June 2010 Archives

I can finally post some interesting tidbits from my Chicago trip a few weeks ago covering BASF's Agriculture Summit.

One that caught my attention is the use of their Eco-Efficiency Analysis tool this time within the agriculture sector. This tool, which was developed by BASF to measure the sustainability of products and production processes and is one of BASF's main tools for implementing its sustainability strategy, was mostly being used in their chemicals businesses.

BASF announced at the summit that they have just completed their sustainability analysis of corn production, one that uses their fungicide Headline® compared to one without the fungicide. Their result conclude that farmers who uses fungicide (in this case, BASF's) were able to reduce costs, energy use and resources.

"Corn farmers can earn more with Headline and protect the environment at the same time as no additional arable land is needed to achieve higher yields." - Dr. Peter Eckes, President of BASF Plant Science.

According to Peter Eckes,38% of total global land is experiencing drought, while irrigated land already accounts for 40% of the global food production.He said that 70% of world fresh water goes into farming....very interesting!

"For soybeans, without using genetically modified crops, farmers would need additional 11.4m acres of land to achieve same amount of yield. This would produce a carbon emission equivalent to 6.94m cars." - Peter Eckes.

Lastly, BASF also announced at the summit the findings of their survey about farmland stewardship, which, according to BASF, is alive and thriving in the US. 400 consumers and growers across the US were asked to provide an opinion of farmland stewardship topics to identify gaps in perceptions among consumers, growers and pesticide manufacturers.

Participants were asked to measure the level of importance placed on certain characteristics and agriculture industry priorities when making decisions about crop inputs. Here are some of the key findings of the survey:

• Both growers and consumers feel that farmland stewardship practices are better now than 10 years ago, and will continue to improve during the next 10years.
  

• Consumers think growers place more emphasis on environmental impact when they select pesticides than growers report of their own behavior indecision making.
  

• Consumers feel that growers are receiving crop inputs from trustworthy sources.Growers place top priority on effectiveness and cost when selecting a pesticide input.
  

California's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) finally put out online its draft for the new safer Consumer Products regulation. Comments are due by July 15, 2010 and may be sent to GCRegs@dtsc.ca.gov.

According to DTSC, the draft regulation creates a systematic, science-based process to evaluate chemicals of concern in products, as well as stimulate innovation in California's product development sector.

Released following 16 months of intense dialogue with stakeholders, the draft regulation would prioritize toxic chemicals and products, require manufacturers to seek safer alternatives to toxic chemicals in their products, and create tough governmental responses for lack of compliance.

The draft regulation will be implemented in three phases:

1) Prioritization process in which DTSC will identify and prioritize chemicals of concern and products that contain them.

2) Alternatives assessment of priority products conducted by manufacturers of these products, to identify safer alternatives.

3) DTSC will impose various regulatory response actions to address any remaining concerns raised by the alternatives selected by manufacturers for implementation, and to move manufacturers toward designing safer products.

More FAQs on the draft here.

California-based Amyris has been very busy this week, with its newly formed joint venture with Brazilian ethanol company Cosan and its new partnership (and investor) with French oil company Total.

Amyris announced today that Total has acquired 17% of Amyris' stake and that it will have the right to appoint a member of the Amyris Board of Directors. The press release did not exactly mentioned any specifics other than that both companies' research and development teams will work together to develop new products and build biological pathways to produce and commercialize renewable fuels and chemicals.

From what I recall, aside from second generation biofuels, Total has been looking into polylactic acid-based (PLA) plastic with its partnership with lactic acid producer Galactic. The partnership recently commissioned a demonstration plant in Escanaffe, Belgium.

I smell sugar-based ethanol and plastics brewing for Amyris and Total...

Meanwhile, the Amyris and Cosan partnership announcement yesterday also did not disclose any specifics except that they plan to produce and commercialise sugarcane-based renewable chemicals for automotive and industrial applications.

The companies expect to complete a definitive agreement later this year.

I know Amyris is attending the BIO industrial biotechnology conference next week so maybe I'll bump into one of them and get more information. By the way, tune in for my tweets at @ICISChemicalBiz or stories at ICIS News (for those who are subscribers) as I heard several green chemistry companies that I follow will make announcements at the event.

One of Ford Motor's strategies is to make their cars more environment-friendly by using plant-based chemicals or recycled materials. According to Ford, its vehicles are already 85% recyclable by weight, but it wants to increase its use of bio-based materials such as its seat cushions and seatbacks, which already use soybean-based polyurethane.

