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The ENGIE filling station, located in the heart of the International Market of Rungis, will power a fleet of 50 hydrogen-powered Renault Kangoo Z.E. utility vehicles, recently made available for long-term rental through Alphabet, provider of mobility solutions for companies. It is the largest hydrogen utility fleet and the first alternative multi-fuel station in France. The whole project has been given financial support from the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). The Renault Kangoo vans will be used by ENGIE Cofely technicians to ensure multi-technical operations and maintenance work for commercial buildings in the Ile-de-France. Equipped with extended hydrogen autonomy systems by Symbio, these vehicles neither produce particles nor gas emissions, and are further enhanced with a reduced recharge time and greater autonomy. This station has a provisional refueling capacity of 20 kg/day in hydrogen but should increase rapidly to 80 kg/day. This sca

Symphony Environmental has announced that it has signed a collaboration agreement and commitment to a strategic investment (“Agreement”) with Eranova SAS (“Eranova”), a company registered in France. Using Pollutant as a Source to Manufacture Bioplastics:   Eranova has developed a unique technology and process (the “Technology”) which extracts starch from algae for use with other materials. The starch can be combined with other polymers to produce compounded resins which are compostable and biodegradable. These can be used to manufacture a wide range of finished products (“bioplastics”). In addition, the Technology can be developed to produce biofuel, biopolymers, proteins for food and animal feed stock, as well as by-products for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Eranova is the applicant for PCT patent WO 2017/0463656 A1 and the application has been registered in several territories. The importance of the Technology is that it will be possible to m

AquafilSLO has announced that it will act as the coordinator of a consortium which has been awarded a grant from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), a public/private partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). Innovative Biobased Chemical Technology: The grant, for 7.1 million euros, is for the “EFFECTIVE” project, which aims to demonstrate first of its kind and economically viable ways to produce more sustainable fibers and plastic films. The focus is on making biobased polyamides and polyesters from renewable feedstocks rather than oil and gas and aims to accelerate progress toward a more circular economy and responsible use of materials. The project intends to enable the use of biobased ingredients to go into widely-used consumer products across multiple markets, such as construction, automotive, packaging, garments, carpets and textile, and demonstrate improved ways of recycling or biodegrading materials.

“Perstorp has made significant progress in ‘future-proofing’ its Capa caprolactone monomer plant in Warrington, United Kingdom. The project was announced last August, with work beginning in the final quarter of 2017. Major milestones have already been passed”, says Marie Grönborg, Executive Vice President Specialties & Solutions at Perstorp. Successful Future for Caprolactone-based Solutions“With this significant investment, Perstorp is making the plant more robust to ensure an even more reliable supply for customers around the world”, says Grönborg. The work will also facilitate future debottlenecking to support market growth. Perstorp is building in the capability for the plant to run with a higher capacity which allows us to increase capacity in the future. During changes in the market last year, Perstorp has made its spare capacity available to the market. Safety Improved Safety of the plant is being further improved too. Introduction of state-of-the-art technolo

Global meeting place of the hemp industry in Cologne in June at the "15th International Conference of the European Industrial Hemp Association". The participants will vote for the first time the “Hemp Product of Year”. In the 17th century, at the heyday of sailing, hemp flourished in Europe and was an important agriculture crop. Almost all ship sails and almost all rigging, ropes, nets, flags up to the uniforms of the sailors were made of hemp due to the tear and wet strength of the fibre. Trade and warfare depended on hemp; 50 to 100 tons of hemp fibre were needed for the basic equipment of a ship and had to be replaced every one to two years. Until the 18th century hemp fibres together with flax, nettle and wool were the raw materials for the European textile industry. Hemp seeds were food and feed; hemp oil was used both as food and in technical applications. In the 17th century, several 100,000 hectares of hemp were cultivated in Europe. In competition

Total Corbion PLA, global technology leader in Poly Lactic Acid (PLA), announces the launch of a novel technology that can create full stereocomplex PLA in a broad range of industrial applications. Biobased Replacement for PBT The new technology enables stereocomplex PLA – a material with long, regularly interlocking polymer chains that enable an even higher heat resistance than standard PLA. This breakthrough in PLA temperature resistance unlocks a range of new application possibilities, and provides a biobased replacement for PBT and PA glass fiber reinforced products. Sustainability Benefits For example, injection molded applications for under-the-hood automotive components can now be made from glass fiber reinforced stereocomplex PLA, offering both a higher biobased content and a reduced carbon footprint. The technology can offer these same sustainability benefits to the wider automotive, aerospace, electronics, home appliance, marine and construction i

Sandia National Laboratories scientists have demonstrated a new technology based on bioengineered bacteria that could make it economically feasible to produce all three from renewable plant sources. Productive Bioconversion Cell Factory Economically and efficiently converting tough plant matter, called lignin, has long been a stumbling block for wider use of the energy source and making it cost competitive. Piecing together mechanisms from other known lignin degraders, Sandia bioengineer Seema Singh and two postdoctoral researchers, Weihua Wu, now at Lodo Therapeutics Corp., and Fang Liu, have engineered E. coli into an efficient and productive bioconversion cell factory. “For years, we’ve been researching cost-effective ways to break down lignin and convert it into valuable platform chemicals,” Singh said. “We applied our understanding of natural lignin degraders to E. coli because that bacterium grows fast and can survive harsh industrial processes.” The