Bioeconomia: il rilancio italiano passa da Massa Marittima

platea.jpgIn Italia si comincia a parlare seriamente di bioeconomia. L’ultima occasione è stata offerta da un seminario che si è tenuto lo scorso 9 maggio a Massa Marittima, organizzato dalla Fondazione Arare dell’ex presidente di Confagricoltura, Federico Vecchioni, con la partecipazione di esperti, accademici, imprenditori e politici. Tra questi Paolo Bortolozzi, relatore al Parlamento europeo della Comunicazione sulla bioeconomia.

Proprio Bortolozzi nel suo intervento ha sottolineato come il settore della bioeconomia sia stimato oggi in Europa in 2000 miliardi di euro e dia lavoro a 22 milioni di persone. Si tratta perciò di un’area su cui investire con forza per generare lavoro e nuovi posti di lavoro. La Commissione europea stima inoltre che per ogni euro investito nei settori della bioeconomia oggi si possa generare un valore aggiunto di 10 euro entro il 2025.

A Massa Marittima si è discusso di come l’Italia possa agganciare questo sviluppo grazie all’uso intelligente delle risorse biologiche e rinnovabili, provenienti dalla terra e dal mare, finalizzato ad uno sviluppo industriale ed energetico ecologicamente e socialmente sostenibile. La Commissione europea sta sostenendo infatti un processo decisionale volto a tradurre in atti normativi coordinati una strategia indirizzata all’innovazione per una crescita sostenibile dell’economia continentale, rendendola più efficiente e competitiva, con un positivo e significativo impatto sui livelli occupazionali.

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Now is the time in Europe to bring advanced second-generation biofuels to the market

mazda_bp_biobutanol.jpgThe Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels (LSB), a group composed by the Chief Executive Officers of seven Leading European biofuel producers and European airlines, met the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels last week. The meeting was hosted by the ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy) Committee, chaired by Mrs Amalia Sartori, to discuss the positions of the EP ITRE Committee on the European Commission revision of the Renewable Energy Directive – RED. The positions expressed by Mr Alejo Vidal Quadras, the Rapporteur of the ITRE Committee, and reported in his draft ITRE Draft Opinion, were supported by the Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels.

The Leaders, whose chairman is Guido Ghisolfi, President of Mossi & Ghisolfi Group, headquartered in Tortona (Piedmont, Italy), sent a clear message to the Parliament members: “Second Generation Advanced Biofuel technologies are ready to compete with conventional biofuels, with companies keen to invest in commercial projects given appropriate conditions”.

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Solazyme and AkzoNobel enter into an agreement targeting the development of advanced tailored oils

AkzoNobel.jpgSolazyme, Inc., a renewable oil and bioproducts company headquartered in South San Francisco (California, USA), and AkzoNobel, a leading global paints and coatings company and a major producer of specialty chemicals headquartered in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), announced that they have entered into an agreement targeting the development of advanced tailored oils and commercial sales for near-term product supply.

“Tailored oils – is written in a press release of both companies – can enhance or replace petroleum-derived chemicals, and improve upon the performance of plant oils and animal fats”. The Solazyme and AkzoNobel agreement is rooted in a shared commitment to sustainability and high-performance products derived from triglyceride oils.

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EFIB 2013: Brussels world capital of the bioeconomy from 30 September to 2 October

square-brussels-cube-by-dayEuropaBio, The European Association for bio-industries, and Smithers Rapra unveil highly-anticipated agenda for the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology (EFIB) from 1-2 October 2013 taking place in the heart of Brussels at SQUARE. Officially launched by Elio di Rupo, Prime Minister of Belgium, EFIB’s opening plenary brings together a host of keynote speakers including Rudolf Strohmeier, Deputy Director General R&I at the European Commission; Maria da Graça Carvalho, Rapporteur on Horizon 2020 in the European Parliament and CEOs of Ecover and Galactic. Followed by exciting partnership perspectives from the Plant PET Technology Collaborative and a session lead by Ian Hudson, President of DuPont EMEA, examining the triggers for big business to make the shift towards the biobased economy. All speakers set the scene for another outstanding year, and transform the event from conference to congress.

