Foreword
Here at NNFCC, and particularly
within these pages, the entire bioeconomy is important to us, but naturally we
are more invested in the projects we are directly involved in. This month, one
such project has taken a notable step forward, with Merck’s launch of the
biobased solvent Cyrene. Cyrene is a dipolar, aprotic solvent, for which the
petroleum-based equivalents are coming under increased scrutiny.
Dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), have been restricted
by the European Chemicals Agency due to their suspected toxicity, particularly
to unborn children. The need for an alternative solvent could be solved by
Cyrene, which has no such toxicity issues, and has the additional advantage of
being biobased. However, such
innovative products need to successfully be brought to market, and this was
where NNFCC came in: we provided in-depth market research to Circa, the SME who
have developed Cyrene, informing them of the market opportunities available for
their novel solvent. We’re pleased to see........
Other News this Month Includes:
Markets
- Chinese investment in Danish biotech company
- ADM announces steps for long-term value creation
Research & Development
- Producing "unnatural" polymers inside cells
- Methods to reduce tar in biomass gasification
- First long-term analysis of historic ocean plastic levels
- More economic strategy for producing PEF
- Enzymatic synthesis of lignin-derived pyridine polyesters
Polymers
- Partnership aims to bring first spider silk fabrics to market
- Nanocellulose-based fire-retardant coating
- Braskem raising funds for Join the Pipe by distributing biobased bottles
- EUBP claims study into plastic bag environmental impact has unsatisfying
conclusions
Chemicals
- Biobased Cyrene solvent launched
- DuPont releases enzyme-based platform for cleaning medical instruments
- Nouryon releases biobased asphalt adhesion agent
- Celltice releases biobased active cosmetics ingredient
- Anellotech's process for biobased aromatic chemicals proved viable
- Nordfuel biorefinery to open in 2021
- Partnership to power biorefinery with green hydrogen
Consumer Products
- Bio-on and Kartell release biobased furniture
- Target releases biobased cleaning product range
- First biobased sunscreens go on sale
- Collaboration seeks BioPreferred certification for personal care products
- Joint venture to pursue paper bottles
- Plastic to be removed from Guinness packaging
Patents
Events
Price Information