Daily News

An enzyme variant created by engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin (USA) can break down environment-throttling plastics that typically take centuries to degrade in just a matter of hours to days.

Styrofoam egg cartons, hard plastic compact disc cases, red drinking cups, and many other common products are composed of polystyrene, a type of plastic that makes up a third of landfill waste worldwide.

In October 2016, students from the Dutch universities TU/e (Eindhoven), TU Delft, Avans (Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch, and Tilburg), and the Eindhoven’s vocational colleges built a footbridge on the TU/e campus. The unique thing about this bridge was not that it was built on the TU/e campus, but that it was made from a biocomposite material that included flax, and it was the world’s first biocomposite bridge.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers are part of a new USD 6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop bioplastics for use in agriculture over the next four years.

Researchers discover an enhanced reaction rate when gold and palladium nanoparticles are placed on a conductive support.

UBC Okanagan (Kelowna, Canada) researchers have adapted a technique – originally designed to embalm human remains – to strengthen the properties of biocomposites and make them stronger.

The Department of Energy has granted USD 2 million over three years to Braskem America, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Princeton University to develop plastic that can be recycled perpetually, reducing waste and pollution from single-use plastics.

Inspired by the always immaculate lotus leaf, researchers have developed a self-cleaning bioplastic that is sturdy, sustainable, and compostable.

Sustainable biochemicals company Circa Group AS has been awarded €8.2 million from the French government for the development of its ReSolute plant in Eastern France as part of the ‘France Relance’ programme.

Aduro Clean Technologies, Inc. a Canadian developer of patented water-based technologies to chemically recycle plastics and to transform heavy crude and renewable oils into new-era resources and higher- value fuels, has announced the achievement of the first milestone under the securities exchange agreement dated October 22, 2021.

A new innovation project called PyroCO2 aimed at demonstrating the large-scale con version of industrial carbon emissions into value-added chemicals and materials kicked off today.

A study using Circa’s renewable solvent Cyrene and new solvent Cygnet 0.0 showed that they have enhanced performance in the production of membranes, as well as when used as solvents in the bio-catalysed synthesis of polyesters. This work opens up a wealth of possibilities to replace toxic, fossil-based solvents throughout polymer chemistry.

In an article published on 10 June in Nature Communications, researchers at the University of Cambridge Knowles Lab describe how they are able to create a polymer film from plant protein that is sustainable, scalable and 100 percent natural.

While plastics are processed at temperatures considerably higher than 100 degrees Celsius, enzymes usually become denatured at these high temperatures. Now, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP have managed to reconcile these contradictions: they are able to embed enzymes in plastics without the enzymes losing their activity in the process.

Avantium N.V, a leading technology company in renewable chemistry, announces that that it has been awarded a total of €1.78 million by the EU Horizon 2020 program.

A new report has been published, laying out the current state of the carbon economy within the EU as well as the technological and societal challenges that prohibit a sustainable transition to the circular economy.

With the launch of a new, unique event – the Renewable Materials Conference – comes, too, a new innovation award for the Renewable Material of the Year 2021. The conference, said organiser nova Institute, is an attempt to bring all relevant industries involved in the development of renewable material solutions under the umbrella of a single, all-encompassing 3-day ‘renewables’ event.

Sustainable biochemicals company Circa Group AS has announced that Dr Sarah Hickingbottom has joined the company as General Manager for New Product Development and Stakeholder Relations on 29 March 2021.

The University of Bath has become the first UK university to sign the Green Chemistry Commitment - a charter to train the next generation of chemists in the theory and application of green chemistry principles.

Renewable chemistry company Avantium N.V., a leading technology company in renewable chemistry, has announced that its subsidiary Avantium Renewable Polymers (“Avantium RNP”) has signed two additional conditional offtake agreements for the supply of PEF resin to manufacture bottles and films, bringing the total now to four such contracts.

The annual Green Talents Competition, organised by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), has been won by Laura Rovira Alsina, a doctoral student in Water Science and Technology at the University of Girona (Spain).

Scientists from the University of Bath have made a sustainable polymer using the second most abundant sugar in nature, xylose.

Polyolefins and biopolymers producer Braskem has joined forces with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) to develop a new route for producing ethylene, a raw material used to make thermoplastic resins.

A University of Akron (UA) professor’s latest development in bioplastics has the potential to make important strides in sustainability for future plastics.

Products made from bio-based plastics must undergo the same testing procedures as conventional plastic products to access the market of the European Union (EU), in order to exclude any health risk for consumers.

ReSolute, the Flagship EU project focused on creating a new, sustainably-sourced, safer alternative to traditional, fossil-based solvents, launches today.

Scientists at NREL - the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy – have come up with what they claim is a ‘groundbreaking method for producing renewable polyurethane without toxic precursors’.

Evonik and Siemens Energy have started up a pilot plant sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) that uses carbon dioxide and water to produce chemicals.

A recent invention of 3D printable printing material from U.S. Navy scientists could make the underwater equipment strategically left in the ocean biodegradable.

A new European project called ELIOT project, in which, among other partners, Dutch research centre TNO is taking part, has been launched to study and develop at large scale the most promising recycling methods for biocomposites – especially the materials now being used in the aerospace industry.