Airbus and Dassault Systèmes embark on a five-year strategic partnership

Airbus and Dassault Systèmes have signed a five-year Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to cooperate on the implementation of collaborative 3D design, engineering, manufacturing, simulation and intelligence applications.

This will enable Airbus to take a major step forward in its digital transformation and lay the foundation for a new European industrial ecosystem in aviation.
Under the MOA, Airbus will deploy Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience platform, which delivers digital continuity, from design to operations, in a single data model for a unified user experience, making digital design, manufacturing and services (DDMS) a company-wide reality for all Airbus divisions and product lines.

DDMS paves the way for breakthroughs in new product design, operational performance, support and maintenance, customer satisfaction and new business models, as it represents a move from sequential to parallel development processes. Instead of first focusing on product performance, Airbus will be able to co-design and develop the next generation of aircraft with the manufacturing facilities that will produce them, reducing costs and time to market.

 “We are not just talking about digitalisation or a 3D experience, we are rethinking the way aircraft are designed and operated, streamlining and speeding up our processes with customer satisfaction in mind.” said Guillaume Faury, President Airbus Commercial Aircraft. “DDMS is a catalyst for change and with it we are building a new model for the European aerospace industry with state of the art technology. Our target is a robust production setup that offers a reduction in product development lead time.”

 “Nothing exemplifies the intersection of technology, science and art more than aviation. When we reflect on how the industry has evolved to where it is today, it’s a blend of technical prowess, digital precision and inspiration,” said Bernard Charlès, Vice Chairman and CEO, Dassault Systèmes. “The Aerospace industry has a proven track record of fast transformation, faster than in most industries. It delivers high quality innovation and new services for operations in highly complex and regulated environments. The 3DExperience platform will accelerate the digital transformation of Airbus. Airbus can capture insights and expertise from across its ecosystem to deliver new experiences that only the digital world makes possible.”

Source:AIRBUS

SABIC Begins Production & Commercialization of Certified Circular Polymers

SABIC has announced another major milestone in its ground-breaking project to pioneer the production of certified circular polymers using a feedstock from mixed plastic waste.

Commercializing Certified Circular Polymers

The latest achievement – the production of the first certified circular polymers – is part of what is known as a ‘market foundation stage’. Launched in January, this stage is an important step towards creating a new circular value chain for plastics. During this stage, initial volumes of pyrolysis oil from plastic waste are introduced as feedstock at SABIC’s Geleen production site in The Netherlands. The patented pyrolysis oil has been produced by PLASTIC ENERGY Ltd from the recycling of low quality, mixed plastic waste otherwise destined for incineration or landfill.

As part of the market foundation stage, SABIC has begun to produce and commercialize the first monthly volumes of certified circular polymers - polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). This is prior to the projected start-up in 2021 of the commercial plants planned by SABIC and PLASTIC ENERGY in the Netherlands to manufacture and process the alternative feedstock.

Closing the Loop on Reutilizing Plastic Waste

Frank Kuijpers, General Manager Corporate Sustainability at SABIC said, “Certified circular polymers are a disruptive innovation and SABIC’s market foundation stage is a critical phase in their development,”

“It will act as a bridge moving from a linear economy to a circular one and will enable the value chain to become familiar with the products and consider how they can best be implemented in their own markets. It will allow confidence in this pioneering product to grow before SABIC goes into full scale production.”

The polymers are certified through the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification plus (ISCC+) scheme that certifies:

• Circular content, and 
• Standards across the value chain from source to end product

The ISCC+ certification works on what is known as a “mass balance system”, meaning that for each ton of circular feedstock fed into the cracker and substituting fossil-based feedstock, a ton of the output can be classified as circular.

Certified circular polymers will help SABIC’s customers to meet consumer demand for more sustainable products and will contribute to closing the loop on reutilizing plastic waste.

Source: SABIC

Recent Study Reveals New Renewable FR Material Using Coffee Waste

Dr Henry Leung from the School of Chemical and Life Sciences and his team of three final-year students from the Diploma in Medicinal Chemistry found a way to lessen the environmental impact of coffee waste. They have turned used coffee grounds into a flame retardant that could potentially be used to improve fire safety in homes and offices.

