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NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 1 of 8
Bio-based Products
Highlights
Page 2 End-of-life News
Page 2 Platform Chemicals News
Page 4 Bioplastics News
Page 5 Bio-based Materials News
Page 6 Scientific Reviews
Page 7 Price Information
Page 8 Events
NNFCC Market Review Issue Seven, October 2012
ach month we review the latest
announcements and news from
across the global bio-based
chemicals and materials sector for our
business members.
Foreword
Welcome to the October 2012 issue of our
bio-based products market review. Waste
is becoming a major issue but also a major
resource. This month has seen the debate
on end-of-life options for plastics intensify,
with European Environment Commissioner
Janez Potočnik calling for a scale back of
energy recovery from plastics while others
including Nestlé and environmentalist
Jonathon Porritt believe energy from waste
could offer significant opportunities for
waste reduction.
Recycling is clearly an important tool for
plastic waste, where there is an end market
for the recyclates and it is economical to
do so. However, for difficult to recycle
waste streams – like composites – it could
be time for a re-think.
Compostable plastics, for example, can
allow brands to build supply chains where
packaging can be converted into compost
or potentially renewable energy if used in
an anaerobic digester. Alternatively it may
be more appropriate with some waste
streams to recover energy using either an
incinerator or gasifier.
The petrochemical industry is also looking to
waste as a feedstock for a new generation
of bio-based chemicals. Just last month,
Renmatix, a manufacturer of cellulosic
sugars for bio-based chemical and fuel
markets, unveiled their state-of-the-art R&D
facility which will look at new sustainable
feedstock sources, including waste. They
are just one of a number of companies who
see waste as the future.
Read on for all the latest sector news.
E
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 2 of 8
End-of-life
Source: Nestlé
Nestlé Interview: The future of
sustainable packaging
Around 90 per cent of Nestlé packaging can
be recycled, but it is often not viable to do so
and these materials end up in landfill. In a
recent interview with NNFCC, David Wiggins,
Head of Packaging at Nestlé UK, called for
more to be done to explore the options for
generating energy from packaging waste.
Wiggins says: “The infrastructure for recycling
single-material packaging is well-established
but composite packaging – like laminates
used for confectionery or pet food – is a
particularly difficult to recycle waste stream.”
“Where it is not economical to recycle
packaging waste we should consider energy
recovery, like combined heat and power
plants. When supported with a scientific life
cycle assessment, strategically placed CHP
plants can offer an opportunity to recover the
calories stored in packaging materials,” he
added.
Click here to read the full interview.
Study finds Ingeo biopolymer stable in
landfills
A peer-reviewed article appearing in the
journal of Polymer Degradation and Stability
concludes that Ingeo™ biopolymer is stable
in landfill with no statistically significant
quantity of methane released. This conclusion
was reached after a series of tests to ASTM
D5526 and D5511 standards that simulated a
century‟s worth of landfill conditions.
"We work with a cradle-to-cradle approach
to zero waste. What this means in terms of
landfill diversion, for example, is ideally that
Ingeo foodservice ware would be composted
in order to enable the landfill diversion of a
food-residual stream, and that Ingeo resins
and fibres would be mechanically or
chemically recycled and not landfilled,” said
Marc Verbruggen, President of NatureWorks.
“However, these systems are still emerging
and developing. The reality today is that a
percentage of Ingeo products end up in
landfills. And now we can say with certainty
that the environmental impact of that
landfilling, in terms of greenhouse gas release,
is not significant," he added.
Click here for more information.
Platform Chemicals
Renmatix unveil state-of-the-art R&D
facility
Renmatix, a manufacturer of cellulosic sugars
for biobased chemical and fuel markets,
have opened a new research and
development centre in Pennsylvania. The
multi-million dollar R&D facility serves to
accelerate Renmatix‟s exploration of new
sustainable feedstock sources, assist
downstream customers in their transition to
cellulosic sugars, and further enhance the
economics of the Plantrose™ process to
produce the lowest cost sugar intermediates
for renewable materials.
Click here for more information.
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 3 of 8
Source: Solazyme
Solazyme announce commissioning
of algae oil biorefinery in Illinois
Solazyme have announced the successful
commissioning of its first fully integrated
biorefinery in Peoria, Illinois, with a capacity to
produce two million litres of algal oil annually.
