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 attention in spite of its development that spans 20 years. … Read more
Biofuels had an obvious appeal when oil prices were well over $ 100 a barrel. Developers thrived and almost a thousand flowers started to blossom. But then oil prices plummeted to $ 50 and below – and many biofuel developers … Read more
Sustainability, the word has been used so often that some have been looking for alternatives for quite some time. But fortunately, the sustainability perspective often still inspires people; like in education, in view of the many courses, tracks, masters and … Read more
Last month, the European Parliament finally agreed on a new compromise on the use of biomass for energy. Nova Institute listed the main effects of the new regulations on the (competing) sector of biochemicals and biobased materials. Competition for biomass … Read more
Bioplastics started their development just recently, said Innovia’s Andy Sweetman at the Bio!Pac conference, last week. Fossil-based plastics are at the height of their learning curve, they cannot improve very much anymore. Whereas there is much room for improvement in … Read more
One of the discussions at the Bio!Pac conference, organised by Bioplastics Magazine and Holland Bioplastics last week in Amsterdam, was about biodegradable versus biobased. Bioplastics, around which the conference revolved, are by no means all biodegradable. Is that a problem? … Read more
With great speed, genetic modification penetrates into our society – the biobased economy depends on it to a large extent. It does not evoke much discussion; ignorance and complacency abound. And yet, we increasingly need that discussion, as exemplified by … 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 use in industry, the centre collected a ‘library’ of plant … Read more
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 lie ahead,’ explains UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, ‘are not … 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, some ten years ago. Chemical industry is organised around the … Read more
Industry is going to embrace synthetic biology. It can hardly do otherwise, following the promises of higher yields, purer products and greatly reduced environmental impact. But will their customers accept that? This is the sixth article in a series on … 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 seems to need it now? Cooperative banking has powered its … Read more
Agriculture and chemistry are moving closer to each other. If they would integrate, Rabobank’s Daan Dijk said at the World Bio Markets conference, they will trigger the 21st century innovation wave. Together they will form a new economic sector as … Read more
Last year, Ecover made a courageous decision. It decided to kick out palm kernel oil (widely known for its shaky sustainability) as a feedstock for many of its detergents, and replace it by a bio-equivalent oil produced by engineered algae. … Read more
A ‘disruptive technology’, that is what Elevance Renewable Sciences calls the metathesis reaction on which the company is built; never omitting the proud words ‘Nobel Prize winning’ (Chemistry, 2005). They use it to turn their feedstock, mainly palm oil (but … Read more
Synthetic biology offers us a countless number of opportunities to reshape natural materials, and even our food. Yes, that would mean synthetic food. Many people would dismiss this right away as a viable opportunity, but it might be worthwhile to … Read more
Novamont is an Italian company that aims to develop materials and biochemicals through the integration of chemistry and agriculture. It is one of the flagships of the rapidly expanding Italian bioeconomy. At the World Bio Markets conference in Amsterdam, we … Read more
Yesterday’s article was about Friends of the Earth’s problems with vanillin sold on the market by Evolva. This substance is produced by organisms modified by synthetic biology, but nevertheless called ‘natural’ by permit of US agencies, because its production involves … Read more
Last year, Friends of the Earth launched a campaign called ‘Extreme Genetic Engineering in Your Ice Cream?’, directed against ‘natural’ vanillin produced by genetically modified yeasts. It got assurances from major ice cream producers like Häagen Dasz that they would … Read more
One of the main concerns about world food supply is the production of proteins. Lux Research, in a new study, suggests that ‘the current dominance of meat and seafood will wane in the coming decades,’ and that ‘several alternative protein … Read more
Today and tomorrow is Global Divestment Day, the day when concerned citizens around the world ask institutional investors like universities and pension funds to withdraw their investments from fossil fuel companies. Because, as gofossilfree.org puts it, ‘as governments fail to … Read more
The Myco Design Lab of the international art foundation Mediamatic based in Amsterdam, links the worlds of industry and art. This program is about everything we can do with mycelium, the predominantly underground fungi threads or hyphae that form the … Read more
We should create a carbon tax now, as energy prices are low, said the British economist Paul Ekins last week in The Hague, at a conference on green growth. That will allow us to start the necessary transformation towards taxation … Read more
In the future, we might not blow, mould or cast most of our materials, but grow them. That is, if we embrace mycelium, the ultimate biobased material: fully green, growing on any substrate (particularly on waste) and fully biodegradable. We … Read more
Nothing is wrong with bioenergy; something is wrong with the ambitions that its proponents have: bioenergy should save the climate. Because that ambition would require the production of biomass in amounts beyond the capabilities of agriculture and forestry; or else … Read more
