Green Chemicals Blog
Clean technology
Bolt Threads’ Partners Introduce Mylo™
California-based biotechnology company, Bolt Threads announced the creation of a consortium with iconic global companies – including adidas, Kering, lululemon, and Stella McCartney – who have secured exclusive access to its innovative material, Mylo™ made from infinitely renewable mycelium – the branching underground structure of mushrooms – but looks and feels like leather. The brand … Continue reading
EU Bioeconomy reaches EUR 2.4 trillion in 2017
The nova-Institute report commissioned by the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) noted that the analysis of the 2017 Eurostat data shows that the turnover of the total bioeconomy*, including food and beverages and the primary sectors of agriculture and forestry, results in just over 2.4 trillion EUR in the EU-28, meaning an increase by 25% since 2008. … Continue reading
Glycolipids Market Expands As Technology Improves
Several biotechnology and specialty chemical companies are ramping up marketing and commercialisation of microbial-based surfactants especially glycolipids like rhamnolipid and sophorolipids as fermentation, extraction and purification processes for these surfactants have vastly improved compared to even a few years back. Production yields of these glycolipids have reportedly improved and premiums over fossil-based surfactants have also … Continue reading
PNNL offers Special Exploratory License Agreement
From time to time, I covered several R&D news coming from the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). One of these was the partnership between LanzaTech and PNNL on their ethanol-to-fuel technology R&D, which I believed, started in 2010. PNNL also has a chemocatalytic technology to convert ethanol to butadiene in a … Continue reading
VIDEO: Green Chlor-Alkali Plant
I am not that familiar with the chlor-alkali industry aside from the information that it uses electrochemical processing which is getting to be popular as well in its potential to produce renewable carbon-based chemicals (example is Avantium’s Volta technology). Electrochemical processing can use renewable energy sources like solar, thermal or wind power but the problem … Continue reading
Working Toward a Circular Economy in Challenging Times – the chemical recycling solution
The present moment is one of unprecedented challenge; for the world of engineering thermoplastics, there has been a chance to serve the needs of key workers, providing materials for protective masks, shields, and gowns. Details of some of these developments are given in the latest Engineering Thermoplastics Chemical Business Focus newsletter, which focuses on how … Continue reading
US DOE’s $5m grant to accelerate bio-based manufacturing
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected eight projects totaling over $5 million to conduct research and development (R&D) needed to accelerate the U.S. biomanufacturing sector. Part of the Agile BioFoundry (ABF) consortium, these projects will leverage National Laboratory capabilities to address challenges in biomanufacturing. DOE has selected the following projects: C16 Biosciences, of New York, NY, … Continue reading
Dow, Shell to develop electric cracking technology
This is interesting news given the rising focus on the use of renewable electricity as well as electrolysis processing in chemical manufacturing. Major petrochemical players, Dow and Shell, recently announced their partnership in developing electric cracking technology specifically for use to electrify ethylene steam crackers. Today’s steam crackers use fossil fuel combustion to heat their … Continue reading
Evonik, Beiersdorf in CO2-based Care Products R&D
Beiersdorf and Evonik have reached an agreement on a research partnership which will develop sustainable raw materials for care products, using carbon dioxide (CO2) as the starting material. One option is artificial photosynthesis technology. The idea: with the aid of electricity from solar energy and bacteria, valuable raw materials are produced with water and CO2, … Continue reading
Amyris launches squalene-based hand sanitizer
I am trying to contain my shopping addiction nowadays with just the occasional hunt for necessities like wearable masks and gloves, disinfecting cleaners and sprays, antibacterial soaps, and hand sanitizers, among other ‘fight COVID-19’ essentials. Thankfully toilet paper, wipes and paper towels are plentiful in my neighbourhood. Yes, I also gave in to buying a … Continue reading