Technology

Basf, Cargill and Novozymes realize another step towards the biobased economy

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Italian Headquarter of Basf in Cesano Maderno (Milan)
Italian Headquarter of Basf in Cesano Maderno (Milan)

Basf, Cargill and Novozymes have announced the achievement of an important milestone in their joint development of technologies to produce acrylic acid from renewable raw materials by successfully demonstrating the production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) in pilot scale.

3-HP is a renewable-based building block and one possible chemical precursor to acrylic acid. The companies also have successfully established several technologies to dehydrate 3-HP to acrylic acid at lab scale. This step in the process is critical since it is the foundation for production of acrylic acid. In August 2012, Basf, Cargill and Novozymes announced their joint agreement to develop a process for the conversion of renewable raw materials into a 100 percent bio-based acrylic acid.

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Finnish new gasification method turns forest residues to biofuel with less than a euro per litre

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VTT Technical Research Center's headquarter in Tampere
VTT Technical Research Center’s headquarter in Tampere

VTT Technical Research Center of Finland – the biggest multitechnological applied research organisation in Northern Europe, that provides high-end technology solutions and innovation services – has assessed the techno-economics of the production of renewable liquid transportation fuels from forest residues. The case studies focused on the production of four biofuels using a method based on pressurised fluidised-bed gasification. The fuels studied were methanol, dimethyl ether (DME), Fischer-Tropsch liquids and synthetic gasoline.

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European Environment Agency: Bioenergy production must use resources more efficiently

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Living Facade of EEA in Copenhagen
Living Facade of EEA in Copenhagen

The European Environment Agency has published the Report “EU bioenergy from a resource efficiency perspective”. The report primarily looks at the potential for energy from agricultural land, although it includes forest and waste biomass in the overall analysis (Bioenergy refers to energy uses of any kind of biomass, whether for heating, power generation or transport).

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Editorial: Together for the Bioeconomy Revolution

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Rassegna Stampa EsteraDear Readers,

thank you. You are more and more every day to read Il Bioeconomista, from all over the world. And that flatters us and encourages us to move forward with our project for an online journal that has in the bioeconomy its inspiring principle. You are a signal that the world is in turmoil, that the search for a world free from fossil fuels, a post-petroleum world, is increasingly an utopia that has decided to roll up its sleeves to become reality every day. The path is still long, but the road is mapped out and we can’t go back.

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European Commission appoints the members of the Bioeconomy Panel

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Berlaymont, European Commission's Headquarter in Brussels
Berlaymont, European Commission’s Headquarter in Brussels

The European Commission has selected and appointed the 30 members of the Bioeconomy Panel, a new platform for informed discussions on the Bioeconomy.

These experts represent a wide variety of interests – scientific community and researchers, primary producers, industry, policy-makers, and civil society – and they are nominated for an initial mandate of 2 years.

Their role is to closely assist the Commission in the implementation of the Bioeconomy Strategy in Europe.

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Airbus, Air France, Safran and Total together to create a French biofuel industry

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Total's headquarter in Paris
Total’s headquarter in Paris

At the Paris Air Show 2013, Airbus, Air France, Safran – a leading international high-technology group with three core businesses: aerospace, defence and security – and oil giant Total organized the “Joining our Energies – Biofuel Initiative France” flight to illustrate the French industry’s technical capacity to integrate aeronautical biofuels. The four players underline the need to improve research into the development of sustainable biofuels with a view to creating a French biofuel industry.

Today, the air transport sector generates around 2% of global man-made CO² emissions. Manufacturers are fully mobilized to reduce the impact of air transport by all possible means. As the aviation industry has no alternative to liquid fuels of fossil origin, the use of biofuels is essential for drastically reducing CO² emissions.

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EU Stakeholders of the Bioeconomy meet in EFIB to prepare the Biorevolution

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Square Cube in Brussels
Square Cube in Brussels

Leading companies and policy makers are collaborating to fuel the growth of the bioeconomy in Europe. The partnership of Biobased and Renewable Industries for Development and Growth in Europe (BRIDGE) is industries vision for building stronger more sustainable value chains, based on renewable raw materials, across Europe. It is the result extensive dialogue between a broad range of sectors, SMEs, Research Institutes and policy makers and, if adopted, will form part of the EU’s new Research and Innovation programme, Horizon 2020. Continue reading →

Bye Bye Europe. British Petroleum Invests in Advanced Biofuels in America

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BP's Refinery
BP’s Refinery

Oil major BP is directing investment in advanced biofuels to the United States and South America due to uncertainty about the European Union’s future regulatory environment.

“At the moment we are not contemplating investing in second-generation cellulosic (ethanol) in Europe simply for the reason that there is not enough certainty on what the market conditions will be like,” Phil New, head of BP Biofuels, said in an interview with Reuters UK.

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In Scotland Advanced Biofuels from the By-products of the Malt Whisky Industry

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Lagavulin Distillery in Port Ellen (Scotland)
Lagavulin Distillery in Port Ellen (Scotland)

A Scottish energy start-up commercialises a process for producing a superior next generation biofuel (and other high value sustainable products) from the by-products of biological industries. The company – Celtic Renewables is its name – is initially focused on the £4 billion Scottish Malt Whisky industry as a ripe resource for developing bio-butanol – a next generation biofuel.  Biobutanol has 25% more energy per unit volume than bioethanol; it has a lower vapour pressure and higher flashpoint (making it easier to store and safer to handle); it can be blended without requiring modifications in blending facilities, storage tanks or retail station pumps; in sharp contrast to ethanol, it can run in unmodified engines at any blend with petrol and may also be blended with diesel and biodiesel; it is less corrosive than bioethanol and can be transported using existing infrastructures.  Biobutanol was legally recognised as a biofuel by incorporation in the 2009 amendment to the Road Transport Fuel Obligation (the UK implementation of the EU Renewable Energy Directive, which dictates that 5% of the UK’s transport fuel comes from a renewable source by 2013, and 10% by 2020).

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Novozymes and Novo Nordisk utilize wastewater to produce biogas

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Novo Nordisk's production site in Kalundborg
Novo Nordisk’s production site in Kalundborg

Novozymes and Novo Nordisk, Danish big companies, have in collaboration installed a 36 meter tall, high-performance biogas reactor. The new biogas reactor utilizes wastewater from both Novo Nordisk and Novozymes’ large production in Kalundborg for an efficient production of biogas.
There are two specific reasons for Novozymes’ investment in the new biogas reactor. “Firstly, we can reduce CO2 emissions from our production. This enables us to reduce our CO2 emission with 21,000 tons annually, equivalent to emissions from 12,000 households or 1000 trucks each driving a 1000 kilometers,” explains Line Sandberg, Vice President in Novozymes’ Danish production.

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