Whereas world capacity for biobased chemicals and materials is rapidly growing, Europe clearly lags behind. Lux Research, a Boston based company, expects a doubling of global biobased capacity in 2017 … Read more
In this series, we discussed three design rules: reduce capital costs and create jobs, be lean on materials flows, and preserve structure. Our last guideline, elegance is beautiful, sums up … Read more
The future is to biobased, says DSM’s Anton Robek. In 10-20 years’ time, virtually all of DSM’s feedstock will be biobased. The question now is not if, but how fast … Read more
Will biomass ever be able to compete across a broad range of products with fossil feedstock, that is so much easier to recover and has such excellent economies of scale? … Read more
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 … Read more
New prospects in industrial biotechnology (processes, new products) developed in the lab will have to be tested at a relevant scale before they can be taken into commercial production. A … Read more
Whereas last year, EFIB was still under the aegis of high hopes on this new phenomenon, the biobased economy, this year in Brussels the main sentiment was ‘this is the … Read more
The Bergen op Zoom region, in the Southwestern part of the Netherlands, is the centre of the new green economy – for those who did not know yet. They have … Read more
Willem Sederel, manager of the Biobased Delta, situated in the South-western part of the Netherlands, shows no doubt as he indicates the biobased economy as the prime development model for … Read more
Europe has the best feedstock for producing biopolymers, beet sugar, but instead aims at developing cellulosic crops. An example of Europe’s ineffectiveness. ‘A Southeast Asian delegation recently remarked to me: … Read more
In the past few weeks, public discussion on shale gas in the Netherlands attained a new peak. Water utilities and brewers publicly favour a moratorium in view of risks for … Read more
Shale gas is not a threat, it is an opportunity. The whole world will benefit from US coal fired power stations to shift to natural gas, thereby appreciably reducing their … Read more
A room in the Chemical Lab of Groningen University (RUG) hosts a revolutionary test equipment. It produces bioBTX through chemical catalysis. This is a mixture of benzene, toluene and xylene, … Read more
If shale gas would have entered the US market five years earlier, this might have had very adverse consequences for the entire biobased economy (BBE). It might even have been … Read more
It is just a small company, BioAmber, and it is quite young as well. Yet, is has concluded a large number of cooperation agreements, and many chemical companies are interested. … Read more
In Denmark and Italy, Novozymes, the world’s largest producer of industrial enzymes, and Beta Renewables, a global leader in cellulosic biofuels and part of Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi, announced an … Read more
Sorry, this article on Dutch innovation policy is only available in Dutch.
‘You always want to employ the perfect technology right away’, the Americans mirrored us, Europeans, at the occasion of last week’s EFIB final debate, in Düsseldorf. Where EFIB is the … Read more
Carbon dioxide is not a waste material but a feedstock. That was the idea behind the German nova-Institut’s conference, one of the first CO2-conferences to be held in Europe. And … Read more
The environmental movement of the seventies, precursor to the present movement for sustainability, was largely anti-technological. Technology seemed to be inherently large-scale; it produced nuclear power stations and polluting chemical … Read more
Until quite recently, a few developments seemed to be clear, at least to the editors of this website. The economy would become more sustainable by finding alternatives for oil (over … Read more
There is a big opportunity for the Dutch chemical industry beyond bulk products. A small country, with a strong agro-food sector and specialized technology, should aim to develop knowledge and … Read more
They were not overly optimistic, the industrialists gathered at the conference on Biobased Performance Materials, last week in Wageningen, on the future prospects of the bioplastics industry in Europe. There … Read more
Just two years ago Tom van Aken, Avantium’s CEO, called its 2,5-furanic dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) a sleeping giant. But since Coca-Cola and other big players are putting bags of development … Read more
‘Last year we worked on a road map for AkzoNobel’s green chemistry,’ says Jos Keurentjes, Director of Technology in AkzoNobel and a Technical University Eindhoven professor. ‘We have already reached … Read more
Methanol, commonly produced from natural gas, is an interesting transport fuel, and a feedstock for products like plastics and paints. Natural gas feedstock contributes to almost three quarters of methanol’s … Read more
In the biobased economy, green chemistry will play an important role. But many aspects of it need further research and development. Almost all petrochemical technology will have to be adapted … Read more
Northern France’s agricultural areas host many biobased initiatives. Both in Picardy and in Champagne-Ardennes, French government invests in joint chemistry/agriculture projects. There are pilot and demo plants for ethanol production, … Read more
Green chemistry development will take place in three overlapping phases, up to 2050. The first has been developing for some time now, the second started recently, and the third is … Read more