Neste, Airbus, Safran Engines and Microflite, a leading Australian helicopter operator, have jointly operated Australia’s first helicopter flights using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). On this demonstration flight, an Airbus H130 helicopter powered by a Safran Arriel 2D engine used blended sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supplied by Neste.
“It is in everyone’s interests for life-sustaining chemicals to be manufactured both safely and reliably. We would argue that it is also extremely important that those chemicals be as sustainable as possible, so that future generations will have a habitable plant to use them on.” Jason Camp, CTO at Circa Group, talks to Il Bioeconomista. The Australia-based company is converting waste biomass into advanced biochemical materials.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
“Within the bioeconomy we have a massive range of new tools and opportunities to exploit this chaotic time.” To say it – in this long exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Tony Duncan, CEO of Circa Group, the Australia-based biochemical company, which is revolutionizing the traditional chemical sector. With him we talk about his company and the bioeconomy in the COVID-19 age.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Last December Tony Duncan, CEO of Circa Group, was nominated by our readers the Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEO 2017. In this long interview with Il Bioeconomista, he talks about this recognition, what is innovation, the bioeconomy and the next steps of his company.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
First of all, congratulations for the recognition as The Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEO 2017. What is innovation in the bioeconomy, from your point of view?
Thank you – it was certainly a surprise to be nominated, and the result is very much a confirmation of Circa’s approach and the efforts of the team over the past 9 plus years – staff, shareholders, researchers and partners!
Australia-based Leaf Resources has secured a license for an innovative biodegradable coating product for the packaging market. The product is based on lignin and also utilizes glycerol, two of the products that Leaf’s Glycell process will produce. According to the company, “Leaf’s Glycell process break down plant biomass at lower temperature and pressure and generate a higher yield of cellulose than conventional approaches”.
“By taking the time to scale up efficiently and deliberately, our position in the bioeconomy is growing. Circa remains focused on creating non-toxic, high-performance chemicals from cellulose, using our FuracellTM technology. We are targeting a market of over 900,000 tonnes per annum, growing at 4%. While we do not want to compete in the inevitable price war currently unfolding, as companies vie to be ‘last man standing’ to extract some cash out of legacy plants producing these toxic products, we do see plenty of opportunity to sensibly scale into the market over the next 5-10 years”. To say this – in this long, exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Tony Duncan, CEO of Circa Group, an Australian innovative company which is converting biomass into advanced biochemical materials.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
“It is great recognition of where Leaf has got to in the bioeconomy in a very short space of time. It is also recognition of our compelling technology.” Ken Richards, CEO of Leaf Resources, who has been voted by our readers as the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2016, talks to Il Bioeconomista.
In this interview Richards talks about the achievements of its company, its team and the Australian bioeconomy.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
SECOS Group, a leader in sustainable packaging formed through the merger of Cardia Bioplastics and Stellar Films Group in April 2015, announced the successful scale-up production of its “environmentally friendly, high quality and cost competitive Biohybrid™ films” tailored for the global personal care and hygiene product markets. The company manufactures a broad range of Biohybrid™ hygiene films at its Stellar Films Australian cast film manufacturing plant.
Ground-breaking Australian research on the viability of aviation biofuels was released last Friday, at the culmination of almost three years of work by The University of Queensland, James Cook University, The Boeing Company, Virgin Australia, Mackay Sugar and IOR Energy.
The results of the unique study as part of the Queensland Sustainable Aviation Fuel Initiative have been published in the international journal Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining and were presented at the Boeing-hosted Aero Environment Summit in Sydney.
Researchers at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, based at The University of Queensland, looked at the engineering and associated financial viability of biofuel production.
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