“You’ve probably sat on it, built with it, and maybe even eaten it, but did you know that your car could be next to benefit from bamboo, one of the world’s strongest natural materials?” This question is asked by the Ford Motor Company, the global automotive and mobility company based in Dearborn, Michigan, with about 201,000 employees and 62 plants worldwide. While investment in research has led to breakthroughs in new materials like super strong carbon fiber and lightweight aluminum, nature’s wonder material may have been growing all along and as much as three feet in a day. Soon, some surfaces inside Ford’s vehicles could be made from a combination of bamboo and plastic to create super hard material.
Carrefour joined forces with Air Liquide to open the first of its biomethane stations in France
Carrefour, the French multinational retailer headquartered in Boulogne Billancourt, has kicked off roll-out of its bioNGV (a 100% renewable energy using waste to produce biogas) service stations, so it can expand its fleet of vehicles running on biomethane. Its aim before the end of 2017 is to have
9 service stations so that 200 lorries can make clean, silent deliveries to 250 urban stores in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Lille.
Elevance Renewable Sciences partnered with Chemtura for lubricant applications
A new biogas plant will convert residues from the factories of Novozymes and Novo Nordisk
DONG Energy and Bigadan is to build a large-scale biogas plant that will reuse residues from the production facilities of Novozymes and Novo Nordisk in Kalundborg on Zealand. The four companies have just signed an agreement which, from spring 2018, will carry yet another significant contribution to the Danish production of green energy from biogas. The new biogas plant in Kalundborg will convert residues from the factories of Novozymes and Novo Nordisk in Kalundborg to bio natural gas which can be fed directly into the Danish natural gas grid.
EU Parliament votes to ban the use of palm oil in biofuels
The European Union should introduce a single certification scheme for palm oil entering the EU market and phase out the use of vegetable oils that drive deforestation by 2020 to counter the impact of unsustainable palm oil production, such as deforestation and habitat degradation, particularly in South-East Asia. This is what said MEPs in a resolution voted last week.
Butamax Advanced Biofuels acquires Nesika Energy to expand the bio-isobutanol business
Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC, a 50/50 joint venture between BP and DuPont, combining expertise in fuels with industrial biotechnology, announced the acquisition of Nesika Energy, LLC and its state-of-the-art ethanol facility in Scandia, Kansas. Butamax will now start the detailed engineering work to add bio-isobutanol capacity to the facility, while continuing to produce ethanol before and after adding this capacity.
UK ETI launched a new project to make bioenergy cheaper and more efficient
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), a public-private partnership between global energy and engineering companies and the UK Government. launched a new biomass feedstock improvement process project which aims to show how the removal of impurities and contaminated material from sustainable biomass could make bioenergy cheaper and more efficient, consequently delivering better greenhouse gas savings.
Covestro, Rifra and Sirca join forces: the new furniture is bio-based
The furniture industry is a front-runner in the implementation of waterborne coatings as an alternative to traditional solventborne systems. Now a collaboration between design furniture company Rifra Milano, coatings supplier Sirca and German chemical colossus Covestro shows that the sustainability of furniture can be improved even further.
An interview with Marc Palahi, director of EFI: An ambitious bioeconomy strategy is needed
“An ambitious bioeconomy strategy for Europe is needed. A strategy that coordinates the significant policy instruments relevant for it, including research and education, public procurement, infrastructure planning and development, and creates incentives for investors and businesses to lead the change towards a bio-based economy”. Marc Palahi, director of the European Forest Institute (EFI) talks to Il Bioeconomista. In this exclusive interview, he talks about bioeconomy and circular economy, Brexit and Donald Trump, the role of mass media and much more. And he launches also the second edition of the EU Bioeconomy Investment Summit, which will be held on 14 December in Helsinki (Finland).
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
The Ellen McArthur Foundation launches Urban Biocycles: value from organic waste
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation today launched a new scoping paper – Urban Biocycles –produced in collaboration with World Economic Forum, in front of delegates from leading international institutions, at the annual Forum for the Future of Agriculture (FFA2017) in Brussels. The paper provides the Foundation’s first exploration of how applying circular economy principles could capture new value from biological material flows, in an urban context.
