Green Chemicals Blog
glycols
Bio-based commodity chemicals in the spotlight
Will rising crude oil price again accelerate the investments for the commercialisation of bio-based chemicals especially for drop-in commodities? This month alone, sugarcane ethanol-based ethylene producer Braskem announced the establishment of a joint venture company with Japan-based Sojitz Corporation to produce biomass-derived monoethylene glycol (MEG) and monopropylene glycol (MPG). The companies plan to make a … Continue reading
Unilever expands to CO2-based surfactant raw material
My special report on Tecnon OrbiChem’s Bio-Materials newsletter this month was about fermentation-based surfactants particularly glycolipids given BASF’s recent investments in this market. Unilever was also mentioned in my report as one of the big consumer brands that are now also using glycolipids in some of its detergents portfolio. Unilever’s goal, as publicly announced by … Continue reading
Avantium opens bio-glycols demo plant
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, … Continue reading
Plaxica sells technology portfolio
Hello blog readers! After 2 months of hiatus (and recovering from health problems), I am hoping to slowly get back to writing and let me start with this news from UK-based industrial biotechnology company, Plaxica, which recently announced the sale of its two technology business, its Xylex® cellulosic sugar technology and Versalac® lactic acid process … Continue reading