Japanese materials maker Toray Industries is going to start mass production of polyester made entirely from plants, a breakthrough poised to cut reliance on petroleum and slash carbon emissions, Nikkei has learned. Toray developed what is being described as the world’s first 100% plant-based polyester jointly with Virent, a U.S. biofuels company. Production is set to begin in the early part of this decade, people familiar with the matter said.
Oman-based Towell Engineering Group and GF Biochemicals set up a joint venture (JV) for the production and marketing of biochemicals using GF Biochemicals proprietary technology.
The aim of the JV, whose name is NextLevvel Biochem, is to build a leading position in bio-solvents and bio-plasticizers based on levulinic acid. Levulinic acid is considered a key bio-based building block enabling a wide portfolio of derivatives.
INEOS, the global manufacturer of petrochemicals, speciality chemicals and oil products headquartered in UK, and UPM Biofuels signed a long-term agreement to supply a renewable raw material for new and innovative bio-attributed polymers to be produced at INEOS Köln, Germany. INEOS will use UPM BioVerno, a sustainable raw material from a renewable residue of wood pulp processing, to produce bio-attributed polyolefins.
Working to drive the circular economy in packaging as well, one of its main business segments, Braskem signed a partnership to leverage the development of sustainable solutions. All 1-liter and 5-liter packaging of the Brazilian company Biowash , a pioneer in the development of 100%-biodegradable natural homecare products, now will be made from a mixture of renewable plastic, made from sugarcane , and post-consumer resin (PCR).
DMC Biotechnologies, the US BioBased specialty chemical company, has successfully produced its lead product, L-alanine at pilot scale. Commercial key performance metrics were achieved and performance from the bench scale was also demonstrated at 3m3scale fermentation and for each of the downstream purification unit operations. The robustness of DMC’s Dynamic Metabolic Control technology to the process environment was also validated.
Neste and Outotec have jointly verified the viability of applying Neste MY Renewable Isoalkane™ as a fully bio-based diluent for extracting metals in hydrometallurgical processes. The diluent is based on Neste’s NEXBTL technology and produced entirely from bio-based waste and residue raw materials.
Nestlé joined forces with Burcon and Merit, two key players in the development and production of high-quality plant proteins. This partnership will enable Nestlé to further accelerate the development of nutritious and great-tasting plant-based meat and dairy alternatives with a favorable environmental footprint.
Novamont, Turin Polytechnic and University of Bologna launched in Rome, ReSoil Foundation, a new tool to boost a real change, starting from soil health and the key concept of territorial regeneration.
The new foundation aims at promoting activities in the fields of scientific research, technology transfer, training and dissemination, and the creation of awareness on issues related to soil health, a non-renewable resource, increasingly degraded by the anthropogenic action, pollution and climate change.
Finnish company UPM takes the next transformative growth step and enters the biochemicals business by investing in a biorefinery at Leuna, Germany. The biorefinery will produce a range of 100% wood-based biochemicals which enable a switch from fossil raw materials to sustainable alternatives in various consumer-driven end-uses. The investment opens totally new markets for UPM with large growth potential for the future.
Eighty years after nylon’s first commercial production, clean manufacturing technology leader Genomatica achieved a new milestone for the material — its production of the world’s first renewably-sourced ton of the key ingredient for nylon-6, made from plants instead of crude oil.
Nylon, the first totally synthetic fiber to be made into consumer products including apparel and carpet, is responsible for an estimated 60 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year through traditional production which begins with crude oil. Continue reading
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