Company initiatives

This category contains 497 posts

Gucci to establish “Circular Made in Italy”

I’ve always been advocating on the blog about luxury brands taking the lead to test the waters in using renewable chemicals, ingredients, materials and packaging, especially since they can easily afford to pay high premiums for low-volume, sustainable products. Gucci has long been doing this, as far as I recall. I reported on a blog … Continue reading »

Algae: Should they stay or should they go?

Sorry about the title, but my brain is clouded with the Clash song. I must confess that I’ve been indoctrinated with classic rock music for the past 4-5 years, so they’re now sticking in my brain cells. So, algae…remember the days of Solazyme and Sapphire Energy? I remember the former Cereplast had a subsidiary called … Continue reading »

Nova-institut releases new global bioplastic report

nova-Institute has finally released its latest report – “Bio-based Building Blocks and Polymers – Global Capacities, Production and Trends 2022-2027” – stating a CAGR growth of 14% for bio-based polymers between 2022 and 2027.  In this report, the polymers are grouped into bio-based ‘drop-in’, ‘smart drop-in’ and ‘dedicated’ inputs within the chemical production chain. The … Continue reading »

Braskem mulls bio-PP plant in the USA

Braskem announced this month that it is evaluating the possibility of producing physically segregated bio-based polypropylene plastics using bioethanol feedstock. Braskem is also exploring partnership opportunities for this project with several clients, brand owners and suppliers. The press release indicated that this project will be located in the USA, where ethanol supply and infrastructure are … Continue reading »

Bioplastics to enter 2023 with a strong capacity surge

I’ve written a special report about the bioplastics industry this month based on the European Bioplastics’ recent annual conference held in Berlin and the release of their industry data which was compiled by nova Institute. This report is only available for Tecnon OrbiChem’s Bio-Materials subscribers, but anybody can access the European Bioplastics Association’s press release … Continue reading »

Solugen in the spotlight

Somebody asked me a month ago what information I have on the Texas, USA-based start-up firm Solugen. Unfortunately, I had very little in my archives since I started hearing about the company in early 2019 when it received $13.5 million in financing from investment firms Founders Fund, Fifty Years and Y combinator. The company was … Continue reading »

Calyxt produces plant-based squalene

I guess Amyris will have some serious competition for its sugar-based squalene. Calyxt, a synthetic biology company based in Minnesota, announced this week that it has successfully produced squalene using its Calyxt-engineered Plant Cell Matrix™ biomass. Squalene is traditionally sourced from shark liver oil, but companies across several industries, including cosmeceuticals and pharmaceuticals, have already … Continue reading »

Renewable ethylene update

Hello blog followers. I was unable to blog until now due to very tight schedules and deadlines after my two-week holiday in September. We published our October Bio-Materials report last Tuesday, and I just want to share some interesting news from LanzaTech that I included in the report. The company has been busy churning out … Continue reading »

Bio-BDO and Succinic Acid Updates

My schedule this October is so tight, but I need to squeeze in these two announcements because it’s rare these days to receive information on bio-based succinic acid and bio-based 1,4-butanediol (BDO). This brief news a month ago about TechnipEnergies acquiring DSM’s Biosuccinium® technology is very interesting to me, given that is currently the only … Continue reading »

Give bio-based products in the EU a chance

The European Bioplastics organisation gave me a heads-up on this. interesting development about the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method, which can help companies calculate their environmental performance based on reliable, verifiable and comparable information, and for other actors (public administrations, NGOs, business partners, for example) to have access to such information. The fundamental principle … Continue reading »

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