Green Chemicals Blog
Biorefinery
UPM gears up for bio-MEG commercialization
UPM Biochemicals is gearing up for its incoming wood-based glycols production in Leuna, Germany, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2023 and ramping up to its full 220 ktpa biorefinery capacity by 2024. The main products that will be produced from the biorefinery are Bio-MEG (monoethylene glycol), bio-MPG (monopropylene glycol), renewable … Continue reading
Newlight to build its AirCarbon facility in Ohio
Newlight Technologies has entered into various agreements with Long Ridge Energy Terminal, which is jointly owned by a subsidiary of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure (FTAI) Investors LLC and an affiliate managed by GCM Grovesnor, to build and operate a new facility in Hannibal, Ohio, to produce the company’s Aircarbon® biomaterial made from PHB (poly-3-hydroxybutyrate). This … Continue reading
Amyris starts fermentation plant in Brazil
I have not covered Amyris as much as I would like to in the past few years as the company is more focused on highly-specialised chemicals compared to the products I typically cover for Tecnon OrbiChem’s monthly Bio-Materials report. However, it is interesting to hear that the company has finally started its new precision fermentation … Continue reading
Bio-based commodity chemicals in the spotlight
Will rising crude oil price again accelerate the investments for the commercialisation of bio-based chemicals especially for drop-in commodities? This month alone, sugarcane ethanol-based ethylene producer Braskem announced the establishment of a joint venture company with Japan-based Sojitz Corporation to produce biomass-derived monoethylene glycol (MEG) and monopropylene glycol (MPG). The companies plan to make a … Continue reading
Canada seeks bio-based projects
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) is a nationally focused not-for-profit business accelerator who provides critical strategic investment, advice, and services to business developers of clean, green and sustainable technologies. BIC is currently seeking Letters of Intent (LOI) for research projects to be considered as part of BIC’s BioProducts AgSci Cluster under an anticipated Agriculture and Agri-Food … Continue reading
Update in metathesis technology commercialisation
Last month, the death of Professor Robert Grubbs, a 2005 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and instrumental in the development of metathesis catalysts, took me back all the way in 2008 during the formation of Elevance Renewable Sciences, one of the few start-up companies I’ve interviewed and started covering when I started the blog in … Continue reading
Blog posts on wood-based fibres and chemicals
Happy Thanksgiving to our US readers! I deemed last week’s AFCC’s first conference in Washington DC as a success and I, along with my colleague from Forest2Market, had a productive workshop session focusing on forestry feedstock for biofuels and renewable chemicals. We also had a presentation from the Pine Chemicals Association about the importance of … Continue reading
Pyrolysis Projects on a Hot Investment Streak
Sorry for the lack of posting as this month is cray-cray! To make a small amend, I am sharing my Bio-Materials special report this month about several pyrolysis projects particularly using woody biomass and waste plastics. I’ve also interviewed Agilyx for this report which you can download on this link: https://www.orbichem.com/blog/pyrolysis-projects-on-a-hot-investment-streak For a brief snapshot … Continue reading
Restructuring in the pine chemicals market continues
Early this year, I wrote a special report on the ongoing restructuring within the global pine chemicals industry (yes, it is free to access) and I guess one of the biggest transactions to date (if not the biggest in the pine chemicals market) is this recent announcement on the acquisition of Kraton Corporation by South … Continue reading
Economic Impact of US Biobased Products Industry
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its 2019 Economic Impact Analysis of the US Biobased Product Industry celebrating the USDA’s 10th anniversary of the creation of its Certified Biobased Product Label. Established in 2011 underneath USDA’s BioPreferred Program, the Certified Biobased Product Label is intended to spur economic development, create new jobs and provide new … Continue reading