Daily News

BioBTX has successfully attracted the financing it needs to takes the first steps along the path towards the realisation of a commercial-scale plant to produce platform chemicals from waste plastics based on a fully circular and sustainable process. The new plant will represent an important asset for the north of the Netherlands.

Tony Duncan, CEO of Circa Group Ltd, who produces bio-based solvent Cyrene from waste biomass – has announced two additions to the team.

Thailand is attracting billions of baht of investments in bioplastics from global and local players seizing the opportunities the country offers as a production hub for bio-based industries due to its abundant raw materials, existing value chain and supportive government policies, the Thailand Board of Investment said.

Avantium, a leading technology company in renewable chemistry, announces that Michelle Jou has been nominated for appointment to its Supervisory Board for a term of four years. The nomination will be submitted to the Avantium Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on 14 May 2020.

Nestlé today announced that it will invest up to CHF 2 billion to lead the shift from virgin plastics to food-grade recycled plastics and to accelerate the development of innovative sustainable packaging solutions.

Consumers are increasingly demanding eco-friendly plastic packaging products, and specifically, sustainable packaging solutions that can be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. A pioneer in the quest for greater sustainability, Gerresheimer, a leading global partner to the pharma and healthcare industry, offers an extensive standard range of plastic packaging and devices made from PET, R-PET, and bio-PET plastics.

Researchers from Ireland’s Athlone Institute of Technology’s Materials Research Institute are spearheading a major pan European Chinese research effort aimed at tackling plastic pollution - a global crisis of prodigious proportions.

MarketResearch.biz is releasing a new, comprehensive report on “Bio-Based Construction Polymers Market 2020 || Industry Segment By product, application, and region, Regional Outlook, Market Demand, Latest Trends, Share & Revenue by Manufacturers, Company Profiles, Growth Forecasts – 2029”. The new report analyses the current market size and offers forecasts for the next 10 years of growth of this industry.

The “Best CO2 Utilisation 2020” innovation award, which recognises innovations in the field of Carbon Capture & Utilisation (CCU) is pleased to welcome a new co-organiser: CO2 Value Europe. Entries for the award, which gives pioneers in the field of Carbon Capture & Utilisation (CCU) the opportunity to present and market their CO2-based product or CCU technology at one of the world’s leading and best-known conferences on the subject of CO2 as feedstock, may be submitted until 31 January 2020.

A professor of food science and technology at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, William Chen has invented a biodegradable food wrap made of cellulose and extracted from the waste generated by soybean product manufacturers.

Avantium announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Avantium Renewable Polymers, has signed a letter of intent to locate its new flagship plant at Chemie Park Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The 5-kiloton facility will produce plant-based FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) – a key building block for many chemicals and plastics such as PEF (polyethylene furanoate).

Jan Ravensteijn, one of the founders of GO!PHA the Global Organization for PHA, has published a new white paper on the 'naturalness' of PHA. He draws an analogy between industrially fermented PHA in the world of polymers and industrially fermented Vanillin in the world of flavours.

Trioplast, a film manufacturer headquartered in Sweden, has been committed to the sustainable use of their products since the 1990s. The company has a large sustainable product portfolio featuring products with reduced material usage or raw material made from renewable resources. The company has now developed the first premium silage stretch film ever based on post-consumer recycling material (PCR). Trioplast now has a patent pending for the use of PCR in the production of all their stretch films.

Since its invention, plastic has become central in our way of life. In the 1950s, 0.5 million tons of plastic was produced yearly, and this has rocketed to 300 million tons today. However, only 3% of it is recovered and the remaining 97% accumulates in landfills and the sea. Recent research by Austrian scientists from the Medical University of Vienna also found the presence of plastics in the human digestive system.

A few days before Christmas, on 20 Dec, the court of Bologna declared the bankruptcy of Bio-On S.p.A, the company has announced in a statement on the website.