The 2010 Ford Flex also features the automotive industry's first application of wheat straw-reinforced plastic for the third-row storage bins. Ford said the natural fiber replaces energy-inefficient glass fibers commonly used to reinforce plastic parts.

Here is my recent interview with Deborah Mielewski, polymer technical leader for Ford Motor Company on more of their bio-based materials strategy:

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Q: Aside from bio-based polyurethane foams, are there any other bio-based products/chemicals that are currently being used in Ford's automobiles? In what components of the car are they being applied on?

Mielewski: The soy-based foam is currently being used on the seat cushions and backs of 10 Ford/Lincoln models. The soy foam technology has migrated within Ford Motor Company incredibly fast. In addition, we have soy-based foam in the headliner of the 2010 Escape.

Last fall, we became the first automaker to utilize wheat straw (a bi-product of growing wheat) as a filler in the third row plastic bins on the 2010 Ford Flex. This material was developed in conjuction with the Ontario BioCar; a group of Canadian Universities and companies interested in developing sustainable materials for cars. Even though these bins are a small component, they save about 20,000 pounds of petroleum annually, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30,000 pounds each year.

One thing we've learned is that small environmental improvements really add up when you make millions of vehicles each year.

Q: What are the main reasons behind Ford's increase use of bio-based materials?

Mielewski: There are many reasons to develop these types of alternative materials. First, plastics are derived from petroleum, which is a limited resource. As the availability and price of petroleum increases, alternative materials for plastics will be welcome. We can utilize an agricultural crop that is either a waste product, such as the wheat straw filler, or available in excess. This gives farmers an additional use for their crops. When plants grow, they sequester carbon dioxide, so we can reduce total CO2 emissions and improve the lifecycle of materials when compared to petroleum-based plastics.

Some of the materials we are developing are actually compostable at the end of life, alleviating landfills from plastics that take hundreds of years to decompose. It is also interesting that some of these bio-based materials have unique properties, which for certain applications are superior to the current, petrol based materials.

Q: Who are the companies currently involved in development/production of bio-products that Ford use for its automobiles?

Mielewski: All of our seating suppliers currently offer a soy-based polyurethane foam product. Ford is working with university partners such as the Ontario BioCar and the GreenCentre to continue to develop new, sustainable materials. We also work with a multitude of companies to develop their materials to meet the stringent requirements of automotive.

The wheat straw reinforced plastic is supplied by A. Schulman. The wheat straw is supplied by 4 southern Ontario farmers to a processor (Omtec) and molder (Schulman) all in Ontario, Canada. It is quite a nice story of utilizing a waste product of growing wheat to locally produce automotive parts that are installed locally.

Q: What are the challenges that Ford and its car component suppliers face in incorporating biobased products to Ford's automobiles? (Cost? Performance? Material availability?)

Mielewski: All three (cost, performance and supply chain) can be issues. At Ford Research, we are concerned with the development of the material and it's performance. The development of soy-based foam took us about six years. There were many technical challenges that needed to be overcome, including odor, performance and scale-up issues. Each of these challenges were tackled individually, with the end result being a foam that met every specification for automotive performance and durability. Logistical issues, such as an additional tank for soy polyol in the foam plant, also needed to be addressed.

Q: What is Ford's overall strategies towards sustainable mobility?

Mielewski: Electrification is an important piece of Ford's overall product sustainability strategy that includes a range of fuel efficient and alternative fuel technologies including EcoBoost engines, six speed transmissions, power assisted steering, aerodynamic improvements and light weighting materials.

Ford's electrification strategy also leverages the most fuel-efficient powertrains, the most technically competent hybrids and our global vehicle platforms in order to develop affordable choices for consumers. Over the past year, Ford doubled the number and production of hybrids in our line up, delivering the most fuel efficient mid-size sedan on the market today - Ford Fusion Hybrid with 41 mpg city, 10 mpg higher than Toyota Camry.

The goal of Ford's electrification strategy is to deliver electrified vehicles that provide real world value to customers with a wide range of driving behaviors and conditions. These vehicles include hybrids, plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and pure battery electric vehicles (BEV) designed to improve fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions affordably for customers around the world.

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Check out my article about Bio-based auto parts on ICIS Chemical Business' June 7 feature.