The biorefinery was partially funded with a
grant from the US Department of Energy in
December 2009 to demonstrate the
integrated commercial-scale production of
renewable algal-based fuels. The company
began running fermentation operations at
the Peoria facility in the fourth quarter of 2011
and has gradually scaled-up production
efforts, which have included multiple 128,000-
litre scale fermentations.
Click here for more information.
Gevo to switch back to ethanol
production from biobutanol
Shares in US biofuel producer Gevo, which is
backed by French oil company Total and
specialty-chemicals maker Lanxess, fell to a
record low after announcing plans to stop
producing isobutanol at its facility in Luverne,
Minnesota.
Gevo declined 35 per cent to $2.14 at the
close in New York, the lowest price and the
biggest loss since its February 2011 initial
public offering. The company is shifting to
ethanol production at the plant while it
adjusts its manufacturing process for
isobutanol, a more complex fuel it began
making there in May, according to a
statement released after the close of regular
trading yesterday.
Gevo is working on “certain specific parts of
our technology” to boost isobutanol
production rates, according to the statement.
The Englewood, Colorado-based company
estimated that the facility won‟t reach “our
desired year-end run rate” until next year.
Click here for more information.
Butamax signs up eight ethanol plants
for butanol retrofit
Eight ethanol plants with a combined annual
capacity of 900 million gallons have signed
up with advanced biofuels company
Butamax to be retrofitted for butanol
production. Butamax is a joint venture
between oil giants BP and chemical giants
DuPont. Butamax say they can undertake the
retrofitting at a cost of about $1 per gallon of
a plant's initial output capacity.
Click here for more information.
Kiverdi receives US gov’t funding for its
carbon conversion platform
Kiverdi, a sustainable chemicals company,
has been awarded a $0.75m grant from the
California Energy Commission's Research,
Demonstration and Development program to
further develop beneficial uses of CO2.
Kiverdi's proprietary Carbon Engineering
Platform transforms carbon from industrial flue
gases into high-value oils and chemicals,
including palm oil and palm kernel oil
replacements, say the company. Kiverdi also
announced that the company was selected
by a competitive peer-review process to
become an industrial user at the Molecular
Foundry, where Kiverdi has access to world-
class, state-of-the-art facilities and services.
Click here for more information.
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 4 of 8
BioBased Technologies expand Agrol
family of polyols
BioBased Technologies® has expanded its
family of Agrol® polyols to include a variety of
new feedstocks and a polyol specifically for
flexible slabstock formulations.
The company will introduce the new
products, Agrol Prime™, Agrol Star™, Agrol
Platinum® and Agrol™ AO+, during the
Centre for the Polyurethanes Industry‟s
Polyurethanes International Technical
Conference in Atlanta Sept. 24-26. The new
products are made from a range of raw
materials including soyabeans, castor oil and
cashew nut shells.
Click here for more information.
Source: Dr Carol Lin
From Starbucks croissants to succinic
acid: Baked goods could become
bioplastics
Scientists have developed and tested a new
“biorefinery” intended to change food waste
into a key ingredient for making plastics,
laundry detergents and scores of other
everyday products. Their report on a project
launched in cooperation with the Starbucks
restaurant chain ― concerned with
sustainability and seeking a use for spent
coffee grounds and stale bakery goods ―
was presented at the National Meeting &
Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Dr Carol Lin, who led the research team,
described the food biorefinery process, which
involves blending the baked goods with a
mixture of fungi that excrete enzymes to
break down carbohydrates in the food into
simple sugars. The blend then goes into a
fermenter, a vat where bacteria convert the
sugars into succinic acid.
Click here for more information.
Bioplastics
Source: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola accelerates global
production of PlantBottle™ packaging
Coca-Cola has announced a partnership
with JBF Industries to further expand
production of the plant-based material used
in the company's PlantBottle™ packaging.
Coca-Cola have sold more than 10 billion
PlantBottle™ packages to date but this new
supply partnership will help Coca-Cola deliver
its target of using PlantBottle™ packaging
technology in all of its plastic bottles by 2020,
said the company. To support this partnership,
JBF Industries will build the world's largest
facility to produce bio-glycol; the key
ingredient used to make the PlantBottle™.