At the upcoming Pharmapack 2020, Bensheim, Germany-based Sanner GmbH, the market leader for effervescent tablet packaging, will present its new Sanner BioBase effervescent tablet packaging for the first time. Sanner BioBase is the first biopackaging of its kind made of renewable raw materials and complies with all demands of modern pharma packaging.

Leading global children’s entertainment company Mattel has announced its goal to achieve 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastics materials in both its products and packaging by 2030. In the first half of 2020, the Company will debut its first product aligned with this goal: the iconic Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack made from sugarcane-based plastics and packaged in 100% recycled or sustainably sourced material.

Braskem, Biowash and Greco & Guerreiro have announced plans to launch a new packaging solution for homecare products made from biobased plastics and post-consumer resin, a combination said to substantially reduce CO2 emissions. The new solution will be used for both the one and the five liter packs of the Brazilian company Biowash, a pioneer in the development of 100%-biodegradable natural homecare products.

At the UN climate conference in Madrid, bamboo was one of the topics of discussion. Climate experts said it could offer an important biobased alternative to plastic, reports INBAR, the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation.

Amsterdam-based renewable chemistry company Avantium, has named Bart Welten as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), tapping an executive with 30 years of experience in finance to replace Frank Roerink. Roerink announced in summer that he would be leaving his post at the end of the year.

Kaneka Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo) has completed the capacity enhancement work for “Kaneka Biodegradable Polymer PHBH®” at its Takasago Plant as scheduled. The completion ceremony was held on December 17th. The investment amount was approximately 2.5 billion yen (41 million EUR) [1], and the production capacity is about 5,000 tonnes / year, five times the previously existing capacity.

Biotechnology company Circa Group has announced it is leading the consortium for new EU project ReSolute – a flagship Horizon 2020 project set to develop the first commercial plant to produce Cyrene a new, sustainably-sourced, safer alternative to traditional, fossil-based solvents.

Senbis, a Dutch company that not only provides independent research and development services but also actively produces sustainable plastic products has tackled one of the more persistent concerns regarding the artificial turf now covering so many sports fields around the world.

Recent studies on the biodegradability of bio-based and biodegradable plastics performed by Finnish environment Institute (SYKE) show that Walki’s Bioska films are among the fastest on the market to biodegrade, both in soil and in marine conditions.

Novozymes has recognised the achievements of professor James C. Liao, President of Academia Sinica, Taiwan with the 2019 Novozymes Award, which he earned for his ‘original and fundamental breakthroughs in microbial synthesis of fuels and chemicals from renewable resources’, according to Jens Nielsen, professor at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability and CEO at BioInnovation Institute in Denmark.

Recently announced by the EU Commission, the European Green Deal represents a roadmap towards a European ‘resource-efficient and competitive economy with zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050’, said François de Bie, chairman of European Bioplastics (EUBP), the association representing the interests of the bioplastics industry. The association sees the bioplastics industry as able to play a crucial role in achieving this deal.

Stora Enso and Sulapac are launching a renewable and biodegradable straw to combat the global problem of plastic waste. The straw has strong usability and works just like a traditional straw. The new straws are available to brands and consumers looking for more eco-friendly solutions.

Ford Motor Company and McDonald’s USA will soon be giving vehicles a caffeine boost by using part of a familiar staple in the morning routine, coffee beans, in vehicle parts such as headlamp housing.

Stora Enso is investing EUR 9 million to build a pilot facility for enabling the production of bio-based plastics to serve as a barrier layer in transparent packaging. The pilot plant will convert plant-based sugars into the renewable building block required to make PEF, a bio-based plastic, mainly targeting the food and beverage industry. The pilot plant will be located at Stora Enso's Langerbrugge Mill in Belgium.

Sustainable technology company Anellotech is significantly expanding its program with Plas-TCatTM, a new process technology aiming to convert a wide range of plastic waste directly into chemicals – which can then be used to make new, virgin plastics.