Two Italian companies, Bio-on and Sadam Group, has begun working on a project to develop innovative industrial processes, at competitive cost and with low environmental impact, to produce levulinic acid, a key element of the sustainable chemical industry of the future.
Comet Biorefining, the Canadian company focused on the production of high-purity cellulosic dextrose, completed a round of equity financing led by new investor PM Equity Partner. Current investor Sofinnova Partners and new investor Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) also participated in the financing, whose terms were not disclosed.
Novozymes launched the Spirizyme® T Portfolio, an advanced suite of glucoamylase enzymes with trehalase and other yield enhancing activities that provide the most total sugar conversion in the industry. Trehalase is an enzyme that converts trehalose, a type of sugar that cannot be fermented to ethanol, to glucose, which is easily fermentable.
Poet-Dsm Advanced Biofuels, a 50/50 joint venture between Royal Dsm and Poet, Llc. Based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, will build an on-site enzyme manufacturing (OSM) facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa, pending state and local approvals.
Pacific Ethanol, Inc. a leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels in the United States, and Edeniq, Inc., a biorefining and cellulosic technology company, entered into a technology licensing and purchase agreement to enable the production of cellulosic ethanol at Pacific Ethanol’s Madera, California, plant using Edeniq’s Pathway and Cellunator™ Technologies.
The bio-butadiene (bio-BDE) technology developed by Versalis (Eni) in partnership with Genomatica has been named winner of the Environmental Achievement of the Year within the “Tire Technology International Awards for Excellence and Innovation”, the European independent award program for the tire industry.
Avantium, a leading chemical technology company and forerunner in renewable chemistry, partnered with AkzoNobel, Chemport Europe, RWE and Staatsbosbeheer for the development of a reference plant at the Chemie Park Delfzijl. This important step marks the next stage of a collaborative effort to determine the feasibility of a wood to chemicals biorefinery in Delfzijl.
Polish railway vehicle manufacturer Newag SA coated two diesel locomotives with a paint based on renewable resources. Lankwitzer Lackfabrik of Berlin supplied the coating, which it developed in close collaboration with Covestro using the biobased coating hardener Desmodur® eco N 7300.
Finnish oil refiner Neste is considering investing in U.S. production of biofuels in a move seen as a response to possible policy changes by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
Global Bioenergies finalized the acquisition of Syngip B.V. at the close of its extraordinary shareholders’ meeting last Thursday. Established in the Netherlands since 2014, Syngip develops a process to convert gaseous carbon sources into light olefins. Its process is based on a proprietary micro-organism capable of metabolising carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) found in a wide range of low-cost and abundant streams, such as the industrial waste emissions of steel mills.
