ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading steel and mining company, LanzaTech, the carbon recycling company, and Primetals Technologies, a leading technology and service provider to the iron and steel industry, announced last Monday they have entered into a letter of intent to construct Europe’s first-ever commercial scale production facility to create bioethanol from waste gases produced during the steelmaking process.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, and SUN (Stiftungsfonds für Umweltökonomie und Nachhaltigkeit), presented the results of a major new study at the European Commission’s stakeholder conference on the circular economy in Brussels last June 25. “Growth Within: A circular economy vision for a competitive Europe” reveals that by adopting circular economy principles, Europe can take advantage of the impending technology revolution to create a net benefit of 1.8 trillion euro by 2030, or €0.9 trillion more than in the current linear development path.
The Greek crisis is an opportunity to reflect again on our idea of Europe. In our opinion the euro is an irreversible process. But it is absurd to weigh on the ECB, in fact the only European institution truly federal, the task to deal with the crisis with the only instrument of monetary policy.
Versalis, Italian oil giant Eni’s chemical company and a major producer in the polymers and elastomers industry, Ecombine and EVE Rubber Institute – respective subsidiary and affiliate companies of Mesnac, a Chinese global leading rubber & tire machinery corporation – announced a Joint Technology agreement to develop an innovative technology for high performance green tires.
The Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking, a public-private partnership between the EU and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC), has approved the funding of 10 projects totalling €120 million to boost the EU capacity to stimulate growth and jobs via a more circular, low carbon and sustainable bioeconomy.
The LEGO Group announced a significant investment of DKK 1 billion (approximately € 135 million) dedicated to research, development and implementation of new, sustainable, raw materials to manufacture LEGO® elements as well as packaging materials. The LEGO Group believes a new sustainable material must have an ever-lighter footprint than the material it replaces across key environmental and social impact areas such as fossil resource use, human rights and climate change.
Celtic Renewables won Europabio’s Most Innovative Biotech SME Award for Industrial Biotech.
France will have its own strategy on bioeconomy. This was announced yesterday by Christophe Luguel, international relations manager of IAR-Pole (French Industry and Agro-resource cluster), during a conference on bioeconomy held in Frankfurt am Main, in the frame of Biobased world at Achema 2015.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Metsäliitto Cooperative signed last Friday a EUR 75 million loan agreement for the construction of a new large-scale bio-product mill in Finland (Äänekoski). The financing will be submitted for backing by the EU budget guarantee under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).
The bioeconomy speaks German. Today in Frankfurt, Germany, Achema opened the doors. BiobasedWorld at Achema 2015 is the place where bioeconomy becomes visible and tangible. Just as bioeconomy is present everywhere in our daily life it can also be found in every exhibition group at Achema, therefore there is no dedicated space for BiobasedWorld.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 