The partners of the BIOPEN project carried out 5 perspective studies, that have been centered around two axis: raw materials and intermediate and end products. Raw materials include lignocellulosic biomass, micro and macro algae, and waste. Products are categorised into bio-energy, bulk products (eg. bio-aromatics), biofuels and energy carriers, intermediate chemicals (syngas, glucose, lipids etc.).
French biotech company Global Bioenergies and German cars manufacturer Audi signed a new agreement focused on the implementation of residue usage, preparation of a path to commercialization and engine testing of new blends. Following the completion of a first series of engine testing and significant progresses of the isobutene bioproduction process, the two companies have agreed to start a new program.
LanzaTech, Virgin Atlantic and partners are one-step closer to building the world’s first large scale Alcohol to Jet (ATJ) facility producing commercial quantities of fuel in the UK. The commercial facility would convert low carbon ethanol produced from waste emissions, to jet fuel.
Royal DSM, the Dutch global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, is helping professional cyclists Team Sunweb to recover faster in this year’s Tour de France with its dietary antiplatelet, Fruitflow®. This forms part of the innovation partnership between DSM and Team Sunweb that aims to improve the health, nutrition and cycling materials of the professional athletes.
Italian company Saipem signed a Memorandum of Understanding as well as an exclusive agreement with California Ethanol & Power, LLC, for the realisation of a low carbon emission plant for the production of ethanol fuels, electricity from renewable sources, biomethane and other secondary products derived from sugar cane cultivated on site.
Amsterdam-based Avantium, a leading technology development company and forerunner in renewable chemistry, will officially open a pilot biorefinery for its Zambezi technology in Delfzijl, Netherlands. Opening ceremonies will take place in Amsterdam on 10 July and in Delfzijl on 13 July. The province of Groningen is supporting the pilot biorefinery with a RIG (‘Regionale Investeringssteun Groningen’) subsidy of €1.8 million.
Leaf Resources has been selected by Unreasonable Impact, a global partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group focused on scaling up ventures that have the potential to solve major environmental and societal problems while creating the jobs of tomorrow. Leaf is the only Australian company – as well as the only bioeconomy company – chosen for the current programme, focused on the Asia-Pacific region.
“Cascade use and reuse/-cycling are important factors for the success of the bioeconomy, but the products need to be designed in an appropriate way for recycling. For sure, carbon storage in the material is a positive side effect, but I see this more as a leverage to increase competitiveness of bio-based products compared to fossil-based products, e.g. through a CO2tax for fossil-based products”. To say it – in this interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Andreas Kiesel, a researcher at the University of Hohenheim, who is coordinating the BBI JU Demo Project GRACE, “which is demonstrating the feasibility of 10 bio-based value chains for hemp and miscanthus biomass at an industry relevant scale”.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Bio-on, the Italian company operating in the high quality bioplastic sector, yesterday inaugurated its first owned plant designed to produce 100% natural and biodegradable special PHAs bioplastics for high added value niche markets, such as the microbeads used in the cosmetics sector.
Scandinavian multinational company Stora Enso opened Europe’s largest wood fibre-based biocomposite plant. The opening ceremony took place last June 4 at the company’s Hylte Mill outside of Halmstad in South-west Sweden, and was attended by more than 150 guests. Stora Enso’s investment of €12 million in a biocomposite plant is part of the company’s ongoing process of becoming a renewable materials company. It aims at showing that Stora Enso is a leader in the bioeconomy, with the ability to provide innovative, more sustainable alternatives to plastic.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 