I am now able to access my computer again after unpacking my stuff at work where we moved (again) from another floor in the same building.

Big news today is the groundbreaking ceremony of Dow Kokam's new lithium battery production facility in Michigan. US Vice President Joe Biden attended the event and more on this in another post...

Next week, I will be attending the annual BIO World Congress on Industrial biotechnology and Processing conference to be held near Washington D.C. Lots of good stuff coming from this event, which will tie up most of my time so posts next week will be scarce. Follow my tweets at @ICISChemicalbiz!

For now, here are this week's news roundup:

Rhodia in plant-based chemistry
French chemical company Rhodia has partnered with the new University of Bordeaux Foundation to support the Chair of "Pine Chemistry and Natural Resources" with the aim of expanding the role of plant-based raw materials in the chemical industry.

Elasco develops soy polyurethane
Deltron, Inc.'s subsidiary Elasco has developed proprietary polyurethane formulations made from soybean oil. The company says they are seeing increased demand for 'greener' products from customers, particularly those in the recreational products industry.

BASF in carbon capture
BASF and U.S. research institute RTI International have joined to develop a new, exceptionally cost-effective technology to capture carbon dioxide from waste gases emitted by coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources. The development project is sponsored by a two million dollar cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Ineos builds waste-based ethanol
INEOS Bio received a £7.3m ($10.8m) grant towards £52m construction costs for a 24,000 tonnes/year waste-based ethanol at the INEOS Seal Sands site in the Tees Valley, UK. The facility, said to be Europe's first waste to bioethanol plant, could be operational by 2012.

German biogas pact
VIASPACE, a clean energy company growing Giant King™ Grass as a low-carbon, renewable energy crop, formed a partnership deal with privately held RuBa Energie GmbH, an owner and operator of biogas electric-power plants. VIASPACE will plant five acres of the energy crop at the RuBa facility in Kevelaer, Germany. The goal of the collaboration is to produce an alternative, high yield, nonfood feedstock for the more than 4,000 bio-digesters operating in Germany.

Energy efficient building grant
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $1.2 million to Dow Corning to develop silicon-based high-efficiency building insulation system which could be used in retro-fit and new construction applications.

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):
The president of Germany's federal environmental protection agency on Wednesday urged producers, importers and users of bisphenol A (BPA) to switch to alternatives.

President Barack Obama urged US voters last week to press their representatives in Congress for tough climate legislation as he called on BP to establish a special relief fund for coastal communities hurt by the Gulf of Mexico spill.

The US Senate failed to cut off debate on a bill containing biodiesel blending tax credit, sending the legislative package back into limbo.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) expressed their frustration yesterday on a statement about the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) delay to increase percentage of US ethanol blends from 10% to 15%.

The EPA now expects to decide on a higher ethanol blend in the fall. DOE testing on higher blends in cars produced after 2007 will not be completed until September (three months later than originally expected), while approval for vehicles produced in 2001-2007 could be delayed until this winter.

"Equally frustrating as the current plan is EPA's failure to consider calls to immediately approve the use of 12% ethanol blends. Existing oxygenate stacking rules would allow for it. Specifically, current "stacking" rules allow for the addition of up to 2 percent MTBE on top of currently allowed 10 percent ethanol blends. As ethanol and MTBE are both oxygenates, this additional 2 percent volume could be ethanol. In practice, a vehicle engine would not recognize if the oxygen content was from one fuel or two." - RFA

• Considering that vehicles produced after 2007 are only about 1/3 of the light vehicle fleet, even if 50% of those vehicles switch to using E15 it would imply an increase in ethanol demand of roughly 1bn gal. This would tighten ethanol industry operating rates to an estimated 94% from 87% currently, and, all else being equal, raise aggregate corn demand by 357m bu, or 3.2% of projected demand for the 2011/12 planting year. This increase could shift the expected corn inventory/use ratio for the end of 2011 to 6.6% from 9.5%, although we would note that even at 9.5%, corn stocks are near record lows and are supportive for corn prices.
  

• Also this week, the EPA notified Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) that it will consider the company's June 7, 2010 request to allow gasoline blended with up to 12% ethanol for all vehicles. This would serve as an interim solution if E15 cannot be approved for all vehicles in the near term. ADM argues that E12 is "substantially similar" to certified gasoline with up to 10% ethanol content. The EPA noted it will give careful attention to ADM's request but that test data is needed for approval, and at this juncture, the Agency is not aware of any test data using 12% ethanol blends.