Leveraging Slow-burning Properties of Coffee By treating coffee waste and mixing it with epoxy resin – a material commonly found in floorings and walls of homes – the team were able to leverage the slow-burning properties of coffee to create a material that could withstand a fire by as much as two times that of regular epoxy resin. This new material has also attained an “HB” grading, which indicates slow burning on a horizontal specimen, based on initial findings by a third-party testing laboratory. Apart from its fire-resistant qualities, the coffee-epoxy resin has the potential to become a total solution for reducing coffee waste as grounding coffee waste into compost requires large storage space. The incineration of compost is also a space- and energy-consuming process. Source: NYP

Calvera delivers mobile gas pipeline to transport biomethane in Finland

The Industrial Group Calvera has recently supplied a customer in Finland with several units of their containers for the transport of biomethane, a mobile gas pipeline solution. The innovative equipment is designed under the flexible Hooklift system that includes easy loading and unloading with a Multilift hydraulic arm coupled to a truck, which makes logistics much easier by taking natural gas storage where it is needed and without leaving the tanker truck, only the container.

Calvera’s equipment was custom-made in terms of capacity and weight, adjusting the product as much as possible to the client’s specific needs and offering high levels of efficiency and profitability through the use of the latest available technology.

In this case, the client produces renewable natural gas from a wood waste digester, which is then compressed and marketed in biomethane service stations that serve buses, trucks, cars and light vehicles in Finland.

The Nordic countries and Finland in particular have been betting on biomethane and on this type of mobility solutions that are gradually being extended thanks.

Source: Calvera/Gasnam

Teijin extends Bombardier contract

Teijin Limited has been awarded a contract to supply its carbon fiber material to Bombardier Aerostructures for another seven years, until 2025.

Teijin says that part of its focus on aircraft business growth during 2017-2019 and developing carbon fibers with higher tenacity and higher tensile modulus, intermediate materials, carbon fiber thermoplastic consolidated laminate, thermoset prepreg and non-crimp fabric.

Teijin was awarded a contract by Bombardier to supply materials for major primary and secondary composite structures in 2010 and the company’s Tenax carbon fiber has been used for primary structure applications including wing, center wing box structures and empennage applications.

Source;Teijin

Avantium Acquires BASF’s Stake for Full Ownership of Bioplastics Business Synvina

Avantium has retaken full ownership of its YXY plants-to-plastics technology through the purchase of BASF’s shares in the Synvina joint venture. Avantium has appointed Marcel Lubben as Managing Director of Synvina to lead the commercialization of the YXY technology, effective 1 February 2019.
Avantium has regained the intellectual property, people and assets for YXY and has paid BASF €13.7 million for its equity stake in Synvina, as agreed in the Joint Venture Agreement. A net payment of €3.7 million was made for full ownership of the assets acquired by Synvina in the last two years.

Redefining Commercialization Path for Renewable Chemistries

Avantium is redefining the path to commercialization for the YXY technology, which it developed to catalytically convert plant-based sugars into FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) and materials such as the new plant-based packaging material PEF (polyethylenefuranoate).

• PEF can fulfil the demand of leading brands and consumers for next-generation materials that are environmentally friendly and recyclable
• PEF has the potential to be a game changer in the circular economy

Avantium plans to make further announcements on its new strategy to commercialize YXY during the first half of 2019.
 

Synvina - New Business Unit of Avantium

Synvina has become a new business unit of Avantium, alongside the existing Catalysis and Renewable Chemistries business units.

Avantium’s renewable chemistry programs include:

• Dawn Technology™, which converts non-food feedstock to industrial sugars and lignin, and 
• Mekong technology, which transforms sugars into plant-based monoethylene glycol (MEG) used in the production of materials including renewable plastics and polyesters

Marcel Lubben - New Managing Director of Synvina

Experienced chemicals and biotech executive Marcel Lubben is appointed Managing Director of Synvina and will join Victor Vreeken (Chief Operations Officer) and Willem-Jan Meijer (Financial Director) in Synvina’s leadership team. Lubben worked for 25 years at DSM in various senior business roles, in licensing, corporate venture capital and technology. In his last role, he was president of Reverdia, a joint venture between DSM and Roquette for the production and sale of bio-based succinic acid.

