Daily News

New technology developed at the University of Waterloo could make a significant difference in the fight against climate change by affordably converting harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuels and other valuable chemicals on an industrial scale.

The world’s first commercial scale CO2-to-methanol plant has started production in Anyang, Henan Province, China.

Recently, a Korea-Spain joint research team recreated bioplastic from wasted by-products from gas fermentation from steel mills.

Breakthrough discovery to replace the barrel with synthetic biology, addressing one of the largest carbon emitters in the chemical industry

With chemical production lending to more than 15 % of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions [1], start-up RenewCO2 (Cranford, NJ, USA) announced its spin-out from Rutgers University (Piscataway, NJ, USA), securing an exclusive licensing to scale its novel catalyst technology to convert carbon from hard-to-abate sectors and transform it into a feedstock for carbon-negative, plastic monomers at a fraction of the cost of plastics derived from fossil sources.

A team of Texas A&M AgriLife Research (College Station, TX, USA) scientists has developed a system that uses carbon dioxide, CO2, to produce biodegradable plastics, or bioplastics, that could replace the nondegradable plastics used today.

Swiss sports brand On (Zurich)presents the first shoe made from carbon emissions, called Cloudprime.

Materials manufacturer Covestro (Leverkusen, Germany) and SOL Kohlensäure (Burgbrohl, Germany) have concluded a framework agreement for a supply partnership for biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2).

Newlight Technologies (Huntington Beach, CA, USA) and CNX Resources Corporation (Canonsburg, PA, USA) recently announced that the companies have entered into a 15-year agreement to capture and utilize methane emissions for the production of Aircarbon®, a naturally-occurring molecule also known as PHB that replaces conventional plastic but is carbon-negative and biologically degrades in natural environments.

One of the major environmental issues facing the planet today is the rising levels of plastic consumption and waste. According to a recent OECD study, the world produced 460 million tonnes of plastics in 2019 and consumption will continue to rise despite an expected increase in recycling technologies deployment.

Recently Zara released a limited-edition line of sustainable fashion made from captured carbon emissions.

A consortium, including LanzaTech (Skokie, IL, USA) and Danone (Paris, France), led to the discovery of a new route to monoethylene glycol, (MEG), which is a key building block for polyethylene terephthalate, (PET), resin, fibres, and bottles.

Avantium (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), a leading technology company in renewable chemistry, announces that it has been awarded a EUR 3 million grant by the EU Horizon Europe programme for its participation in the 4-year research and development programme WaterProof.

The second edition of the Renewable Materials Conference (10–12 May 2022, Cologne, Germany) yesterday presented the Renewable Material of the Year 2022 Award. The winner is Twelve Benefit Corporation (USA) for their "Electrochemical CO2 Transformation to Chemicals and Materials"

Honeywell UOP Ecofining™ process produces bio-naphtha with reduced CO2 footprint compared to products using petroleum-based feedstocks for use as petrochemical feedstock.