The facility, to be located in Sao Paulo, Brazil,
will produce glycol using local sustainably-
sourced sugarcane and sugarcane
processing waste. Construction of the facility
is expected to begin at the end of 2012 and
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 5 of 8
last for 24 months. At full capacity, the facility
will produce an estimated 500,000 metric tons
of material each year.
Click here for more information.
Bioplastics manufacturer Cereplast
opens new office in India
Cereplast Inc. has opened a corporate office
in India to better serve current and future
clients in the Southeast Asia markets. That
market, according to Cereplast, includes
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,
and offers 1.6 billion potential new consumers.
Frederic Scheer, CEO of Cereplast, said that
India is a key emerging market for the
company and opening an office in India will
allow Cereplast to establish a client base that
could require between 20 to 2,000 tons per
month of biobased product.
Click here for more information.
Biome Technologies announce
proposed sale of its 50 per cent stake
in Biotec
UK bioplastics company Biome Technologies
has proposed the sale of its 50 per cent stake
in Biotec, the Group‟s manufacturing joint
venture with Sphere. Biome will receive a
cash consideration of £5.2m. Biome say the
sale will allow the group to focus on its
strategy to develop high margin, application
led products.
Click here for more information.
Waste cooking oil could make
bioplastics cheaper
Bioplastics that are naturally synthesised by
microbes could be made commercially
viable by using waste cooking oil as a starting
material, according to scientists presenting
their work at the Society for General
Microbiology‟s Autumn Conference.
Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polyesters are
synthesised by a wide variety of bacteria as a
source of energy when their carbon supply is
plentiful. Poly 3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is the
most common polymer in the PHA family.
Currently, growing bacteria in large
fermenters to produce high quantities of this
PHB is expensive because glucose is used as a
starting material. Now, work done at the
University of Wolverhampton suggests that
bacterium, Ralstonia eutropha H16, could use
waste cooking oil as a starting material to
reduce production costs of the plastic. The
next challenge for the group is to scale-up
experiments; enabling the manufacture of
bioplastics on an industrial level.
Click here for more information.
Bio-based Materials
Source: Bridgestone
Bridgestone unveils 100 per cent
sustainable tyre concept
Bridgestone is exhibiting a concept tyre of
“100 per cent sustainable materials” at the
2012 Paris Motor Show, as part of a new
initiative to encourage sustainability.
Bridgestone Corporation, the world‟s largest
tyre manufacturer, is diversifying the regions
where it produces natural rubber and also
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 6 of 8
replacing the synthetic rubber, carbon black
and rubber compounding agents in its tyre
with alternatives synthesised from biomass.
Bridgestone wants sustainable material tyres
to be commercially available from 2050. As a
next step in the process, the company will
“initiate” the technologies to begin mass
production of bio-based tyres.
Click here for more information.
Scientific Reviews
Sustained photosynthetic conversion
of CO2 to ethylene in recombinant
cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803
Abstract: Ethylene is the most widely
produced petrochemical feedstock globally.
It is currently produced exclusively from fossil
fuels, and its production is the largest CO2-
emitting process in the chemical industry. In
this study, we report on a photobiological
process for sustained production of ethylene
from CO2. The efe gene encoding an
ethylene-forming enzyme from Pseudomonas
syringae pv. Phaseolicola was previously
expressed in cyanobacterial strains, but was
not stable. We modified the gene sequence
to enhance its stability, and expressed it in
Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, leading to
continuous ethylene production.
Click here for more information.
Lignin depolymerisation in
supercritical carbon
dioxide/acetone/water fluid for the
production of aromatic chemicals
Abstract: Valorisation of lignin plays a key role
in further development of lignocellulosic
biorefinery processes the production of
biofuels and bio-based materials. In this study,
supercritical depolymerisation of wheat straw
and hardwood lignin yielded monomeric
compounds in different compositions with a
maximum yield of 2.0 per cent for syringic
acid and 3.6 per cent for syringol,
respectively. The results of the study showed
that under applied conditions competition
occurred between lignin depolymerisation
and recondensation of fragments.
Click here for more information.
