Press Release
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Avantium opens bio-glycols demo plant
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The bio-based glycols market is slowly coming back to life with the addition of new capacities from several companies I’ve been covering these past few years. Last week, Avantium inaugurated its plant-based MEG (monoethylene glycol) demonstration factory in Chemie Park Delfzijl, the Netherlands, using a chemo-catalytic technology the company named Ray Technology™. The demonstration plant,…
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Coca-Cola launches marine plastic bottle samples
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Coca-Cola announced its first-ever sample bottle made using recovered and recycled marine plastics. This sample is the first-ever plastic bottle made using marine litter that has been successfully recycled and reused in food and drink packaging. About 300 sample bottles have been produced using 25% recycled marine plastic retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea and beaches.…
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Salesforce’s Sustainability Cloud tool offers carbon emissions tracking
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I have to admit I’m a little bit biased in reporting this since my older brother works for Salesforce, a cloud-computing service company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that specializes in customer relationship management (CRM). According to the company, it has launched its Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, a carbon accounting product for businesses that provides sustainability…
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Total Corbion celebrates PLA plant start-up
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I have just been updating my share of polylactic acid (PLA) information in Nova Institute’s upcoming biopolymers study and it reminded me how the PLA industry has come a long way from being a novel, niche polymer. Of course, it also helps that there’s another major global player in the block aside from NatureWorks that…
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DOE funds plant genomics and microbes projects
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $64 million in funding for 25 university-led genomics research projects on plants and microbes for bioenergy and bioproducts. The plant research—12 projects totaling $29 million over three years—focuses on expanding knowledge of gene function in plants to be grown for bioenergy and bioproducts. The aim is to…
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Growing bio-based solvent market
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While the bio-based solvent market might have a set-back with the closing of Green Biologics bio-based n-butanol facility in Little Falls, Minnesota (I wrote a more comprehensive report about this in Tecnon OrbiChem’s July Biomaterials issue), consumers for these specialty chemicals continue to look for safer and less carbon emitter alternatives. Braskem announced last month…

