North-western Europe, supplier of industrial feedstock: sugar
North-western Europe may become a feedstock supplier. Not a supplier of natural gas, but of sugar. A major opportunity for the chemical industry, and a possible breakthrough for the biobased economy. What has changed? North-western Europe has been producing sugar for a long time. Although we could produce more, European regulation sets quota, limiting each
Phosphorus recovery, an urgent matter
Phosphorus is an essential element in the formation of vegetal and animal biomass. But whereas living organisms can use oxygen and nitrogen from the air for their processes, phosphorus is only available as a mineral, in the form of phosphate. The resources are limited – enough for some decades of use – and many of
Large biobased cluster, from Leiden to Reims
Even though the biobased economy may incur a smaller scale of operations, there is room for cooperation in larger areas. The Biobased Delta may become a fine example of that. Now merely in the South-western part of the Netherlands, and Flanders. But in due time it may encompass biobased activities from the province of South
New technologies will boost gasoline production from natural gas or waste
The price of crude oil has risen to a level at which it will transform the fuels landscape, says Lux Research, an American advisory group. In the United States, this process is accelerated by the emergence of cheap and abundant shale gas, but municipal solid waste (MSW) is going to be an alternative feedstock for
Jan Noordegraaf (Synbra): government do your job, impose taxes!
‘We passed the 400 ppm CO2 mark in the air this year, and it will not stop there. To put things into perspective: in 1960 we passed the 300 ppm level. What should we do now? Produce virtually CO2-free products. For instance, biopolymers like PLA. And impose a tax on products that do not comply
Biofuels hardly competed with food production, so far
ILUC may have been nonexistent in 2000-2010 – the surprising result of our research at Biomass Research, using statistics that were not before analysed for this goal. Yes, farmers grew much more biofuel crops. But this was more than compensated for by multiple cropping mainly in tropical areas, and by reuse of fallow land. Farmers
Volume of plastics waste in Europe must come down – but how?
European plastics manufacturers have joined NGOs in their stand for an EU-wide ban on the disposal of plastics in landfills. They argue that Europe needs tougher recycling requirements to stop an important raw material from being thrown away, and see a ban on landfills as an important policy instrument. But NGOs and industry have widely
