Australian biotech company Circa Group’s FC5 commercial demonstration plant is now online, paving the way to a regular supply of Circa’s bio-based solvent CyreneⓇ. A joint venture between Circa and Norwegian pulp and paper company Norske Skog, the FC5 plant is located in Tasmania, Australia. Now successfully commissioned and operated end-to-end, FC5 is starting to produce a steady stream of 99% pure CyreneⓇ, a non-toxic solvent made from certified and renewable cellulose waste.
Braskem and Haldor Topsoe have reached mechanical completion of the MOSAIK™ process step of their demonstration plant that will produce bio-based MEG (Monoethylene glycol) from sugars. The demonstration plant, located in Lyngby, Denmark, is an important step to upscale the MOSAIK™ solution and begin production at an industrial scale, which is planned to commence in 2023. The plant demonstrates all key design features of the technology and can produce more than 100 tons per year of glycolaldehyde, which is converted into MEG in the next process step.
In 2016 the International Hockey Federation announced a partnership with SportGroup’s leading brand, Polytan, as World Cup and Olympic Partner and supplier of hockey fields for the 2018 and 2022 hockey World Cups as well as the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo.
Royal DSM, a Dutch global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, intends to create a 75/25 joint venture with Nenter & Co., Inc., which will include all Nenter’s production and related assets for Vitamin E.
DuPont Industrial Biosciences officially broke ground last Thursday on its new site at the Leiden Bio Science Park in Oegstgeest, the Netherlands. The state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary facility will utilize the tools of modern biotechnology to make industrial processes more efficient and products more sustainable. The bio-based solutions created in Leiden will have a direct impact on some of the most pressing societal issues of today: reducing food waste; reducing the environmental impacts of livestock farming and improving animal health; producing renewable fuels; and lowering environmental impacts in the textile and laundry industries.
The Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC), a non-profit entity established by Masdar Institute that is part of Khalifa University of Science and Technology, announced the world’s first commercial flight using locally produced sustainable fuel on an Etihad Airways Boeing 787 powered by GE’s GEnx-1B engines.
The flight from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam marked a major milestone in the development of a clean, alternative aviation fuel to reduce carbon emissions. The initiative also addresses food security in the UAE through the farming of seafood as a core element in the process.
Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) will expand its offering to customers in the detergents market through a supply agreement with bio-based polymers maker Itaconix. Under terms of the agreement, Itaconix will produce and supply polymers with chelating properties that Nouryon will market to customers in household, institutional, and industrial detergent and cleaner applications. In addition, the companies will work together to transition many of Itaconix’s current detergent customers to Nouryon.
Syndial, Eni’s environmental services company, begins operating at its pilot plant at the the Gela (Sicily) refinery. The plant transforms Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) by recycling it into bio-oil, which can then be used to produce next-generation fuels. The plant represents the first milestone in a process driven by Eni’s own research and launched with the development of the proprietary waste-to-fuel technology created by Eni’s Renewable Energy and Environmental R&D Center in Novara.
U.S. innovative company Renmatix signed a distribution agreement with The Ingredient House, a leading supplier of specialty food and beverage ingredients, currently selling to many of the top 20 food and beverage manufacturers in the U.S.