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PoliKompleks invests 30 million euros to construct a bioplastics plant in Russia

moscowPoliKompleks, a Russian industrial biotechnology company, plans to invest around 1,2 billion rubles, 30 million euros, to construct a bioplastics production complex in Russia’s far western enclave of Kaliningrad. To say it is Nikolai Tsukanov, governor of the Kaliningrad Region.

PoliKompleks has reached agreement to establish plants for products based on lactic acid and polylactides (PLA) for the manufacture of some 50,000 tpa of biocomposites. The complex will also have a biodegradable de-icing reagents plant with a capacity of around 12,000 tpa. The Russian company expected to reach an annual turnover of 1,4 billion rubles, approximately 34 million euros.

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Shopping in Denmark for the Norwegian Seaweed Energy Solutions

seaweed.jpgSeaweed Energy Solutions, a Norwegian company focused on seaweed-to-fuel business, has reached an agreement to acquire 100 percent of Denmark’s Seaweed Seed Supply AS, a move that sharply reinforces SES’ position as Europe’s leading player in large-scale seaweed cultivation for renewable energy and other uses.

The acquisition of Seaweed Seed Supply marks a key step for SES in its strategy of pioneering large-scale seaweed farming due to Seaweed Seed Supply’s position as Denmark’s leading commercial producer of seaweed for fish and livestock feed on a sustainable basis. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

With the purchase, Seaweed Seed Supply’s goal of increasing production to 100,000 tons by 2017 from the current 5,000 tons capacity can become a reality. SES technology will be introduced in Denmark and the two companies will jointly improve and adapt the technology to the local environment.

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Mossi & Ghisolfi acquires IntegRex PTA technology license for use in Texas PTA-PET new plant

Mossi-Ghisolfi-I.jpgMossi&Ghisolfi Group announced last Wednesday a Licensee Agreement with Alpek, the largest petrochemical company in Mexico and the second largest in Latin America, for IntegRex PTA, Purified terephthalic acid, technology. The technology will be used in the construction of M&G’s previously announced 1,200,000 MT per annum PTA plant at Corpus Christi, Texas. M&G also announced, Alpek purchased for a price of $350 million a multiyear sourcing agreement covering rights 400,000 MT of PET, Polyethylene terephthalate, (made with 336,000 MT of integrated PTA) per year.

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Martin Schnee, Breslin AG: “Investments into alternative sources might be re-thought”

shale gas in usa“Shale gas might be a game changer by bringing gas, coal and finally oil prices down. And cheap oil will no drive industries to make high investments into alternative raw materials”. To say it is Martin Schnee, partner of Breslin, one of the most important transaction strategic advisory companies in Europe in the field of bioeconomy, with offices in Zurich, London, Frankfurt am Main and Munich. In the context of the development of the bioeconomy, Schnee warns against the increasingly important role played by shale gas, a natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States since the start of this century, and interest has spread to potential gas shales in the rest of the world. In 2000 shale gas provided only 1% of U.S. natural gas production; by 2010 it was over 20% and the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration predicts that by 2035, 46% of the United States’ natural gas supply will come from shale gas. Schnee speaks with us about bioeconomy from an investment point of view, considering that “alternative energy and biomaterials from alternative sources might make a large contribution to Europe’s future growth”.

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

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Chatham House: UK biofuel policy may need to be modified

biodieselUK biofuel policy may need to be modified. To say it is a report published by Chatham House, a british think tank focused on “Costs and Consequences of Expanding Biofuel Use in the United Kingdom”. According to Rob Bailey, author of the report, “in its present form the RTFO (Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, editor’s note) may not be an appropriate instrument for achieving the RED (Renewable Energy Directive, editor’s note) target economically. Its volumetric target incentivizes suppliers to minimize cost per litre by supplying ethanol, thereby also minimizing the amount of energy supplied by biofuels. This runs counter to the objective of the RED to increase the share of energy from biofuels.

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In EU Synpol project aims at converting waste into bioplastics

only plasticsWaste can be base of new bioplastics. There are many waste resources hidden in our communities. Municipal solid waste (MSW), agricultural residues and sewage sludge from water treatment plants contains lots of reusable carbon fractions. To recover them means recovering a valuable product as well as preserving the environment. The European Commission is working in order to develop the Synpol (“Biopolymers from syngas fermentation”) project, that is funded under the Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology Theme of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of € 7.5 million.

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