There is a very strange body of regulation for biobased innovation subsidies. These rules seem to be exclusively intended to direct biomass and agricultural wastes to the energy sector, ignoring … Read more
Europe’s biofuel policy has been reformulated earlier this year, in order to promote the development of second-generation biofuels. But this seems to have little effect: whereas second-generation biofuels from food … Read more
Renewable sources cannot cover more than 30% of our energy demand within the next 25 years. A clear-cut strategy for continued deployment of fossil energy sources is unavoidable in which … Read more
In part 1 we have shown the potential of biomass. We will now deal with sun and water as sources of renewable energy. We will give an estimate of the … Read more
After a few decades of research and development a halfway score is meaningful and, on headlines, very well feasible. For various reasons wind and biomass are showing their limits. Solar … 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 policy in support for biobased energy proves to be an obstacle to better applications of biomass, in the view of BioBTX and KNN, two Groningen based companies. This policy … Read more
The European Parliament has decided. The share of biofuels in the fuel mix will be reduced from 10 to 6% in 2020. Is that disastrous or beneficial, on the contrary? … Read more
Subsidies play a difficult but unavoidable part in the stimulation of new technologies. With subsidies, new and superior technologies can compete with incumbent technologies. Subsidies protect them temporarily from the … Read more
‘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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … 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
Stimulation of the biobased economy can be done in many ways. Even without subsidies. As a part of its innovation policy, the Dutch government in 2011 called into existence the … Read more
Use of biomass feedstock for chemicals and biofuels? The food/fuel discussion is very polarised. But a number of parties have come forward that seek a middle ground in this debate. … Read more
The far Northwest of the Groningen province is a rather unknown part of the Netherlands. Reitdiep, originating in Groningen town, there ends in the former Lauwerszee, called Lauwersmeer from 1969 … Read more
The Western European food chain is very inefficient, says Johan Sanders, professor ‘biobased commodity chemicals’ at Wageningen UR. We could greatly reduce imports, mainly of soy, by improving efficiency. ‘Each … Read more
A happy man, Barend Verachtert called himself, head of the unit Biotechnology of DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission. Friday 17 May 2013, at 5 o’clock in the … Read more
Once, Dutch Lagerwey wind turbines were the best and most innovative, but did that lead to a major wind turbine industry? No, that branch is in the hands of the … Read more
Sorry, this column on Dutch innovation policy and biobased SMEs is only available in Dutch.
Generals always seem to be engaged in winning the last war; likewise, the recently installed Dutch Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (RLI), has issued a report on yesterday’s problems. … Read more
Sorry, this column on Dutch innovation policy is only available in Dutch.
Five years after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, nothing has been done yet on the set of measures which were thought to be essential at the time; measures which boil down … 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
Sorry, this article on Dutch innovation policy is only available in Dutch.
In Brussels, civil servants are in the middle of a major project: the revision of Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. The future of the biobased economy is heavily dependent on … Read more
Sorry, this column on the seventh Dutch biobased economy network meeting in Breda, is only available in Dutch.
‘The unsuccessful energy transition stands in the way of the biobased economy,’ says Jan Rotmans. ‘Whereas the energy sector is going to disappear. In the future transition, the chemical sector … Read more
It was a wonderful reunion, Forty years of wind power in the Netherlands, organized by Chris Westra, the man whose self-built wind turbine in 1972 marked the beginning of an … Read more
Let nobody accuse the European Commission of not engaging itself in what it calls the bioeconomy. Last month, the Commission held a kind of hearing on the part played by … Read more
Certification. That was the common denominator in many contributions to the discussion in my group at the ‘Social aspects of bio-based chemicals’ meeting in Amsterdam, Friday 2 November. And cooperation. … Read more
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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
Sorry, this news item on Dutch politics is only available in Dutch.
Sorry, this column on Dutch innovation policy is only available in Dutch.
There will be more local self-supply or even autarky in the new world, for instance in energy systems. But whereas in the past, autarky equalled shortage and even poverty, in … Read more
Sorry, this blog on Dutch innovation policy is only available in Dutch.
The biobased industry is going to alleviate the CO2 problem and create rural employment and development. Says Lars Hansen, President Region Europe of Novozymes, one of the main European companies … Read more
The European Commission may renounce its former renewable fuel directive, and plans to lower the required renewable fuel percentage from 10 to 5%. The ethanol industry is furious, and accuses … Read more
Mark Bünger, author of the recent Lux Research report on biochemicals and biomaterials (see the article on this site), holds the opinion that the viability of a green chemical industry … Read more
The recent report ‘Bioenergy, chances and limits’, by the German Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences, is the newest in a growing list of critical reports on bioenergy. On a macro … Read more
Until recently sustainability debates had a strong focus on the environmental effects of our actions. Books like Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent spring’, the Club of Rome report ‘Limits to growth’, and … Read more
We all know that ‘Big Oil’ is not fond of green chemistry and the green economy. But biobased chemists trust that crude oil prices will keep rising, dragging along natural … Read more
Government should invest more in innovation in businesses, and less in fundamental scientific research. That is the shorthand notation for the new Dutch innovation policy, ‘top sector policy’. But this … 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
That is Nathalie Moll’s opinion, secretary-general to Europabio, the Brussels lobby branch of Europe’s biotechnological industry. Industrial biotechnology is growing fast, and is selected as one of six Key Enabling … Read more
For Cosun, the beet is exceptionally suited as a starting point in the bio-based economy. ‘The sugar beet has by far the highest yield in the Netherlands (and elsewhere), and … Read more
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Ancient regulation might stand in the way of biobased economy development in many forms. These bottlenecks differ among countries; here we offer an overview with some examples. Waste regulation Waste … Read more