Specialty carbohydrates: a very specialised biobased industry
Among the surprising new companies in the biobased industry is certainly Inbiose. This spin-off from Ghent University specialises in specialty carbohydrates: very complex structures consisting of a precisely controlled sequence of simple sugar molecules. Oligosaccharides, in technical terms. Inbiose can produce them custom-made, from 1 kg to 10,000 tons per year. Joeri Beauprez, Chief Scientific
The plight of the innovative SME, the case of SeaLife Pharma
‘In twenty years’ time, SeaLife Pharma will not exist anymore,’ says its CEO Alexander Pretsch. In many companies, such a statement would be cause for concern. But Pretsch implies that he expects his company to be successful. I.e. that it will be able to find a big pharmaceutical partner that is willing to invest in
Demand-driven research? Nothing of the sort!
Sorry, this column on Dutch innovation policy and biobased SMEs is only available in Dutch.
Biorefinery, a new model for farmer’s incomes
‘Cows in the meadow in a real Frisian landscape will always be the subject of romanticism’, says Gjalt de Haan, ‘but the dairy farmer as the producer of milk as a sole product might change. In the Northern part of the Netherlands, a lot of biomass is available, which we can use in order to
Biogas: the logic behind our process is strong as iron, says BioSys Group
‘The Netherlands lag behind in biomass use. Germany, for instance, has more than 3.000 maize fermentation units, the Netherlands just a few. On the other hand, now we have the opportunity to develop new technology.’ Says Jan van den Broek, Biosys Group (formerly Zeasolutions) manager in Assen. ‘Processing maize, we should remove proteins first, which
Bioclear: we concentrate on the niche of the biological solution
Groningen based Bioclear bacterially purifies soil and water pollution. ‘Most bacteria we find ourselves, in nature’, says Sytse Keuning, founder and manager of the company, started in 1988 as a spin-off of Groningen University. ‘The cleanup of most polluted soils is done by bacteria which are present from the outset. Nowadays, we would not excavate
Call Roel
Sorry, this column on the seventh Dutch biobased economy network meeting in Breda, is only available in Dutch.
on: 14 December 2012