Investments
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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…
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Global Bioenergies advances bio-isobutene commercialization
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Because I like posting videos, here’s one that was just published by France-based Global Bioenergies, which is currently building its new bio-isobutene demonstration plant at Leuna, a German petrochemical/refining complex. The first run on the demo plant is expected this autumn. Global Bioenergies also recently announced a EUR 9 million funding received under the Investissements…
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Hard times for public renewable chemical companies
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The past year and a half (or almost two years) has been very hard for public chemical companies as Codexis and Solazyme (now Terravia) reinvented themselves, while Gevo and Metabolix shareholders seem to be now looking into selling the companies as options due to financial difficulties. Gevo just announced that it hired Cowen & Company to explore…
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Rivertop, Amyris expand capacities
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These are late news but better late than never. It is refreshing to hear capacity expansion for renewable chemicals (even those that are just at pilot/demo scale) in the midst of low crude oil price environment. Montana-based Rivertop Renewables announced that it has exceeded the nameplate capacity of its first commercial production facility during benchmark testing.…
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Air Products Will Exit Energy-from-Waste Business
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Air Products recently announced that it will exit its Energy-from-Waste (EfW) business. As a result, the EfW business segment will be accounted for as a discontinued operation effective in the Company’s second fiscal quarter. Air Products expects to record a pre-tax charge in the range of $900 million to $1.0 billion in discontinued operations, primarily to write…
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Second gen bio-succinic acid coming soon
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Good afternoon here in sunny San Diego! Day 2 of the BIO World Congress in Industrial Biotechnology and our friends from Sustainability Consult sent us this news regarding BioAmber’s plans to soon use cellulosic high-purity dextrose for their bio-succinic acid in Sarnia, Canada, as well as other products (bio-BDO, bio-THF) in future planned facilities. BioAmber has…
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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,…