Are polyolefins really cheaper than sustainable alternatives?
The enormous utility of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and other polyolefins cannot be disputed, but their real cost is debatable. My teenage daughter makes cookies in our kitchen. The ingredients — flour, sugar, chocolate chips, etc. — are always available through no effort of her own. The oven reliably warms up via a process
Avantium and Photanol are doing well
The twelfth Dutch Biobased Economy network gathering in Amsterdam, yesterday, radiated optimism. Not in the least because of the positive messages from those two award-winning flagships of the biobased economy in Amsterdam, Avantium and Photanol. For Photanol, the sky is the limit Communication from Photanol changes rapidly in nature. In our first article on this
Preservation of chemical complexity in green chemistry
Green chemistry is not just another science than the existing, fossil-based chemistry; green chemistry represents another philosophy as well. Whereas chemical industry now tries to synthesise complex substances from simple building bricks, green industry will start from the chemical complexity of the feedstock and try to keep this intact throughout the process or even use
Green chemistry: towards an integration of agriculture and chemical industry
In our first article on green chemistry we stressed the role of bio catalysis. This leads to a preference for feedstock from agriculture, at first in the small-scale fine chemical industry and now also in the developing green large-scale bulk chemical industry. For bio catalysis, working with enzymes, means imitation of nature, letting its forces
A discovery that could lead to sustainable electronics
Consumer electronics constitute a rapidly increasing source of waste. Cell phones, tablets and the like are typically made of non-renewable, non-biodegradable, partly environmentally toxic materials. A newly developed chip, in which the metal substrate has been replaced by wood fibrils, could pave the way for more sustainable electronics. ‘As safe as fertiliser’ We already highlighted
Towards a sustainable medicines production
A decade ago, in an authoritative scientific magazine, we published a prediction (1) on the synthesis of complicated molecules, primarily medicines. We foresaw the integration of chemo and bio catalysis in a reactor that would also be the catalyst. A very efficient system and a dream come true for the pharmaceutical industry: the computer would
Green chemistry: nature as our teacher
One often gets the impression that all fascination for modern technology concentrates on ICT: robots, self-steering cars, mobile phones and their apps. Green chemistry, a breakthrough technology too, gets little attention in spite of its development that spans 20 years. ICT is a well-established technology now; green chemistry is still in full development and will
Bioeconomy: much more employment in biobased chemicals than in biofuels
More than once, we devoted our attention to the negative impact of biofuels policy on the biobased chemical industry. New calculations by Nova Institute now show that in the bioeconomy, biobased chemicals production leads to much more employment than biofuel production. Whereas both reduce CO2 emissions. Europe, what’s on your mind? Biofuels and biobased chemicals
