Green Chemicals Blog

  • , , , , ,

    Recent biorefinery deals

    .

    Abengoa has been selected by Fulcrum BioEnergy to build its first biorefinery, worth $200m, to be located in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, Nevada (USA). The facility will use gasification technology to convert municipal solid waste (MSW) into syncrude that will be upgraded into jet fuel. Abengoa will be responsible for the turnkey execution of the…

  • , , ,

    Joule bags $40m for CO2-to-ethanol project

    .

    Joule has closed a $40 million in private equity and venture debt financing led by existing investors, including Flagship Ventures, and brings the company’s total to $200 million raised to date.The proceeds will be applied towards a staged industrialization of its patented, reverse-combustion process, including the near-term expansion of Joule’s production field in Hobbs, New Mexico.…

  • , ,

    Evonik offers sophorolipid biosurfactants

    .

    It has come to my attention that I’ve been remiss of not mentioning Evonik’s announcement early this year on the commercialization of its sophorolipids surfactants as part of my Bio-based surfactants roundup post yesterday. Unlike rhamnolipids, sophorolipid surfactants have already been commercialized and are being used by companies such as Ecover and Henkel in limited cleaning products.…

  • , , , , ,

    Bio-based surfactants roundup

    .

    For the past several months now, I have been covering several renewable-based and biotechnology-based surfactants for Tecnon OrbiChem’s Bio-materials reports (mostly under oleochemicals) but let’s go back again to sugar-based surfactants such as glycolipids. Last year, the blog reported about Logos Technologies’ NatSurFact® line of biodegradable surfactants based on rhamnolipids.  As I have reported in…

  • , ,

    LanzaTech, China Steel to invest in ethanol facility

    .

    I am still working on that promised surfactant article I tweeted on Monday in preparation for next week’s World Surfactants Conference hosted by ICIS and Neil Burns LLC, of which I will be attending and will be tweeting as well (#Surfactants via @DGreenblogger). In the meantime, I am posting this press release from LanzaTech last week…

  • ,

    OPXBIO sells fermentation tech to Cargill

    .

    UPDATE 5/1/15: OPXBIO stated that it is closing after the transition of its technology and assets to Cargill. A comprehensive article about this is written by Biofuel Digest in this link. I am in the middle of my newsletter deadline when this announcement popped up in my email inbox. Cargill said it has now acquired…

  • , , ,

    100% bio-based Polyurethane in the market

    .

    I have been reporting several ongoing activities about pentamethylene diisocyanate (PDI) for the past several months now at Tecnon OrbiChem’s Bio-Materials newsletter. PDI is being touted as a bio-based alternative to petrochemical-based hexamethylene diisocyanate, which is used in the production of polyurethanes. With the introduction of PDI in the market, it is now possible to…