Bio-based production of chemicals,
materials and fuels –
Corynebacterium glutamicum as
versatile cell factory
Abstract: Corynebacterium glutamicum,
gram-positive soil bacteria, traditionally well-
known as excellent producers of l-amino
acids are becoming flexible, efficient
production platforms for various chemicals,
materials and fuels. This development is
intensively driven by systems metabolic
engineering concepts integrating systems
biology and synthetic biology into strain
engineering. This study reviews the potential
of Corynebacterium glutamicum in the
production of bio-based chemicals, materials
and fuels.
Click here for more information.
Toward biotechnological production
of adipic acid and precursors from
biorenewables
Abstract: Adipic acid is the most important
commercial aliphatic dicarboxylic acid in the
chemical industry and is primarily used for the
production of nylon-6,6 polyamide. The
current adipic acid market volume is about
2.6m tons/yr and the average annual
demand growth rate forecast to stay at 3–3.5
per cent worldwide. Hitherto, the industrial
production of adipic acid is carried out by
petroleum-based chemo-catalytic processes
from non-renewable fossil fuels. However, in
the past years, efforts have been made to
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 7 of 8
find alternative routes for adipic acid
production from renewable sources by
biotechnological processes. This study reviews
the approaches and the progress made
toward bio-based production of adipic acid.
Click here for more information.
From plant biomass to bio-based
chemicals: Latest developments in
xylan research
Abstract: This review is focused on xylan, the
second most abundant plant polysaccharide
on our planet. Some xylan-derived products
have already found commercial applications
(ethanol, xylitol, xylo-oligosaccharides) while
others could have a great future in a wide
range of industries. The chemical and
structural variations of xylans produced by
different plants, and the concentration of
xylan in various plant resources are
summarised. This review discusses the latest
research developments in extraction and
purification methodologies, and chemical
modification, as well as the analytical
methods necessary for xylan related research.
Click here for more information.
Economic and Environmental
Assessment of Bio-Based Chemicals
Production in Singapore's
Petrochemical Cluster
Abstract: Current refining capacity in
Singapore is 1.3m bpd and ethylene capacity
is 2.1m tons per year, projected to reach 4m
tons per year by 2014. The petrochemical
industry in Singapore is heavily dependent on
fossil-based feedstock. This paper investigates
the feasibility of incorporating bio-based raw
materials into the slate of feedstocks
available for chemicals production in
Singapore.
Click here for more information.
Price Information
Item Price, US$ (Aug 07) Price, US$ (Aug 12) % Price Increase
Crude oil (petroleum, barrel) 70.13 ↑ 105.28 50.12
Maize (corn, metric ton) 151.01 ↑ 332.17 119.97
Sugar (pound) 0.0961 ↑ 0.2053 113.63
Rapeseed oil (metric ton) 1006.75 ↑ 1221.67 21.35
Soybean oil (metric ton) 797.09 ↑ 1188.51 49.11
Ethanol (gallon) 2.43 ↑ 2.72 11.19 For details on indexes please see www.indexmundi.com/commodities
Crude Oil (petroleum), simple average of three spot prices; Dated Brent, West Texas Intermediate,
and the Dubai Fateh. Ethanol details available at www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/66.html
Arrows indicate rise (↑), constant (–) or fall (↓) from previous month.
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 8 of 8
For details on the nature of these commodities please see www.indexmundi.com/commodities
Events
7th European Bioplastics Conference,
06-07 Nov 2012 in Berlin, Germany en.european-bioplastics.org
The annual European Bioplastics Conference
offers a unique information platform for
industry trends and innovations in material
and application development.
Life Cycle Assessment Workshops, 07-
08 Nov 2012 in York, UK www.nnfcc.co.uk/events
Two workshops have been developed to
provide a basic understanding of LCA and
how to set about doing one. The first
workshop covers the principles of LCA,
requirements, problems and issues. The
second provides a „hands on‟ opportunity to
learn to carry out an LCA. The workshops can
be taken together or separately.
Credits and Disclaimer NNFCC Market Review is edited by Dr Matthew Aylott for NNFCC members. Feedback is welcome.
The Review has been compiled in good faith and NNFCC does not accept responsibility for any
inaccuracies or the products or services shown.
NNFCC The Bioeconomy Consultants
NNFCC, Biocentre, Phone: +44 (0)1904 435182
York Science Park, Fax: +44 (0)1904 435345
Innovation Way, E: [email protected]
Heslington, York, Web: www.nnfcc.co.uk
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Agricultural Raw
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Crude Oil (Petroleum)
