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The blog has compiled several news from the financial community starting with the closing of BioAmber’s initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday. I’m guessing it is still a difficult market for renewable chemical companies wanting to be public as BioAmber was only able to get to the low end of its IPO expectations, raising $80m … Continue reading
OPX Biotechnologies and Evonik announced yesterday a development collaboration on bio-based specialty chemicals but unfortunately there is not much information given on the press release and so I am hoping to get something more soon. In the meantime, California-based Micromidas Inc. recently announced that it has developed a chemocatalytic route to paraxylene from cellulosic biomass … Continue reading
The blog posted last month the possibility of Genomatica licensing its bio-based 1,4 butanediol (BDO) processing technology to BASF after Toray announced that it has successfully produced prototypes of partially bio-based PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) engineering plastic components using Genomatica’s bio-BDO. If readers recall, the blog noted BASF’s Malaysian subsidiary BASF Petronas Chemicals is currently supplying … Continue reading
The blog hopes that readers have been following our live tweets coming from #APIC13 (Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference). According to Mitsubishi Chemical, it is planning to expand capacity for its isosorbide polymer DURABIO from the current 5,000 tonnes/year to 16,000 tonnes/year by 2014. Mitsubishi Chemical also noted that its biodegradable polymer polybutylene succinate (PBS) project under … Continue reading
Good news blog readers! My presentation on bio-based chemicals feedstock as well as my colleagues’ presentations on bio-based fibers and polymers are now available for download at Tecnon OrbiChem’s website. You can also download other Tecnon OrbiChem presentations for those who are interested in overview of shale gas, current markets on methanol-acetyls, chlor-alkali, urethanes, polyester … Continue reading
Good morning from Taipei, home of this year’s Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (#APIC13). My apologies for the sparse blog post as I prepare for my presentation later this afternoon about bio-based chemicals feedstock. If my boss will let me, I will post the presentation later this week. APIC 2013 conference in Taipei, Taiwan In the … Continue reading
I just saw this really cool video on a local news tonight about a solar power plane called “Solar Impulse” currently flying across America. The airplane prototype HIB-SIA, is the first designed to fly solely on solar power without any fuel and its goal for the second aircraft model HIB-SIB is to fly around the … Continue reading
The green blogger is preparing for her trip to Taipei next week for a presentation alongside Tecnon OrbiChem at the APIC (Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference) on May 9. If she is lucky with getting a free wifi, she will tweet some of the good stuff coming from the conference. Follow hashtag #APIC13 (as #APIC2013 is … Continue reading
Last week, France-based chemical firm Solvay (through its Polyamide & Intermediates business) announced its plans to invest in a polyamide 6,10 production unit at the Saint-Fons Belle-Etoile site in Lyon in order to “better serve customers seeking for more eco-friendly solutions.” No other information was given such as how much PA 6,10 will be produced … Continue reading
The green blog has just signed in as a media partner for Roquette University’s Green Chemistry and Fermentation Symposium, which will be held on May 22-23 at Roquette America’s Innovation Center in Geneva, Illinois. Here is the preliminary line-up for the event. Maybe I’ll also get a lab tour if I get lucky!
Swiss engineering firm Sulzer has been awarded a contract for the delivery of a polylactic acid (PLA) production plant in Asia based on its proprietary technology. The facility will have more than 10,000 tons/year capacity and is expected to start in the second half of 2014. Of course, the question here is where exactly in … Continue reading
I saw this on one of my LinkedIn groups posted by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and I wanted to share this great information about the developments of wood-based biorefining in the Nordic region. This was a 432-page proceedings from last year’s Nordic Wood Biorefinery Conference held in Helsinki on October 23-25. The program … Continue reading
Waste-to-fuel plant in Maui The County of Maui, Hawaii, has awarded an integrated waste conversion and energy project at the Central Maui Landfill in Puunene to Anaergia Services, the California-based subsidiary of Anaergia Inc. Anaergia will design, build, own, operate and privately finance the renewable fuel facility that converts Maui’s waste streams including municipal solid … Continue reading
Amyris Picks Laserson for Squalene distributor Amyris has picked Laserson, S.A., a supplier of ingredients for the health and beauty industries, as the new exclusive distributor of Amyris Squalane in the European market. Squalene had previously been sourced only from shark liver or olive oil but Amyris said its technology converts plant sugars into squalene … Continue reading
Here is another exciting news, this one from Genomatica and Japanese chemical firm Toray. The companies said Toray has successfully produced prototypes of molded partially bio-based PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) engineering plastic components using Genomatica’s bio-based 1,4 butanediol (BDO). PBT is currently produced by polymerizing petroleum-based BDO and terephthalic acid (TPA). Sample molded parts made with … Continue reading
It has been awhile since the blog heard from US bio-adipic acid producer Rennovia. Today, the company puts out a press release that it has successfully demonstrated production of hexamethylenediamine (HMD) from renewable feedstock Now, some of you are probably wondering what is HMD? Some actually use the acronym HMDA for this chemical, which is … Continue reading
You probably noticed by now that the blog has a make-over as it prepares for its own “commercial start-up” of sorts. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here is a report from the European Bioplastics stating that approximately only 300,000 hectares of land worldwide was use in 2011 to grow feedstock for bioplastic manufacture, … Continue reading
In honor of Earth Day (it has been awhile since the blog last posted about this event), here is a list of some of the new bio-based products in the market as well as several chemical products launched in the past weeks (or so). According to a Sustainability Survey white paper published last year by … Continue reading
As the blog mentioned yesterday, development for bio-butadiene seems to be expanding as evident with the entry of Cobalt Technologies and its two Asia-based partners announced this week. Last week, similar to what Cobalt Technologies is planning, Versalis and Genomatica formalized its technology joint venture agreement to develop a complete end-to-end process for on-purpose production … Continue reading
Biobased n-butanol producer Cobalt Technologies has been very busy this week with a partnership deal and a production milestone. The company first announced that it is entering the bio-butadiene space by partnering with two Asian chemical companies to develop a biomass-to-butadiene processing technology, and followed by construction of a commercial-scale biorefinery in Asia. The partners … Continue reading
I wonder if BioAmber’s continued intent to become a public company via its IPO (initial public offering) filing last week with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) signals renewed funding optimism within the renewable chemicals industry? So far, another bio-succinic acid producer Myriant has yet to announce if it will also push through its … Continue reading
I am cleaning up my draft box as usual. Here are last week’s biofuel news roundup. Issues and debates on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) especially for cellulosic ethanol as well as E15 ethanol use continue but I won’t go in that direction. I will leave these debates for now in … Continue reading
My apologies for the lack of post as I have to submit my “Biobased Chemicals Feedstock” presentation for APIC this week not to mention several ongoing projects at Tecnon OrbiChem that is keeping me busy. There are three big news that I have to post separately but in the meantime here are this week’s (or … Continue reading
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