B&C® Biobased and Sustainable Chemicals Blog

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 18, 2019, Assistant Professor Dr. Vatsan Raman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced a new biosensor that is capable of reporting on a microbe’s biofuel production capacity from within the cell. An expensive process, “in search of the best biofuel-producing microbes, scientists may need to make millions of genetic variants” to find the right one. This new biosensor developed by Dr. Raman and his team, however, greatly facilitates the...

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 16, 2019, the Dutch Department of Defense announced that the Dutch Air Force is taking the next steps in reducing its carbon footprint given better affordability of biobased fuels. Provided with biokerosene, the Air Force intends to increase gradually the mixing percentage of biofuels and eventually have all of its equipment fly on biofuel mixtures. The Dutch goal is to achieve 20 percent less dependency on fossil fuels by 2030, and 70 percent by 2050.

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 29, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Building Technologies Office (BTO) announced funding for up to $42 million in project selections to support early-stage research and development (R&D) on residential and commercial building technologies for energy efficiency. According to DOE EERE BTO, buildings currently use 75 percent of U.S. electricity, accounting for 40 percent of U.S. overall...

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 21, 2019, Bio-Based World News announced the opportunity to apply for the platform’s 2019 Bio-Based World News Innovation Awards.  Awards will be distributed to leading innovators from across the biobased industry during a ceremony at the World Bio Markets flagship event in Amsterdam in April 2019.  Five rewards, listed below, will be separately awarded in recognition of the commitment to sustainability: Bio-based Product of the Year; Bio-based...

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 17, 2019, DOE BETO announced that the deadline for submission to its Manufacturing Innovator Challenge has been extended to February 10, 2019.  As DOE seeks new concepts in biobased materials to address today’s manufacturing challenges, the Manufacturing Innovator Challenge is an effort to incentivize solutions that increase energy productivity and strengthen the U.S. industrial base.  Prizes are open for ideas focused on Biobased Additive...

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 16, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) released the agenda for the 2019 Project Peer Review that will take place in Denver, Colorado, from March 4-8, 2019.  An annual event hosted by BETO, this is an opportunity for BETO to present early-stage development projects across its technology areas and have the projects reviewed by experts from industry, academia, and other federal agencies.  The technology areas...

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 15, 2019, DOE BETO announced that a current study being funded by DOE BETO’s Advanced Algal Systems has been published by scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The study researches strains found in a single culture of green algae that might be a candidate for biofuel production. Scientists are working to develop genetic engineering tools that would allow algae to grow faster, accumulating more biomass for biofuel. Further details on the...

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 10, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced that 32 of the 100 research and development (R&D) awards given out by R&D Magazine have been won by DOE researchers. One of the winning R&D projects was BETO-funded and focused on a green nitration process to produce acrylonitrile. These awards are annually distributed to developers of exceptional new products/processes introduced into the marketplace. Since...

By Lynn L. Bergeson On January 8, 2019, Nouryon, a Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG®) member, announced the official launching of the Imagine Chemistry challenge. A program focused on startups, scale-ups, university spin-offs, and other new comers in chemistry, the challenge aims to increase developing business’ opportunities to collaborate in the commercial adoption of green chemistry. In the 2019 edition of the challenge, Nouryon is seeking solutions to five...

By Lynn L. Bergeson In early January 2019, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published a report called A New World: The Geopolitics of Energy Transformation. Analyzing the geopolitical implications of the global energy sector that is being driven by renewables, the report was created by the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation in early 2018. A ten-month project, the deliberations by the Commission consider the move of renewables to the center of the...