Green Chemicals Blog
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Stora Enso acquires cellulosic sugar developer Virdia
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I know this is a late news but still worthwhile reporting. Stora Enso, a Finnish pulp, paper and packaging company, has acquired 100% of the shares of the US-based cellulosic sugar developer, Virdia, for $33 million (EUR 24 million) with additional potential payouts totaling approximately $29 million following completion of specific technical and commercial milestones…
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Why Tetra Pak chooses renewables?
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Tetra Pak is making a case on why the company is now using renewable-based materials in some of its packaging and has recently released a new white paper examining the use of materials in packaging that can be regrown or replenished naturally as a solution to the planet’s growing resource scarcity and to sustain the future…
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Beverage makers take out BVO in soft drinks
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Which would you like on your soft drinks: brominated vegetable oil (BVO), sucrose acetate isobutyrate, or glycerol ester of wood rosin? According to this article from the United Soybean Board (USB), beverage producers including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have announced the removal of BVO in many popular soft drinks because of pressures from consumer advocates complaining that…
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Danish biorefinery receives EU funding
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The EU Commission has awarded €39 million in funding from the NER300 program to Maabjerg Energy Concept, a consortium of companies that include DONG Energy, Novozymes, and local utilities, Vestforsyning, Struer Forsyning and waste management company Nomi, towards the construction of a 80m liters/year cellulosic biorefinery in western Denmark. Today, most of the 1st generation bioethanol…
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Evonik invests in Biosynthetic Technologies
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German specialty chemical company, Evonik, has closed on an equity investment in Biosynthetic Technologies, LLC (BT), a specialist in biobased lubricants headquartered in Irvine, California. BT has developed and manufactures a new class of bio-based synthetic oils called estolides that are used primarily in the passenger car motor oil and industrial lubricant sectors. Field trials have…
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Maverick Synfuels, Petrostar in GTL JV
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There has been a significant increase in companies looking to convert methane-rich feedstock especially coming from natural gas, flare gas or even biogas (although this one is particularly expensive to do) into biofuels and chemicals. Some uses synthetic biology and others use thermochemical conversion such as gasification. Examples include Calysta Energy, Intrexon, Enerkem, Siluria, Maverick…
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Logos Technologies launches rhamnolipid surfactants
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The blog has covered rhamnolipids in the past but so far the last information I got was in 2012 when a company called AGAE Technologies shipped its first laboratory research-grade rhamnolipid. AGAE has licensed this biosurfactant technology from the Oregon State University. For those who are not familiar with rhamnolipid, it can be produced by fermenting…