Made from plant starches, Biome3D is a biodegradable plastic that combines easy processing and a superior print finish, while offering much higher print speeds. Developed in partnership with 3Dom Filaments, the new material was unveiled today at the TCT Show 2014, the leading event dedicated to 3D printing, additive manufacturing and product development.
An exceptional week dedicated to the biorefinery will take place from September 30 to October 3 in Reims, France. The European Institute of biorefinery located near the capital of Champagne-Ardenne is one of the most important biorefineries in the world. Three million tons of biomass (sugar beet, wheat, alfalfa) are transformed each year to give sugar, glucose, starch, food or pharmaceutical alcohol, ethanol fuel, cosmetic actives.
Following are nominees for the next European Commission. Job assignments were announced yesterday by the incoming president, Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg. Juncker sailed through his European Parliament confirmation in July; hearings await the rest in late September, followed by a vote on the whole slate.
Il Bioeconomista’s list focuses on commissioners more involved in the Bioeconomy.
A project aimed at helping Kentucky transition to a “new energy economy” has been awarded $20 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Kentucky was one of six jurisdictions chosen to receive a five-year Research Infrastructure Improvement Track 1 award from the NSF’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). An additional $4 million in matching funds comes from Kentucky EPSCoR, which receives funding from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, bringing total funding for the project to $24 million.
Another brick towards the European Bioeconomy. The European Commission organises from 8 to 9 October in Turin the EU Bioeconomy Stakeholders Conference “From sectors to system, from concept to reality”.
Two years on from the launching of the EU’s Bioeconomy Strategy, Brussels in collaboration with the Italian Presidency analyses the achievements and the opportunities ahead in the two-day conference.
Ford, the global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Michigan, and H.J. Heinz Company, one of the world’s leading marketers and producers of healthy, convenient and affordable foods specializing in ketchup, sauces, meals, soups, snacks and infant nutrition, explore the use of tomato fiber to develop a more sustainable bio-plastic material for vehicles. It might seem that tomatoes and cars have nothing in common. But researchers at Ford Motor Company and H.J. Heinz Company see the possibility of an innovative union.
Addax Bioenergy, a sugarcane-based renewable energy company, announced that its facility in Makeni, Sierra Leone, has started producing sugarcane bioethanol and renewable electricity. The company will produce 85,000 m3 of bioethanol per year by end 2016. The pioneering project involves the development of a Greenfield 10,000 hectare sugarcane plantation, the construction of a bioethanol refinery and a biomass-fuelled co-generation plant to produce green power and contribute about 20% of Sierra Leone’s national electricity requirements. It has been developed in partnership with eight Development Finance Institutions, and is the only bioethanol project to be brought to financial close in Africa.
The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) has announced £5 million of funding for a pipeline of energy efficiency projects at a number of Scottish distilleries. Half of this will come from GIB, with matched funding from the private sector. Aberfeldy distillery in Perthshire will be taking advantage of the new funding available. This follows GIB’s announcement last year of an investment at the Tomatin distillery, near Inverness. Tomatin is on track to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by c. 80%.
From Thursday to Sunday we European Union citizens will be called to elect a new parliament. These elections are important, not only because for the first time will decide who will lead the European Commission. But mostly because the next 5 years represent a crucial point to understand whether the European Union will remain nothing more than a geographical expression (as Metternich called Italy in the Nineteenth century, before its Unification), or will be able to achieve a common economic and monetary policy, and with it a tax policy, a labor policy, etc. In one word: Policies.
They made history in Italy with memorable feats of heroism, driven by the love for their country and by values that make theirs a unique outfit: this is the Alpine Corps, also known as the Black Feathers, which is holding its 87th muster from the 9th to the 11th of May 2014 in Pordenone. With 450,000 participants expected, producing around 350,000 kg of waste, the event has the potential to create a significant environmental impact. In order to alleviate the effect on the Pordenone ecosystem, the ANA (National Alpine Corps Association), the COA (Muster Organising Committee) and GEA, the Pordenone environmental services company, in collaboration with Novamont, global leader in the bioplastics field, have introduced different ecosustainable initiatives.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 