Wassup, EU? The Top 10 Trends in Europe’s Advanced Bioeconomy

#1 Biomaterials on the move: IKEA, Lego, Avantium, JeNaCell

We saw the biomaterials buzz-o-meter jumping several notches when IKEA and Newlight Technologies entered into a supply, collaboration, and technology license agreement that will supply IKEA with Newlight’s AirCarbon and enable IKEA to produce AirCarbon thermoplastic under a technology license.

Under the agreement, IKEA will purchase 50% of the material from Newlight’s 23,000 tonne per year plant in the United States, and subsequently IKEA has exclusive rights in the home furnishings industry to use Newlight’s carbon capture technology to convert bio-based greenhouse gases, first from biogas and later from carbon dioxide, into AirCarbon thermoplastics for use in its home furnishing products.

That, on top of the hot news that LEGO will replace its fossil-based plastics by 2030 with sustainable alternatives. The company announced that it will invest $150 million in the effort to cover research, development and implementation of new raw materials to manufacture LEGO elements as well as packaging materials.. Immediately, the company has established a LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre and expects to recruit more than 100 employees in the effort.

Fans of nanocellulose had cheery news as JeNaCell launched its new nanocellulose-based therapeutic product line. The products aim at medical cosmetology, laser treatments, and skin sensitivities or to supplement aesthetic procedures such as exfoliation. As documented by current studies, they have a long-lasting moisturizing, cooling, and soothing effect on the skin and support the natural regeneration of sensitive skin. JeNaCell opines, “the material has a pleasant feel on the skin, regulates the moisture level of wounds, and can be removed painlessly because it does not stick to the skin.”

Let’s not forget spandex, though. In February, we reported that Versalis and Genomatica successfully advanced to pilot-scale production of bio-butadiene (bio-BDE) from fully renewable feedstock. Versalis used this bio-BDE to make bio-rubber, specifically, bio-polybutadiene (bio-BR).

Spotlight: Avantium advancing 

At the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in San Diego, Avantium revealed the closing of a new financing round of €20 million led by PMV, an independent investment company for Flanders, with investments also by FPIM, a Belgian Federal Holding and Investment Company, and Avantium’s existing shareholders.

The news followed on from the report that BASF and Avantium signed a letter of intent and entered into exclusive negotiations to establish a joint venture (JV) for the production and marketing of a new polymer, polyethylenefuranoate (PEF), and its main chemical building block furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) using renewable resources. The JV will use the YXY process Amsterdam and pilot plant in Geleen, Netherlands, for the production of FDCA. It is intended to further develop this process as well as to construct a reference plant for the production of FDCA with an annual capacity of up to 50,000 metric tons per year at BASF’s Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium.