From Bratislava: there is no EU bioeconomy without regions

John Bell, EU Commission, in Bratislava
John Bell, EU Commission, in Bratislava

Another brick towards the European Bioeconomy, starting from regions. The European Commission together with the Slovak Presidency, and under the auspices of Standing Committee of Agricultural Research (SCAR), organised today in Bratislava a conference on the role of EU regions in developing a sustainable European Bioeconomy. The aim of the conference was “to discuss with national and regional stakeholders the new bioeconomy context for the agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the role of research and innovation to overcome the big societal challenges ahead of us and also to identify the barriers in the regions in adapting the bioeconomy strategy”.

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Scottish IBioIC announces over £3 million of investment across six game changing projects

Scottish Exhibition and Convention Center, Glasgow
Scottish Exhibition and Convention Center, Glasgow

Scotland is set to create waves among the global biotechnology arena as its Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) announces over £3 million of investment across six game changing synthetic biology projects including greener skincare products, more sustainable plastics and improvements to personalised medicine therapies.

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Bioeconomy stakeholders from Central and Eastern Europe intensify cooperation

Philippe Mengal
Philippe Mengal

Regional stakeholders from Central and Eastern Europe must intensify cooperation. This is the strong message coming from the European Bioeconomy Congress, organised 6-7 October 2016 in Łódź, Poland. Alongside the publication of the Łódź Declaration of Bioregions, the Bio-Based Industry Consortium (BIC), the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) and eight Polish regions signed a Letter of Intent to develop new bioeconomy partnerships.

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NC Partnering launches a new bio-ecosystem called the BioFutureFactory

jukka-2
Jukka Kantola, Ceo NC Partnering

In Finland, NC Partnering has launched a new bio-ecosystem called the BioFutureFactory, “a highly fertile growing ground for a multitude of emerging bio-economy projects and applications, and with the added beauty of being a concept that is a perfect example of circular economy”, explains Jukka Kantola, CEO of the Finnish company in a talk with Il Bioeconomista about this new project, which aims at bringing costs of the feedstock down to enable bio-operators to build their operations on sustainable, renewable and economical premises.

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

 

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BASF and Avantium establish a new joint venture called Synvina

Headquarter of Basf in Ludwigshafen
Headquarter of Basf in Ludwigshafen

BASF and the Dutch leading chemical technology company Avantium yesterday announced that they have established a joint venture (JV) called Synvina for the production and marketing of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) produced from renewable resources (fructose from plants as feedstock rather than conventional oil derivatives), as well as marketing of polyethylenefuranoate (PEF), based on this new chemical building block.

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Pasquale Granata and Mathieu Flamini launch The BioJournal

Mathieu Flamini and Pasquale Granata launch The BioJournal
Mathieu Flamini and Pasquale Granata launch The BioJournal

Published “to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.”

We can borrow this mission statement written on the contents page of the first issue of The Economist, published by James Wilson in September 1843, to define exactly the reason that today, 173 years later, leads to the launch of The BioJournal.

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Supporting Catia Bastioli. The bioeconomy is democracy

bastioli-a-bottrighe-2She has created the Italian bioeconomy. Thanks to her passion, her tenacity, her ability, Italy today can rightly claim to be a leading country in this field. All this in the total lack of an Italian strategy on bioeconomy.

The inauguration last Friday of Mater Biotech’s plant in Bottrighe di Adria, the first in the world capable of producing butanediol from renewable sources, is her umpteenth great victory. The demonstration that the bioeconomy is a reality, that creates wealth and jobs in an environmentally friendly way. That the goals can be achieved with passion and determination, putting into practice a new idea of sustainable enterprise.

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Novamont opens world’s first commercial-scale bio-BDO plant in North-eastern Italy  

Catia Bastioli, Ceo of Novamont

Mater Biotech, a 100% company owned by Novamont, today proved Genomatica’s revolutionary technology that converts renewable feedstocks into 1,4 butendiol (BDO) at the Grand Opening of its first commercial bio-BDO plant in Bottrighe di Adria (Rovigo, Italy).

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Clariant and Global Bioenergies: first isobutene production from a wheat straw hydrolysate

Hariolf Kottmann, Ceo of Clariant
Hariolf Kottmann, Ceo of Clariant

Global Bioenergies and Clariant announced yesterday the first isobutene production from a wheat straw hydrolysate, in the industrial pilot of Pomacle Bazancourt, France. This is the result of a collaboration initiated more than 18 months ago, and has been made possible by combining Clariant’s proprietary process, allowing for the conversion of agricultural residues into sugar-rich hydrolysates, with Global Bioenergies’ proprietary process for the production of isobutene from various industrial-grade sugars.

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Global Bioenergies, Preem, Sekab and Sveaskog join forces to develop forest-based fuel

Marc Delcourt, co-founder and CEO of Global Bioenergies
Marc Delcourt, co-founder and CEO of Global Bioenergies

Global Bioenergies, Preem, Sekab and Sveaskog yesterday announced having joined forces to develop a high-performance fuel entirely based on forest resources. The consortium has signed a collaboration agreement to carry out a conceptual scope study for a first plant in Sweden. This work will be carried out as part of the “Bio-Based Gasoline Project” with support from the Swedish Energy Agency.

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