The use of first-generation agricultural biomass (like cereals, sugar and oil plants) for bio-based energy and materials, has many benefits. This will produce food security, biodiversity, agriculture and climate-change mitigation. … Read more
MaterialDistrict recently renewed its publication on bamboo. ‘Booming bamboo, the (re)discovery of a sustainable material with endless possibilities’, is a stunning book written by Pablo van der Lugt; with indeed: … Read more
This week, the Dutch magazine Sciencelink ran an article written by Marysa van den Berg on an important new development in disease control. The use of bacteriophages, viruses that kill … Read more
Profit is important but not our only driving force, says Michiel Vos. He is founder of CocoPallet, a company that produces pallets from the husks of coconuts. We already interviewed … Read more
Lignin valorization has become a top technological challenge. Lignin is one of the three main components of wood, the ubiquitous and carbon capturing resource. The other two are cellulose and … Read more
Wooden windows? Wood, not for the frame but for the transparent part, instead of glass? Yes, modern research has shown that we can make transparent wood with a relatively benign … Read more
New biobased materials pop up everywhere these days. On the basis of organic materials, often processed with modern chemical technologies. They seem to be able to substitute many fossil-based and … Read more
In Europe, just 16% of bio waste is processed to some form of useful application. Meaning: food and garden waste. An upcoming report by the Biobased Industries Consortium and Zero … Read more
Sustainable biomass is a subject dominated by strong and enduring disagreement. Michael Moore’s latest film Planet of the Humans is a recent reminder of that. In the Netherlands, always looking … Read more
A publication in Science last year triggered a debate: can we stop climate change by planting billions of trees? These trees would capture CO2 and in so doing, save the … Read more
The bioeconomy may be dominated by plant-based processes, but the role of animals in the bioeconomy is also notable. This article was first published on the site of NNFCC. In … Read more
In comparison to wood, tree bark is a very versatile resource. It consists of several layers, each with their products. It contains anti-microbial and anti-oxidant compounds that could be used … Read more
Eco-friendly personal care is one of the topics in the coming BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in Des Moines, Iowa, July 8-11. Other topics include of course biotechnology and … Read more
In September 2016, Henk Kamp, then Minister of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands, opened Upcycling Gemert, a plant that processes mushroom waste into compost, fuel and heat. Only two weeks … Read more
The past World Bio Markets Conference in Amsterdam proved an interesting happening, not so much because of what was said, but more explicitly because of what was not dealt with. … Read more
The Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking, BBI JU, one of seven JUs under the Horizon2020 program, recently published their next Call for Proposals, the sixth one on the path towards 2020. … Read more
A new sustainable initiative in Bristol, in the UK, uses bio-based materials to face the need for additional and affordable housing supply: bio homes. Bristol is at the forefront of … Read more
The impact of mineral, fossil and agricultural assets as a weapon in international politics will gradually become smaller, we concluded in three articles. Substitution of critical materials and the development … Read more
The COSMOS Horizon 2020 EU research project aims at reducing the dependence of Europe’s oleochemical industry on imported tropical vegetable oils. It now imports much coconut, palm, palm kernel and … Read more
At the last EFIB, October 2017, in Brussels, there were indications that national bio-economy strategies are beginning to lag behind market developments and vision. Current company bio-based strategies move towards … Read more
The biobased and circular economy is coming nearer and nearer. Each year, new applications of biobased resources come to the market. Industry aims at using the whole crop, among others … Read more
Synthetic Biology (SynBio) includes a large field of applications. Within this area biochemists combine engineering concepts and techniques with biology to design new genes that produce a specific protein. When … Read more
The European biobased economy strategy should not lead through drop-in chemicals. The key is in Smart, Small and Clever. This is the second of two columns on the European biobased … Read more
Earlier this year, German nova-Institute published another thoughtful document on the biobased economy. It starts out from the observation that ten years of European policy making have not been very … Read more
FD, the Dutch financial newspaper, today reported that Avantium will make new steps in green chemistry. It will construct a pilot plant to produce biobased MEG, directly from sugars. MEG … Read more
Everybody involved in the bioeconomy should understand that standardization is a requirement for a successful institutionalisation of biobased markets. Standardization is a prerequisite for trade One of the basic assumptions … Read more
We are underutilising waste, says Eva Gladek, CEO of Metabolic in Amsterdam. It is a very important source for a circular economy. The most important challenge is not technical but … Read more
Metabolic has quickly ascended to leadership in the field of circular economy consultancy in the Netherlands since its establishment in 2012. Recent projects include the bioremediation of a waterfront industrial … Read more
Many biobased chemicals and biobased materials suffer from low fossil energy prices – but materials with new properties are still in demand. This was the general opinion at the 9th … Read more
On this site we have always been concerned with the question of the shape and size of industry in a bioeconomy. Could it be much less dangerous? Concentrated in major … Read more
‘Consumers will soon notice that the origin of everyday products is changing, with items such as clothing, shoes, water and soda bottles, and even automobile tyres being manufactured from plant-based … Read more
It’s been another busy year for the biobased chemicals and fuels team at NNFCC; as 2015 draws to a close we take a look at some of the year’s highlights. … Read more
Nova-Institute, together with industry and universities (notably the University of York), developed a new tool for policy and investment decisions: the Biomass Utilisation Efficiency (BUE). BUE analysis will answer two … Read more
Universities of Applied Sciences have undergone a major transformation in the past few years, says Avans University’s Han van Osch. They orient themselves much more towards practical results, and try … Read more
Long ago, in the seventies of the last century, environmentalists like myself were faced with a dilemma, in short: pollution or frugality. Wealth brought along pollution, and in the last … Read more
Cascading biomass is the latest policy term for a multiple use of biomass, a use that starts ‘at the top’, in some material form (e.g. furniture or bioplastics) and ends … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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, … Read more
Those who do not believe in the future, might be advised not to go there at all. All too often I have heard readers of our book ‘Groene Groei’ (Green … Read more
‘Plant ingredients are in the picture in industries: in the agrochemical, cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors,’ says Leon Mur, director of the Dutch Expertise Centre for Plant Ingredients (Kenniscentrum Plantenstoffen). For … Read more
Sorry, we publish this review of Dutch innovation policy in Dutch only.
Today, 22 April, is Mother Earth Day. It is an international event, supported by the United Nations. This year’s theme is: ‘It’s our turn to lead’. ‘The big decisions that … Read more
The production of levulinic acid is gaining momentum. Levulinic acid is one of the chemicals on the famous list of green ‘chemical building blocks’ of the US Department of Energy, … Read more
Sorry, we publish this article on Dutch research policy only in Dutch.
Green, oil-producing algae appear to be able to remove problematic pollutants from waste water. So they clean up the waste and produce fuel at the same time. Researchers of the … Read more
Poor Rabobank! Potentially it is one of the main financiers of the biobased economy. But will it have to say goodbye to its successful cooperative model, whereas the biobased economy … Read more
