Company initiatives
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NatureWorks’ $1 Million R&D Lab for methane-based lactic acid
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NatureWorks has opened its new $1 million 8,300 square-foot laboratory at its Minnesota headquarter to commercialize a fermentation process for transforming methane into lactic acid, the building block of Ingeo™ biopolymer. NatureWorks is hiring six scientists to staff the new facility.The methane to lactic acid research project began in 2013 as a joint effort between NatureWorks and Calysta…
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BASF, Avantium plan FDCA JV
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BASF and Avantium announced today their intention to establish a joint venture for the production and marketing of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), as well as marketing of polyethylenefuranoate (PEF), which is being touted as an alternative to PET but with better gas barrier properties and higher mechanical strength. For those who are not familiar with PET,…
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Newlight, IKEA in PHA plastic supply deal
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IKEA SUPPLY AG and Newlight Technologies recently announced a supply, collaboration, and technology license agreement that will supply IKEA with AirCarbon PHA resins from Newlight’s commercial-scale production facilities and enable IKEA to produce AirCarbon thermoplastic under a technology license. Under the agreement, IKEA will purchase 50% of the material from Newlight’s 23 ktpa plant in the…
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Solazyme changes name, abandons commodity chems and biofuel
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It should not come as a shock that Solazyme is now fully rebranding itself as a food and nutrition ingredients producer after recent announcements of production restructuring and layoffs. The company released a statement today that it has renamed itself as “TerraVia” and will now exclusively focus on food, nutrition and specialty ingredients using its…
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Soybean news: A new biorefinery and new products
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The Minnesota Soybean Processors (MnSP) has invested in Ontario, Canada-based Altranex Corporation and entered a license and marketing agreement for renewable lubricant base oils, waxes, diesel and other products using soybean oil as feedstock. The biorefinery will use Altranex’s patented electrolysis process. Altranex is currently building a pilot biorefinery in Ontario that will produce 1…
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Corbion to form 2nd Gen PLA consortium
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I am seeing a lot of consortiums being formed these days and I think that’s a great thing in the renewable chemicals sector. Corbion is inviting users of PLA to join a consortium to accelerate the market introduction of PLA bioplastic resin from second generation feedstock. Second generation feedstocks are those which are not suitable…
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Comet Biorefining to build cellulosic sugar plant
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More press releases coming out the past few days and I’m happy as a clam (I actually have no idea how you can determine if a clam is happy or not). Anyway, Comet Biorefining recently announced that it will build its first commercial biomass sugar plant in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, with a capacity of 60…