Tom van Aken, Chief Executive Officer of Avantium: “Our belief in YXY and its market potential is rock-solid. Producing FDCA and PEF is a complex innovation process that requires a completely new value chain. I am convinced that the work done so far and the value chain we have built will spur the commercialization of PEF. We have the people, ambition and expertise to bring FDCA and PEF successfully to market, and are very pleased Marcel Lubben will strengthen the team to spearhead this.”

Marcel Lubben, new Managing Director of Synvina: “Green, innovative materials are essential elements in the global transition to a circular economy. I have been following the progress on YXY for several years and am impressed by how it has been built out to a platform for unique materials with significant performance benefits. I am delighted to assume leadership of this Avantium business unit and bring this important technology to market.”
 
Source: Avantium

Toyota and Panasonic agree to establish joint venture for automotive batteries

Toyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation concluded a business-integration contract and a joint-venture contract toward the establishment of a joint venture related to the automotive prismatic battery business.

 Main points of the agreements
Toyota and Panasonic will establish a joint venture (pending approval from the competition-law authorities in the countries and regions concerned) by the end of 2020. The ratio of equity participation in the joint venture will be 51 percent for Toyota and 49 percent for Panasonic. The scope of the joint venture's business operations will cover research, development, production engineering, manufacturing, procurement, order receipt, and management related to automotive prismatic lithium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries, and next-generation batteries.
Toyota will transfer equipment and personnel to the joint venture in the areas of development and production engineering related to battery cells. Panasonic will transfer equipment, other assets, liabilities, personnel, and other items to the joint venture in the areas of development, production engineering, manufacturing (at plants in Japan and in Dalian, China), procurement, order receipt, and management functions related to the automotive prismatic battery business.
The total number of employees from both companies related to operations subject to transfer to the joint venture is 3,500 (as of the end of December 2018).
Products produced by the joint venture will be sold to various automakers through, in principle, Panasonic.

In addition to changes in consumer needs for the automobile, as evidenced by such shifts as those toward connected vehicles, autonomous driving, and car-sharing services, today's automotive world is also being called on by society to help find solutions to such issues as those related to global warming, resources, and energy. As vehicle electrification accelerates toward the solving of such environmental issues, batteries are a most-important element.
However, numerous battery-related challenges must be tackled, including not only having advanced technological capabilities to address issues of cost, energy density, charging time, and safety, but also being able to ensure stable supply capacity and having effective recycling structures. The business environment is one in which independent efforts by battery manufacturers or automobile manufacturers are not enough for solving the issues concerned.
Against the backdrop of such a business environment, Toyota and Panasonic announced on Dec. 13, 2017 an agreement to study the feasibility of a joint automotive prismatic battery business. Since then, the two companies have achieved high-capacity and high-output automotive prismatic batteries that lead the industry in terms of both performance and cost. To contribute to the popularization of Toyota's and other automakers' electrified vehicles, Toyota and Panasonic have also repeatedly held earnest discussions on the concrete details of their collaboration.


Toyota and Panasonic are confident that the contracts concluded will further strengthen and accelerate their actions toward achieving competitive batteries. The joint venture will integrate management and other resources from both companies, fusing strengths of both Toyota and Panasonic.

Toyota is to contribute:

1. Know-how and market data related to electrified vehicles
2. Advanced technologies related to solid-state batteries and more
3. Toyota-style manufacturing capabilities (monozukuri)

While Panasonic, demonstrating its strengths as a battery manufacturer, is to contribute:

1. Technologies related to high-capacity and high-output batteries that are high-quality and extremely safe
2. Mass-production technologies
3. A customer base both in Japan and overseas.

In this way, the joint venture aims to become the leader in battery-development and battery-manufacturing capabilities.
Specifically, for the joint venture to become the leader in battery-development capability, Toyota and Panasonic intend to coordinate with each other from the vehicle planning and conception stage, and promote the acceleration of high-capacity and high-output battery development. For the joint venture to become the leader in battery-manufacturing capability, Toyota and Panasonic intend to share with each other their production-engineering resources and monozukuri know-how, and, in addition to establishing a high-quality, low-cost, stable supply structure, they plan to also, among other efforts, leverage merits of scale related to procurement and manufacturing costs.

Source:TOYOTA/PANASONIC