Clariant, a sustainability-focused specialty chemical company, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Shanghai Boiler Works, a full subsidiary of Shanghai Electric, specializing in energy conversion and the development of new energy applications, to jointly foster innovation in sustainable energy solutions. The partners will combine their expertise to advance green energy projects in China.
NewEnergyBlue, the clean-technology designer of biomass refineries that turn agricultural waste into highly decarbonized biofuels and biochemicals, and MetGen, the Finnish pioneer in advanced enzymes and lignin fractionization, began integrating their renewable technologies and business units to vigorously compete with fossil-carbon products not just environmentally but economically.
“This phrase by Robert Schuman, founder of Europe, has marked my political commitment from the start. “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan: it will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.” It summarizes Schuman’s pragmatic and progressive approach to building European unity, starting with specific projects that could bring nations together and build a basis for cooperation and mutual trust. The analogy with the Bioeconomy is perfect.” To say this – in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Franck Leroy, the President of the Grand Est Region in France, one of the leading bioeconomy regions at European level. He talks about the role of the bioeconomy fur the future of the Region is governing, for France and for the European Union, inviting all our readers to vote for the next election of the EU Parliament (and we fully support his invitation). “It is therefore essential – he states – that public policies are consistent with each other, to foster innovation and the development of the Bioeconomy in our territories, in our countries, and in our continent. And I believe that the regional level is undoubtedly the most relevant level to intersect all these ambitions.”
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Finnish company Valmet will deliver boiler conversions and emission reduction solutions for Veolia Group’s Hungarian subsidiary CHP-Invest Kft at its power plant in Oroszlány, Hungary. The order includes the conversion of two coal-fired boilers to bubbling fluidized bed combustion to enable the boilers to run mainly on biomass fuel. The order is included in Valmet’s orders received of the fourth quarter 2022. The value of the order is approximately 25 million euros. The converted boilers will be handed over to the customer in the first and second quarter of 2024.
In response to the growing importance of bio-based renewable raw materials, manufacturers of biomass-derived chemicals created a new sector group within the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic): Biomass-derived Chemicals Europe (BioChem Europe). The group represents companies using feedstocks based on biomass as their raw materials to produce chemicals.
A new demo plant in Örnsköldsvik will be the first in the world to produce a 2G platform for sustainable fuels, chemicals and materials, coined GOLDILOCKS®, from pulp and paper industry residues. The plant will be built by the Swedish chemical and clean tech company Sekab together with the Dutch oil company Vertoro.
The Italian Renewable Energy Consortium for Research and Demonstration (RE-CORD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory for coordination on thermochemical conversion of biomass for the production of biofuels and chemicals.
We receive and publish with pleasure this contribution sent by professor Olli Dahl (Aalto University, Finland), who presents a list of all the main investments and their products in Finnish bioeconomy, and considers whether the country’s forest resources can cope with so much new potential capacity in the forest industry sector.
The U.S. bioeconomy moves forward (despite of Trump). The University of Arizona has received a five-year grant of up to $15 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to lead a new center focusing on the mass production of biofuels and bioproducts in the Southwestern U.S.
Covestro, the leading supplier of high-tech polymers headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany, has scored a research breakthrough for the use of plant-based raw materials in plastics production: aniline, an important basic chemical, can now be derived from biomass. The German materials manufacturer achieved this by collaborating with partners on the development of a completely new process, initially in the laboratory. Until now, only fossil raw materials had been used for the production of aniline, which plays an important role in the chemical industry and is used as starting material for numerous products.
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