Category: Top Stories

AY-YI YI-YA AAAY, Gevo just can’t stop dancin’

AY-YI YI-YA AAAY, Gevo just can’t stop dancin’

February 15, 2017 |

So, feel the bioeconomy backbeat and let the music flow. AY-YI YI-YA AAAY, Gevo just can’t stop dancin’. (Whoops, that was Becky G‘s Can’t Stop Dancin’, not Gevo’s.) But there’s something so cool in that technology that we can’t take our eyes off the company and its progress, even though looking at the balance sheet can […]

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Avantium goes IPO: aims for €100 million in Amsterdam, Brussels Float

Avantium goes IPO: aims for €100 million in Amsterdam, Brussels Float

February 14, 2017 |

Here’s our 10-minute version of the filing, slightly re-organized to make sense to Earthlings instead of aliens from the Planet Prospectus. In the Netherlands, bioplastics maker Avantium is planning an initial public offering and listing of all shares on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brussels. The company expects to raise up to €100 million (USD$106 million) […]

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Reverse Combustion and its prospects

Reverse Combustion and its prospects

February 13, 2017 |

Because burning fuels in an internal combustion engine produces CO2 and water as its byproducts, the idea of reverse combustion has been hanging around the halls of science for a long, long time. That is, recombining CO2 and water back into an energy carrier — a fuel. It’s a simple concept, but over the years […]

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The $40 carbon tax is dead as a doornail, and here’s why

The $40 carbon tax is dead as a doornail, and here’s why

February 12, 2017 |

This past week, a group headed by former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Jim Baker proposed dramatically to introduce a $40 per ton carbon tax in order to address the rising threat from global warming. The good news is that the proposal comes at the onset of a Republican Administration and comes from former […]

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The Zambezi 5: AkzoNobel, Chemport Europe, RWE and Staatsbosbeheer plan biobased chemicals project using Avantium’s Zambezi process

The Zambezi 5: AkzoNobel, Chemport Europe, RWE and Staatsbosbeheer plan biobased chemicals project using Avantium’s Zambezi process

February 9, 2017 |

In the Netherlands, Avantium, AkzoNobel, Chemport Europe, RWE and Staatsbosbeheer have established a partnership for the development of a reference plant at the Chemie Park Delfzijl. The new project will be based on the Zambezi process that has been developed by Avantium. Zambezi. What’s that, exactly? Let’s explore. The Zambezi process The Zambezi process aims for a […]

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Algae and the Spirit of Aloha

Algae and the Spirit of Aloha

February 8, 2017 |

If you’ve been to Hawaii, you’ve heard the greeting Aloha, and perhaps someone told you the word is used in greeting, departure, and also in expressing love. But you might not know that Aloha goes a little deeper in the old Hawaiian teaching: When food is needed I will take only my need and explain […]

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ENVIA Energy’s GTL plant is underway, produces first biofuels

ENVIA Energy’s GTL plant is underway, produces first biofuels

February 7, 2017 |

In Oklahoma, the team behind the ENVIA Energy gas-to-liquids plant confirmed that the first Fischer-Tropsch product has been successfully produced at the company’s first commercial-scale plant in Oklahoma City. What makes it special is that the source is landfill gas and waste biomass. It’s been used for some times for the CNG vehicle market — […]

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Imagine, with us!: AkzoNobel issues an innovation challenge to the advanced bioceconomy

Imagine, with us!: AkzoNobel issues an innovation challenge to the advanced bioceconomy

February 6, 2017 |

AkzoNobel is launching Imagine Chemistry, an exciting opportunity to partner with start-up firms, students, research groups and career scientists from across the world to jointly exploit the knowledge of chemistry and solve several real-life chemistry-related challenges. “Imagine Chemistry is just the latest example of the commitment of AkzoNobel to fostering innovation, and also to doing […]

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Avalon’s bid to replace carcinogenic formaldehyde

Avalon’s bid to replace carcinogenic formaldehyde

February 5, 2017 |

In Switzerland, Avalon Industries has launched a research project to replace formaldehyde in phenol-formaldehyde resins with a bio-based, non-toxic platform chemical 5-HMF, The R&D partner is the Institute for Materials and Wood Technology at the Bern University of Applied Sciences. The research project, ‘Development of a formaldehyde-free phenol type adhesive system for the manufacturing of […]

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Fracking biomass: Steeper Energy and the pursuit of renewable hydrocarbons

Fracking biomass: Steeper Energy and the pursuit of renewable hydrocarbons

February 2, 2017 |

Donald Rumsfeld said it best: There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks […]

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