Conference
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Leaf Resources in biorefinery JV
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I had an interesting interview with Australia-based Leaf Resources regarding their biomass pre-treatment technology called Glycell, which uses glycerol as a reagent, in order to break down plant biomass into lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose at low temperature and pressure. Leaf Resources recently announced a joint venture called Leaf Development LLC with Claeris LLC of Dallas,…
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Evolva on resveratrol-based composites
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Evolva is collaborating with the US Navy (NAVAIR research facility, China Lake, California) to develop a new class of structural composite materials engineered from a polymer resin matrix fabricated from a specified formulation of Evolva’s resveratrol. Evolva has produced and delivered this specified formulation, and will continue to work with the Navy to advance this…
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DOE releases initial 2016 Biomass report
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The US Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has rolled out the first volume of its 2016 Billion-Ton biomass report looking into the potential for US to sustainably produce at least one billion dry tons of non-food biomass resources annually by 2040. This is the third…
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Get to know the New Plastics Economy
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While the blog is still in the bioplastics mood, I’ve been hearing more and more about circular economy when it comes to the plastics industry and I came across this interesting study as well as this new three-year initiative called the “New Plastics Economy” (NPEC) led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with a broad…
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Biodegradable urn now available
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I am on a very tight deadline for Tecnon OrbiChem’s Biomaterials newsletter but I can’t resist posting this news about kickstarter company, Bios Urn (or Urna Bios), based in Spain. This startup is selling a 100% biodegradable urn using a custom moulding system (no glues or chemical additives used) where you can put your loved…
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Braskem Green PE 101
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I think I’ve mentioned before that I like posting videos on the blog. Here is another one from Braskem explaining the production and sustainability of its I’m Green sugarcane-based polyethylene plastic. The company has been heavily promoting the bio-based plastic in the US despite challenges of low crude oil (hence low petro plastics) prices. Braskem…
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Association, Company initiatives, Conference, Government, Investments, Partnership, Press Release, R&D, VideoSynthetic Biology – The next renewables frontier?
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Ok, so the title might be a bit misleading as I’ve been covering agbiotech for more than a decade and synthetic biology companies focusing on chemicals application since 2007 such as Genomatica, Amyris, Codexis, etc. However, it seems there are more and more interests these days on genome engineering tools for chemicals production as DNA synthesis…