At first sight, the discussion was quite adequate at the meeting ‘A sustainable bioeconomy in 2030: are we on the right track?’. Organised by the Dutch Commission on Biomass Sustainability Issues, usually called Corbey commission after its chairwoman. But beneath … Read more
At EFIB, last October, the most brilliant lecture – in my humble opinion – was delivered by Johanna Buchert, a Finnish professor who works at VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland. She showed the vast range of products that … Read more
Energy efficiency is our cheapest energy source, with a very large potential. It has been so for forty years and will probably continue to be so for decades to come. And yet, 99% of energy policy and energy debate is … Read more
Marine biotechnology is a challenging field of research with the prospect of very interesting discoveries like new antibiotics, cosmetics and food additives – albeit with few commercial projects so far. Both the very demanding environments (some very hot, some down … Read more
Just a few years ago, bio aromatics seemed far away. Aromatic compounds could be so easily extracted from (fossil-based) naphtha, that bio aromatics seemed to be a dream for the future. Primarily because the most probable resource, lignin, is hard … Read more
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 … Read more
How will Europe, the Netherlands in particular, earn its income in twenty-five years’ time, in a sustainable way? How do we prepare for the world of 2040? By green growth, based on the development of sustainable products and services. An … Read more
Members of Parliament. Gladly we present to your commission, on your request, our book Green Growth. Gladly, because we feel that our subject concerns everybody. That subject is: ‘how is the Netherlands, how is Europe, going to earn its income … Read more
Resistance towards innovative changes is a well-known problem. It troubles many researchers and entrepreneurs, also those who venture into the biobased economy. The science of systems innovation deals with the question how to overcome such resistance. The latest term coined … Read more
Our website biobasedpress.eu looks for input from our readers. Are you aware of interesting articles that have appeared in your country, or of actual developments in your sector? We would appreciate it very much if you’d inform us, or even … Read more
Insect biorefinery. Almost unimaginable, a few years ago. And yet, it is in full development. Its products will come to the market soon. The insect world will show us many surprising applications. The surprising world of insects Every now and … Read more
The BioBased Materials and Chemicals (BBMC) sector has clearly recovered from the 2008 setback, when many start-ups performed less than expected and many went bankrupt. Investment is on the rise from 2013 onwards, and will come close to $ 1 … Read more
‘As a company, we want to feed the world, save CO2, move to a greener and more biobased economy, improve lives. But we always want to remain innovation-based and bring innovation to the customer. In order to facilitate that, we … Read more
‘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 … Read more
They had come to Amsterdam by the dozens, to the Wind Energy Debate, to let themselves be heard. Opponents of wind energy. Their numbers and particularly their zest testified to it that the debate on wind energy has not calmed … Read more
Local initiatives often have tremendous potential. They use social media in their communication and derive great strength from that. Says David Trap, online media expert, in an interview with us. Many projects of public importance start from grass roots, without … Read more
Food supply should have absolute priority, no less so in a biobased economy. Says Rudy Rabbinge, emeritus professor in sustainable development and food security at Wageningen UR. That is why Rabbinge opposes biofuels from agriculture, but accepts biobased high-value products … Read more
Of course, a sustainable energy supply will depend primarily on the use of sustainable energy sources. But their intermittent availability requires major changes in the electrical grid. At all levels in the grid, from the individual household to the national … Read more
‘It is logical that farmers’ cooperatives invest in the subsequent industrial transformation of their feedstock,’ says Yvon Le Henaff, general manager of ARD, the major research company owned by French cooperatives. ‘This is sound economics, because we want to capture … Read more
Last April, Wageningen Academy organised the Biomass Course, for the tenth year in a row, aimed at participants from industry, government, and research. A course that shows the swift developments in this area. Each year, Wageningen UR’s Johan Sanders and … Read more
In the end of 2013, EuroBioRef came to a close, a major European R&D project in the field of biorefinery. The project included 29 partners in 15 countries and had a budget of € 38 million, of which € 23 … Read more
Cosmetic industry takes a renewed interest in biobased resources. Plant-based materials are ‘in’. Not merely because they are in public demand – also because biorefinery delivers a growing supply of plant-based substances. Says Philippe Catroux, of Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, at … Read more
Claude Roy is a man who paints wide views with inexhaustible energy. As the chairman of the French Club des Bio-économistes his message, voiced for many years is that we need biomass for tackling the world’s major problems. In its … Read more
Flower bulbs, a wonderful product. Again and again, tourists gasp at the sight of purple, yellow and red fields in Holland’s flower bulb area. Dutch cut flowers and flower bulbs are in great demand. But could not entrepreneurs create value … Read more
Glocal is the buzzword at Ecover: a term coined from Global and Local. Glocal also is the name of a major Ecover project, together with Forum for the Future, intended to sow the seeds for local production and local circular … Read more