UPM, the Finnish forest industry company, and the Shanghai-based Tongji University College of Design and Innovation started cooperation in 2015 with a target to create a modern concept for the traditional Chinese tea house by using UPM’s innovative wood-based biomaterials. The project has now reached its goal with the introduction of the Biofore Tea House in the ‘Moi Helsinki’ event in Beijing, China on 13-15 May 2016.
Bioproducts are everywhere. And now we have also bio-based shirts. Virent, the bioeconomy company headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, announced that its BioFormPX® paraxylene was used to produce the world’s first 100% plant-based polyester shirts. “This important project- the company says – demonstrates the potential of Virent’s technology to produce demonstration quantities of bio-based, crude oil free polyester for production of garments and textiles”.
“To pass laws that can make a difference means overcoming the braking action of those who defend and feed the advantageous position, put into practice the good industry and multiply virtuous cases there are in our country. Much of the Italian industry has invested and is investing in the development of new products and “green” technologies, and now considers sustainability as an opportunity rather than a constraint”. Catia Bastioli talks to Il Bioeconomista. In this exclusive interview with the Chief Executive Officer of Novamont, considered as the beacon of Italian bioeconomy, we talk about bioeconomy, circular economy and climate change. A few days before the 4th EU Bioeconomy Stakeholders’ Conference in Utrecht, Bastioli gives us her vision to fully realize in Italy and Europe the new economy based on biological resources, able to create wealth and jobs, starting from the local areas.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
The Bioeconomy Revolution has just begun. The Bioeconomy Revolution is the new ebook on world bioeconomy published by Edizioni Ambiente, the main Italian publisher focused on green economy, bioeconomy and circular economy.
The ebook has the privilege of hosting the preface written by Christian Patermann, the man who is considered as the “father” of the European bioeconomy:
“The Bioeconomy Revolution” is not just another book to be added to the growing number of publications worldwide on the Bioeconomy and more recently on the so-called circular economy.
Another brick towards the European Bioeconomy. The European Commission organises from 12 to 13 April in Utrecht, The Netherlands, the EU Bioeconomy Stakeholders’ Conference. Four years on from the launching of the EU’s Bioeconomy Strategy, Brussels in collaboration with the Dutch Presidency analyses the achievements and the opportunities ahead in the two-day conference.
Italian biotech company Bio-on announces the launch of a new collaboration with Italeri S.p.A., a production and distribution leader in the modelling sector. Thanks to this agreement, the manufacture of scale models will be done for the first time with the special grade Minerv PHA Supertoys, the new type of bioplastic developed by Bio-on laboratories.
Italy will have its own strategy on bioeconomy by next summer. This was announced by Mario Calderini, representative of the Ministry of Education, University and Research, yesterday in Metaponto, Basilicata, during the launch event of the regional bioeconomy cluster. Good news, then, for the bioeconomy in Italy, where it seems that the issue is increasingly on the agenda of the institutions.
“They are on a journey of no return anyway. They are a “mining” industry, and all mines eventually become exhausted. The question is whether some or all of the petrochemical industry will realize this fact and act to change their feedstocks and practices so that their businesses can continue long term based on sustainable feedstocks and sustainable practices.” To say it – in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Bruce E. Dale, a highly-ranked academic in the Top 100 People in Bioenergy (Bioenergy Digest). Professor Dale received his doctorate in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1979. He is currently University Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at Michigan State University. He serves as Editor in Chief and Founding Editor of Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining. Dale has won the Charles D. Scott Award (1996), the Sterling Hendricks Award (2007) and the Award of Excellence of the Fuel Ethanol Workshop (2011). He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2011) and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (2016).
His research interests are cellulosic biofuels, the relationship between energy and societal wealth, life cycle assessment and the design of sustainable systems for producing fuels, chemicals, food and animal feed.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
The German chemical giant BASF and the Dutch leading chemical technology company Avantium today announced that they have signed a letter of intent and entered into exclusive negotiations to establish a joint venture (JV) for the production and marketing of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) produced from renewable resources, as well as marketing of polyethylenefuranoate (PEF), based on this new chemical building block.
For International Women’s Day, we dedicate a tribute to the 8 women who have distinguished themselves in the bioeconomy in 2015. With their huge capacity and their infinite passion, they are the stars of the world bioeconomy. Of course, best wishes to all women.
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