Valmet to convert two coal-fired boilers to enable biomass combustion for Veolia Group’s subsidiary in Hungary

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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.

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Manufacturers of biomass-derived chemicals created a new sector group within the Cefic

Daniele Ferrari, President of Cefic. Courtesy of Versalis

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.

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Sekab and Vertoro to build large-scale demo plant to produce a new platform for sustainable fuels, chemicals, and materials

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.

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Italian-U.S. partnership in the bioeconomy: RE-CORD and NREL signed a MoU

Crescentino Plant View: 2G biofuels biorefinery

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.

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Finnish bioeconomy: sensible industrial wood usage benefits our planet

VTT Technical Research Center’s headquarter in Tampere

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.

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The U.S. bioeconomy moves forward in Arizona

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.

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The bioeconomy is now: aniline can now be derived from biomass thanks to Covestro

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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UK ETI launched a new project to make bioenergy cheaper and more efficient

Vivergo bioethanol plant in Hull (England)

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), a public-private partnership between global energy and engineering companies and the UK Government. launched a new biomass feedstock improvement process project which aims to show how the removal of impurities and contaminated material from sustainable biomass could make bioenergy cheaper and more efficient, consequently delivering better greenhouse gas savings.

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GFBiochemicals and American Process join forces to create a world-class integrated biorefinery

Mathieu Flamini and Pasquale Granata, founders of GFBiochemicals

The Italian biochemical company GFBiochemicals and Atlanta-based American Process Inc., which is specialized in the development of technologies for the commercial production of sugars and ethanol from biomass, have entered into a joint development agreement to create the largest integrated cellulosic biorefinery in the world. “The agreement – both companies stated – is rooted in our complementary industrial operations and joint vision for a lower-carbon future”. The proposed biorefinery, located in the U.S, is expected to create 50-200 thousand tonnes per annum of bio-based products, addressing markets with a potential annual value of USD 10 billion.

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NexSteppe expands in South Africa

Anna Rath, founder and Ceo of NexSteppe
Anna Rath, founder and Ceo of NexSteppe

The South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has approved four NexSteppe sorghum hybrids for commercial sale in country. Approved hybrids include both Malibu sweet sorghum and Palo Alto biomass sorghum hybrids. NexSteppe is a US company dedicated to pioneering the next generation of scalable, reliable, cost-effective and sustainable feedstock solutions for the biofuels, biopower, biogas and biobased products industries.

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