ICIS reporters are covering this year's annual Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis, Missouri.

At the conference, there was a talk that Brazil may ship ethanol to Iran. My colleague William Lemos was able to interview retired US general Wesley Clark on his opinion about this issue and he said that this potential sale would demonstrate how important it is that US does not become reliant on Brazil for imports of the biofuel.

See video below and more about this story on ICIS News (subscription required) ...

Here are more ICIS News stories from the Ethanol conference:

US ethanol group sees biofuel opportunity in BP oil spill

Ethanol maker POET confident US blend to get to 15%

US ethanol industry to fight E15 blend ban for older cars

US ethanol finds market abroad but keeps domestic focus

US ethanol risks biodiesel calamity if subsidy renewal slow

Ethyl lactate, other co-products lift US ethanol economics

Brazil ethanol demand up but prices fail to climb

US ethanol to shrink to 25 firms in 10 years - consultant

My colleague Andy Brice actually send me this Sunday Times article in February about Nike's 2010 World Cup team soccer kits made from plastic bottle recycled polyester.

According to Nike, all of Nike's national teams are wearing jerseys (and other soccer attire) made entirely from recycled polyester, each one produced from up to eight recycled plastic bottles. Nike's teams include Brasil, The Netherlands, Portugal, USA, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia.

Nike's fabric suppliers sourced the discarded plastic bottles from Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites and then melted them down to produce new polyester yarn.

This kind of reminds me of Teijin's Eco Circle program...

Nike said their products were able to reduce energy consumption by up to 30% compared to manufacturing virgin polyester, and prevented 13m plastic bottles, totaling nearly 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from going into landfill sites.

There have been quite a few interviews and several conferences this year that I was not able to post in the blog due to schedule and deadline constraint. I'm hoping to catch up eventually this summer and I'll start with Arkema's new Sustainability Additives Group.

The Americas business of French chemical company Arkema officially formed its Sustainability Additives group based in Philadelphia in September 2008 under the company's Functional Additives division.

My interview with the group's general manager, Antonis Papadourakis, resulted an interesting overview of the group's strategies and their definition of sustainability, which according to him, is "the use of methods, systems and materials that won't deplete resources or harm natural cycles."

"We will develop additives solutions for our targeted markets, based on our core technologies (radical generation and control, polymer & material modification, and chemical vapor deposition) that will lead to more efficient use of resources and energy, help manage or create less waste, extend life of existing products and help develop/grow new products to harness new/renewable sources of energy and materials."

By 2012, the group's goal is to convert 25% of their product portfolio (from the current 15%) under this sustainability definition.

"Majority of our developments are focused on renewable resources either targeting energy or materials," says Papadourakis. "In the non-renewable area, we are focusing on the concepts of less waste and [or] less use of raw materials."

Now you might ask why this is sustainable? Papadourakis explains that this particular technology could lower the cost of wind blade production, which in turn could drive more enthusiasm for wind energy projects. Makes sense.

In the photovoltaic area, Arkema's Sustainability Additives group also claims that they have the leading position in marketing organic peroxides in solar cell encapsulant application. This video from Arkema explains the necessity of chemical technology in solar energy production:

Finally, Arkema's Papadourakis also pointed out their growing R&D in bioplastics. The company is already producing castor oil-based plastics for several product applications but the group recently launched several additives to make polylactic acid (PLA)-based plastic processing more economical. Here are some of their newly launched products for PLA processing:

Arkema Introduces New PLA Processing Lubricant

Arkema Introduces New PLA Melt Strength Enhancer

Papadourakis said that they are doing a lot of work to improve PLA's properties to expand its applications. Arkema is currently working with US-based PLA producer NatureWorks and their customers.

I've been monitoring the news on chemical dispersants being used on the Gulf oil spill and my colleague in ICIS, Judith Taylor, wrote an excellent article about surfactants* as one of the active chemicals in dispersants.

Many surfactants these days use natural fats/oils-based raw materials and ICIS Pricing recently reported* a slight tightness in the fatty acid market:

US tall oil fatty acid supply tightens on BP oil spill demand

Oleic fatty acids, used in dispersants, tighten on BP oil spill

However, the dispersants themselves are causing environmental advocates to cry foul claiming it could do more harm than good because of unknown long-term effects. Nalco's Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 are particularly the two major dispersants that have been used on the spill.

