in Europe), in collaboration with Italian Circular Bioeconomy Cluster SPRING and Assobiotec, and today presented in Salerno (South Italy), which is dedicated to bioeconomy, which, in line with the definition of the European Commission, was defined as the set of activities using renewable natural resources to produce goods and energy, generating great advantages in terms of sustainability.
Carlsberg Group and Dutch biochemical company Avantium agreed to take the next step in the commercialisation of PEF. The Danish Group signed a conditional offtake agreement with Avantium to secure a fixed volume of the 100% plant-based, recyclable and high-performance polymer PEF (polyethylene furanoate) from Avantium’s FDCA Flagship Plant, which Avantium aims to start-up in 2024. Carlsberg will use the PEF resin for various packaging applications, including its Fibre Bottle – the bio-based and fully recyclable beer bottle.
I met Mathieu Flamini in Milano during the Design Week. Milano is vibrant again after the dark years of the pandemic. AC Milan won the championship, eleven years after the last success of which Mathieu was one of the architects. We do not talk about football, also because I cheer for the other team based in Milano. I am totally black and blue and I can’t share his joy for the AC Milan’s Scudetto. We talk about the bioeconomy, starting from his new role as CEO of GFBiochemicals, which he is enthusiastic about. Mathieu is a friend, so I immediately declare that this is a somewhat unusual interview. With Mathieu we talk about the need to accelerate on the path of the paradigm shift that leads us from fossils to the use of renewable biological sources, the importance of communicating the damages produced by industrial activity on the environment in order to promote sustainable solutions, the role of the sport’s world in a campaign that highlights the contradictions of a development model based on profit at all costs and the waste of resources.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Suzano, the world’s largest hardwood pulp producer and a global reference in developing sustainable and innovative solutions from renewable sources, launched Suzano Ventures, a global corporate venture capital initiative. It will invest US$70 million in a range of businesses with the potential to revolutionize their sector and beyond, by addressing some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. The initiative will focus on companies operating within at least one of four bioeconomy applications: improving the measurement and management of carbon sequestration, accelerating and maximizing agroforestry yield, developing new technologies and applications for pulp biomass, and creating more efficient pulp packaging from renewable sources.
A consortium, including LanzaTech and Danone, led to the discovery of a new route to monoethylene glycol, (MEG), which is a key building block for polyethylene terephthalate, (PET), resin, fibers and bottles. The technology converts carbon emissions from steel mills or gasified waste biomass directly into MEG. The carbon capture technology uses a proprietary engineered bacterium to convert carbon emissions directly into MEG through fermentation, bypassing the need for an ethanol intermediate, and simplifying the MEG supply chain. The direct production of MEG was proven at laboratory scale and the presence of MEG was confirmed by two external laboratories.
Coldplay is partnering up with Neste to take steps towards the band’s target of reducing CO2 emissions from the Music Of The Spheres World Tour by 50% compared to the band’s previous world tour. Neste will provide Coldplay with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to help reduce emissions from air travels, while the company’s renewable diesel will help cut emissions from the band’s tour transports and stage power generation.
Royal DSM, a global purpose-led science-based company, the United Nations’ children’s agency UNICEF, and Swiss-based nutrition think tank and incubator Sight and Life have renewed their long-term partnership to deliver better nutrition for at-risk groups in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The partners also aim to expand their work to Latin America for the first time.
Iris Lewandowski is one of the leading people of the European bioeconomy. In July 2018, she was appointed Chief Bioeconomy Officer (CBO) of the University of Hohenheim. Presently, she is Scientific Speaker of the European Bioeconomy University (EBU), an alliance of six leading European Universities in the field of the knowledge-based bioeconomy, dedicated to cooperation in bioeconomy education, research and knowledge transfer. She is also co-chair of the German Bioeconomy Council and co-chair of the Baden-Württemberg federal government’s advisory board “Sustainable Bioeconomy”. In this interview with Il Bioeconomista she talks about bioeconomy at German and European level and about the BBI JU demo project GRACE, which she is coordinating.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
IL BIOECONOMISTA 