Weekly News Roundup

I’m bringing back the weekly news roundup and hopefully will be able to maintain this. These are some of the news that accumulated in my draft box for 2-3 weeks now so my apologies…

Teijin’s polyester recycling in China
Teijin Ltd. has established Zhejiang Jiaren New Materials Co. Ltd., a joint venture with Jinggong Holding Group in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China. Through the JV, Teijin will chemically recycle polyester as well as manufacture and sell the resulting fibers via its ECO CIRCLE technology, Teijin’s closed-loop recycling system for polyester. The JV will invest Yen 6bn ($76m) in the construction of facilities for dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) production, polymerization and spinning with is expected to start by the end of March 2014. The DMT facility will have initial capacity of 20,000 tonnes/year and is expected to expand up to 70,000 tonnes/year. Annual production capacity of recycled polyester will initially be at 19,000 tonnes/year.

Verdezyne bags adipic acid patent
Verdezyne has been grated patent 8,241,879 titled “Biological methods for preparing adipic acid” by the US Patent Office. The patent covers proprietary processes for selectively converting non-petroleum oils into adipic acid.Verdezyne has designed its proprietary adipic acid process specifically for the production of nylon 6,6

DuPont Tate & Lyle expands in Colombia
DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products has appointed Fehrmann S.A. as distributor for Zemea® in Colombia. Fehrmann is a family-owned company serving the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and household markets since 1956. Zemea® is a 100% biobased ingredient made from corn sugar through fermentation and developed for use in the cosmetics and personal care market.

Evonik’s new bio-polyamides
Evonik Industries has launched rayon fiber-reinforced bio-based polyamides which has an overall bio-content ranging between 67% and 100%. Evonik’s VESTAMID Terra polyamides are fully or partially obtained from castor oil and commercially available chopped rayon fibers form the reinforcing fiber substrate. According to Evonik, rayon fibers are obtained entirely from wood residues.

BioAmber’s succinic acid in cosmetics
Personal care ingredient company Inolex is commercializing a range of succinate technologies under the trademark LexFeel N as alternative to natural silicones for use as emollients in personal care and cosmetic products. The succinate emollients uses bio-based succinic acid supplied by BioAmber.

BioNitrogen buys biomass feedstock
BioNitrogen has signed a deal to purchase biomass — tree trimmings, agricultural waste, woodchips — from a 40-acre parcel of land in Hardee County, Florida. The biomass will be used for the production of urea fertilizer. BioNitrogen is planning to build a biomass-to-urea facility within the area.

CTBE picks AdvanceBio Systems
CTBE, the Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory in Campinas, Sao Paulo, has selected AdvanceBio Systems’ SuPR2G Laboratory Scale pretreatment reactor to conduct basic research and development related to the production of fermentable sugars, biofuels and chemicals from lignocellulose-rich biomass. The system is designed to hydrolyze a range of feedstocks such as sugarcane, bagasse, corn stover and switchgrass.

Honeywell’s blowing agent gets EPA OK
Honeywell’s new Solstice liquid blowing agent for foam insulation has received final approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which allows the company to use the product in foam insulation in refrigerators, spray foam insulation for residential and commercial buildings, insulated metal panels and other applications in the US. The product has significantly lower global-warming potential compared to hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) blowing agents.

AND IN BIOFUEL NEWS:

• Lignol has completed a major body of work in producing cellulosic ethanol at its pilot scale biorefinery in Vancouver, Canada, in partnership with Novozymes. The work involved optimization of process conditions for the use of Novozymes’ latest cellulase enzyme preparation, Cellic® CTec 3, with Lignol’s substrate, using Lignol’s 2,500 L fermenters. Performance improvements of up to 35% were observed.

• INEOS Bio’s joint venture project INEOS New PlanetBioEnergy (INPB) has been granted registration from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the production and sale of second generation bioethanol from non-food waste materials. The JV’s cellulosic ethanol facility, with a capacity to produce 8m gal/year, has been completed in June this year. INEOS Bio plans to run municipal solid waste at the facility after the initial start-up.

• KiOR has been granted registration for its renewable gasoline blendstock 5 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required by manufacturers of motor vehicle fuels prior to the sale of the product.  With the registration, KiOR said their cellulosic gasoline will be fueling cars this year. The company’s first production facility in Mississippi is expected to start later this year.

• Sapphire Energy completed the first phase of its 300 acre green crude farm, an integrated algal biorefinery. The initial phase includes necessary mechanical and processing equipment needed to harvest and extract algae and recycle water. When completed, the facility will produce 1.5m gal/year of crude oil. By the end of 2014, the farm is expected to produce 100 barrels/day of green crude.

• Subsidiaries of the Gavilon Group have entered into multi-service commercial agreements with subsidiaries of Advanced BioEnergy with dry mill ethanol facilities located in Fairmont, Neb.; Aberdeen, S.D.; and Huron, S.D. Gavilon will be Advanced Bioenergy’s exclusive ethanol marketer for all three facilities effective immediately. Advanced BioEnergy produces 110m gal/year of ethanol in Fairmont, 50m gal/year in Aberdeen and 30m gal/year of ethanol in Huron.

• BP Biofuels and Texaas AgriLife Research, have signed a 3-year deal to develop and commercialize cellulosic feedstocks to the production of advanced biofuels. The research and development project has two integrated components — plant breeding and production agronomics.