According to a recent analyst report from Jefferies & Company, Nalco was able to make around $40m in dispersant sales related to the cleanup of the US Gulf oil spill reflecting sales of roughly 840,000 gal of Corexit.

Thus far Corexit is the only dispersant used at the spill although the Federal government has mandated a significant ramped down of its use because of the toxicity concerns. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently listed on their website the chemical components of the Corexit dispersants which include: 2-Propanol, 1,2-Propandiol, at least one ethanol derivative (which is in only COREXIT 9500), at least one butane derivative, several sorbitol derivatives called sorbitans and several petroleum distillates.

The group Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition noted that very few data are available on the Corexit dispersants and that the EPA only require two short-term tests of acute toxicity to fish and shrimp for a dispersant to gain approval for use in any quantity.

"Only limited short-term data are available on individual ingredients as well, with virtually no data on toxicity to surface- or bottom-dwelling organisms, land animals and plants, or birds."

"Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527, have been banned by the United Kingdom due to their adverse effects on the marine environment," the group said in a statement.

"BP has applied dispersants that are known to be toxic to the marine environment in a wholly unprecedented, unanalyzed, and arguably unauthorized manner yet the EPA has continued to allow the use of enormous amounts of Corexit and other dispersants on the surface and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico without ensuring that this massive ecological experiment will not jeopardize protected species or adversely affect their critical habitat."

The EPA said it has been working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA to ensure an aggressive dispersant monitoring plan is implemented by BP and that data are regularly and rigorously reviewed.

As of June 13, the EPA claimed that their toxicity data for the dispersants used does not indicate any significant effects on aquatic life and that, so far, the dispersant is effective.

The EPA also listed on its website all dispersants that have been authorized for use on their National Contingency Plan (NCP) Product Schedule, the authorized list of dispersants. The agency said it requires toxicology tests and reports for all dispersants that are approved on this list.

Other dispersant producers to name a few include BP, Croda, Dasic International, INEOS Chemical, Shell, Taiho, Total, and U.S. Polychemical, according to Jefferies.

Several press release about more environment-friendly dispersants have came out because of this issue. Here are some of them:

Tampa-Based Thermablok, Inc. May Have the Answer to Oil Spill Clean-up Using Aerogel

Low-tox dispersant shows promise in oil-spill remediation

Green Earth Technologies Has a New Ultimate Biodegradable Solution for the Gulf Oil

[*ICIS stories are subscription only]

Can the US afford to spend billions of dollars to invest in this risky business of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects?

So far, the US Department of Energy's CCS investment is moving along as 3 companies -- Air Products & Chemicals, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Leucadia Energy -- are now on their phase II activities. DOE announced last week that the three companies will receive up to $612 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - matched by $368 million in private funding.

The projects - located in Texas, Illinois, and Louisiana - were initially selected in October 2009 for phase one research and development grants. The projects are expected to capture and store 6.5 million tons of CO2 per year, and increase domestic production of oil by more than 10 million barrels per year by the end of the demonstration period in September 2015.

The Leucadia project is expected to capture and sequester 4.5m tons/year of CO2 from a new methanol plant in Lake Charles, LA. The CO2 will be delivered via a 12-mile connector pipeline to an existing Denbury interstate CO2 pipeline and sequestered via use for enhanced oil recovery in the West Hastings oilfield.

Air Products will capture and sequester one million tons/year of CO2 from existing steam-methane reformers in Port Arthur, Texas, starting in November 2012. The CO2 will be delivered via a 12-mile connector pipeline to an existing Denbury interstate CO2 pipeline and sequestered via use for enhanced oil recovery in the West Hastings oilfield.

ADM's project will capture and sequester one million tons/year of CO2 from an existing ethanol plant in Illinois, starting in August 2012. The CO2 will be sequestered in the Mt. Simon Sandstone, a well-characterized saline reservoir located about one mile from the plant.

A lot of chemical companies are actually looking into developing technologies for this potential profitable market. Pike Research estimates global revenues for CCS systems could reach $128 billion by 2030. If the forecast scenario includes more aggressive assumptions for global climate policy and industry adoption, Pike Research anticipates that the worldwide CCS market could reach as high as $221 billion in the same time frame.

