Innovations in green chemistry, will they ever come?
There is a very strange body of regulation for biobased innovation subsidies. These rules seem to be exclusively intended to direct biomass and agricultural wastes to the energy sector, ignoring higher-value applications in green chemistry. Will that endanger further development of green chemistry? That might very well be the case. Once again, the ‘cascade model’
Technology, no longer a threat
In fifty years’ time, technology has changed from the bogeyman to the saviour of mankind. Large-scale and energy intensive processes used to be the pinnacle of technology, producing much collateral damage that was merrily cleaned up afterwards (it was all part of the game). But now, we intervene in the processes that constitute life, at
Rob Baan (Koppert Cress): Horticulture should be more innovative
‘Frontrunners in horticulture should concentrate on fresh products that contain ingredients for a healthy diet and would be a remedy against diseases like cancer, obesity and diabetes2. The Netherlands have the best horticultural sector in the world, but misses an enormous opportunity here.’ Says Rob Baan, CEO of Koppert Cress in Monster, the important horticultural
Biorefinery as the key to the circular economy
The Dutch agricultural sector has one major problem: an excess of manure production as a consequence of the large livestock population. Dutch livestock farming depends on major imports of soy and other crops for fodder production. ‘At the end of the pipe’ this produces the manure problem. But biorefinery will enable Dutch farmers to arrive
Human error, a category that raises more questions than it answers
Human error is the label stuck on accidents that cannot be directly explained by the failure of a device, be it mechanical, electric or electronic. But the other side of such errors might well be the variation in the way human beings perform tasks and attain goals, a variation essential to the development of society.
Know-how as a location factor for the biobased chemical industry
Biobased resources and biochemical processes will change the appearance of chemical industry. Changes may occur in scale and in location. There will be a tendency towards a smaller scale. But know-how, the skill of process operators, might become an important location factor. A regional basis The logistics of biobased feedstock differs widely from that of
Focus on biobased materials in a new regional development model
The recent report ‘Strategy for a green society’ (in Dutch) of the Scientific and Technological Committee for the biobased economy (WTC) puts an emphasis on biobased materials. Biobased materials are the driving force for the biobased economy, according to the report’s subtitle. ‘The development of biobased materials fits excellently into both present technological capabilities, and
The biobased industry needs many educational courses
The world needs a fantastic amount of knowledge, for its sustainable development, and in order to feed all new mouths. According to the OECD, we need to open three new universities every week of 30,000 students each, in order to cope with the four-fold increase in demand for people with higher education in the next
on: 16 December 2013