Wood fibres stronger than steel
In the future, wood fibres can be processed to be as strong as steel, or as soft as cotton. These wood fibres are biodegradable, but stronger than steel or aluminium per kilogram. KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm developed the technology, in cooperation with Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg. Separation and recombination of wood
Energy storage: the necessary supplement to sustainable energy sources
Of course, a sustainable energy supply will depend primarily on the use of sustainable energy sources. But their intermittent availability requires major changes in the electrical grid. At all levels in the grid, from the individual household to the national grid, energy storage will be a necessary supplement to solar and wind power. Long transition
Tyre recycling by devulcanisation
At present, we incinerate used car tyres, because recycling is too difficult. A new R&D program TREC, for which Michelin has established cooperation with the biotechnological company of Protéus, will have to change that. Tyre recycling, we can do it by devulcanisation. Michelin is already involved in the development of tyres from biobased feedstock, in
Cooperatives essential for the biobased economy, says Yvon Le Henaff
‘It is logical that farmers’ cooperatives invest in the subsequent industrial transformation of their feedstock,’ says Yvon Le Henaff, general manager of ARD, the major research company owned by French cooperatives. ‘This is sound economics, because we want to capture some added value in the rest of the product chain. The difference with existing industries
Energy neutral instead of shale gas free
Some communities declare themselves ‘shale gas free’. Pure symbolism. They know very well that they do not have a say in this. Apparently, they have the (naïve) idea that such a declaration will prevent environmental problems from shale gas recovery, and will speed up the arrival of sustainable energy. But for quite a while we
Biomass Course, ten times successful
Last April, Wageningen Academy organised the Biomass Course, for the tenth year in a row, aimed at participants from industry, government, and research. A course that shows the swift developments in this area. Each year, Wageningen UR’s Johan Sanders and Wolter Elbersen hosted the course. This time featuring Synbra’s Jan Noordegraaf, who elaborated on the
EuroBioRef: what future for a major European R&D project?
In the end of 2013, EuroBioRef came to a close, a major European R&D project in the field of biorefinery. The project included 29 partners in 15 countries and had a budget of € 38 million, of which € 23 million were donated by the European Commission under the FP7 research program. But EuroBioRef’s technological
