Versalis, Eni’s chemical company, and BTS Biogas, an Italian company in the building and managing sector of biogas plants, have agreed to develop and commercialise an innovative technology for the production of biogas and biomethane from residual lignocellulosic biomass.
Haldor Topsoe will build a 10 kg/hour methanol plant to demonstrate the company’s electrified and extremely compact eSMR Methanol™ technology for cost-competitive production of sustainable methanol from biogas. The eSMR Methanol™ technology exploits the full carbon potential of biogas by utilizing the 40% CO2 content which is routinely separated and vented today. The technology heats the process using green electricity from wind turbines or solar panels instead of natural gas.
Innovation within the bioeconomy needs a deep analysis of the market. We can identify and exploit trends and market needs. This article describes the need for market analysis in the bioeconomy sector, and provides insights on developments in biogas and bioplastics, for future market exploitations.
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.
Rising demand for energy, from biofuels to shale gas, is a threat to freshwater supplies that are already under strain from climate change, the United Nations said in a report last Friday. March 22 was World Water Day in the UN calendar. It urged energy companies to do more to limit use of water in everything from cooling coal-fired power plants to irrigation for crops grown to produce biofuels.
Canadian corporation Iogen has developed and patented a new method to make drop-in cellulosic biofuels from biogas using existing refinery assets and production operations. The company estimates there is refining capacity in place to incorporate 5-6 billion gallons per year of renewable hydrogen content into gasoline and diesel fuel. Iogen will initially commercialize the approach using landfill biogas, and then expand production using biogas made in the cellulosic ethanol facilities it is currently developing.
Novozymes and Novo Nordisk, Danish big companies, have in collaboration installed a 36 meter tall, high-performance biogas reactor. The new biogas reactor utilizes wastewater from both Novo Nordisk and Novozymes’ large production in Kalundborg for an efficient production of biogas.
There are two specific reasons for Novozymes’ investment in the new biogas reactor. “Firstly, we can reduce CO2 emissions from our production. This enables us to reduce our CO2 emission with 21,000 tons annually, equivalent to emissions from 12,000 households or 1000 trucks each driving a 1000 kilometers,” explains Line Sandberg, Vice President in Novozymes’ Danish production.
Si sa, il business è business. E a questo deve aver pensato la cancelliera tedesca, Angela Merkel, più che al rispetto dei diritti civili in Ucraina e all’ex premier, Julia Timoshenko, che resta in carcere. Ricorderete che partì proprio da Merkel l’idea di boicottare l’Ucraina ai recenti campionati europei di calcio (tenutisi proprio in Polonia e Ucraina). Dicevamo, il business è business e così la Germania, messi da parte gli scrupoli estivi, intende aiutare l’Ucraina a stabilire la propria produzione di biocombustibili nel 2013. È quanto rende noto il ministero ucraino per le Politiche agricole e l’alimentazione (minagro.gov.ua), diffondendo una dichiarazione di Juergen Keinhorst, rappresentante del ministero federale tedesco per l’Ambiente intervenuto a un recente meeting economico ucraino-tedesco. Secondo Keinhorst, la Repubblica federale tedesca è pronta a investire in progetti piloti nel settore in Ucraina.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 