Government
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Collaboration news: MBI, Canada, Europe
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MBI (Michigan Biotechnology Institute) has partnered with Sarnia, Ont.-based Bioindustrial Innovation Canada for a collaboration-driven binational agreement designed to expedite development and commercialization of bio-based chemicals and materials. MBI, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Michigan State University (MSU) Foundation, focuses on the development and commercialization of bio-based technologies, many of which have been precipitated…
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US agencies invest in biorefineries
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As part of a 2011 Presidential directive, the Departments of Navy, Energy, and Agriculture announced today that three companies have been awarded contracts to construct and commission biorefineries capable of producing “drop-in” biofuels to meet the transportation needs of the military and private sector. Made through the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Protection Act (DPA)…
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Danish biorefinery receives EU funding
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The EU Commission has awarded €39 million in funding from the NER300 program to Maabjerg Energy Concept, a consortium of companies that include DONG Energy, Novozymes, and local utilities, Vestforsyning, Struer Forsyning and waste management company Nomi, towards the construction of a 80m liters/year cellulosic biorefinery in western Denmark. Today, most of the 1st generation bioethanol…
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POIC biomass project launched in Malaysia
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I had the pleasure of moderating a session featuring several presentations from some Malaysian agencies and companies at the BIO World Congress last May, and I learned about their plans on how to deal with their palm biomass through POIC (Palm Oil Industrial Cluster) Sabah Sdn Bhd, a company owned by the state government of…
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Brazilian Industrial Biotech Association (ABBI) launched
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Companies that include Amyris, BASF, BioChemtex, BP, Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira, Dow Chemical, DSM, DuPont, GranBio, Novozymes, Raizen and Rhodia have joined forces to form the Brazilian Industrial Biotechnology Association (Associação Brasileira de Biotecnologia Industrial or ABBI) with a primary objective of fostering a dialogue within Brazilian society about the advancements of industrial biotechnology in…
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US renewable chemicals to gain from the New US Farm Bill
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I have been working on this since February but unfortunately travel and work has further delayed me from posting this. Tecnon OrbiChem’s April Bio-Materials issue just came out yesterday and now, I have a few days of blogging before becoming busy again preparing for the Biopolymers Symposium and BIO World Congress. This news about the…
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Global Bioenergies gets Australia patents
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Australian Intellectual Property Office has granted two patents – AU2009265373 and AU2010297362, to Global Bioenergies that protect key steps of its process for converting renewable resources into isobutene. Each of the granted patents protects one essential enzymatic reaction of the isobutene production pathway constructed by Global Bioenergies. The particularity of this process is that isobutene is directly…