Shell explains in this video the challenges and potential of CCS as well as current CCS projects that they're doing:

More previous news and updates on carbon capture here:
Air Products and DOE Sign Agreement for Carbon Capture and Storage Project

BASF and Linde cooperate: Flue gas carbon dioxide capture

AEP and Alstom Commission First of Its Kind Carbon Capture and Sequestration

GE Technology Selected for IGCC Project in Southern California

CO2 Solution Announces CDN$2 Million Equity Investment by Codexis and Collaboration

Carbon Capture Technology Pilot Test Results Announced by Powerspan Corporation

Cemtrex Commences Carbon Dioxide Capture Pilot Test Program

Apologies for the people whose emails I have not yet responded to. Our office is officially in chaos this week with the move to another floor and I'm currently working on my article about zero energy homes, and at the same time, purging tons of trash that have mysteriously accumulated in my drawers, shelves and beneath my desk.

I promised to get back to you folks before the IT people forcefully shutdown my computer soon...

Here are this week's news roundup!

Virent secures funding
Virent Energy Systems closed a $46.4m third round of funding led by Shell and Cargill. The funding will advance Virent's efforts to scale its BioForming® process, a patented catalytic biorefinery platform that can produce cellulosic-based gasoline, to commercial production volumes.

Cereplast raises funds
Bioplastic producer Cereplast said it will be able to raise $7.5m from a stock offering deal with institutional investors. The 2,137,642 units sold in this offering consists of one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase 0.5 of a share of common stock with an exercise term of five years.

Ferro expands solar center
Ferro Corporation is expanding its photovoltaic technology centers in Suzhou, China, and Taipei, Taiwan, as part of a wide-ranging plan to support growth in the Asian marketplace. The new Advanced Technology Center in Taiwan is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

DuPont's new solar R&D center
DuPont opened its North American photovoltaic applications lab at its Chestnut Run facility in Wilmington, Del., to support materials development for the fast-growing photovoltaic solar energy market. The lab will accelerate introduction of new photovoltaic materials and engineering innovations.

New plastic recycling facility
MVR, a manufacturer of high performance sustainable plastic resins, will build a new 90 million lb/year manufacturing facility in Frankfort, KY. The 220,000 square foot facility, which is previously home to an auto parts manufacturer, will produce several different grades of post-consumer recycled plastic resins.

World's largest pyrolysis plant
Ensyn Technologies and Tolko Industries has formed a partnership, High North BioResources Limited, to build the world's largest commercial fast pyrolysis plant in High Level, Alberta, Canada. The partnership will build and operate a facility processing 400 bone dry tonnes/day of biomass into 85m litres/year (22.5m gal/year) of pyrolysis oil.

And from ICIS News (requires subscription):
Unilever will receive its first batch of certified sustainable palm oil from Malaysia's Sime Darby Bhd after it stopped the purchase from Indonesian oil producer Sinar Mas over environmental concerns, industry sources said.

Brazilian petrochemical major Braskem plans to build a second polyethylene (PE) plant that would produce the resin from ethanol feedstock derived from sugarcane. Braskem was reviewing sites for the new plant, the company said.

The president of Germany's federal environmental protection agency urged producers, importers and users of bisphenol A (BPA) to switch to alternatives.

Ok, this is a very crazy day as our company is moving to another floor in our building for the 5th time in 5 years. I have not yet gone through all my emails for the past 4 days so for those who are inquiring about the incoming BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology conference in late June, please bear with me and I will be able to get back to you guys this weekend.

And before I end my blogging hours today, here is an update about Europe's plan to certify imported biofuels.

The European Commission (EC) announced yesterday that it will set up sustainability certification schemes for all types of biofuels that will come into Europe to make sure that these biofuels must deliver substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and should not come from forests, wetlands and nature protection areas.

This is driven of course from recent NGO reports claiming that increase use of biofuel feedstock such as palm oil and soybean oil are destroying forests and wetlands particularly in Indonesia and the Amazon rainforest.

The commission said the certification schemes would require independent auditors to check the whole production chain, from the farmer and the mill, via the trader, to the fuel supplier who delivers petrol (gasoline) or diesel to the filling station.

The rules for certification schemes were part of a set of guidelines explaining how the EU"s "Renewable Energy Directive," coming into effect in December 2010, should be implemented. Germany's biofuels industry broadly welcomed the EU's ruling, according to ICIS News*.

European enzyme companies Novozymes and Genencor also welcomed the plan. Novozymes said this will be an opportunity to kick start the deployment of advanced biofuels in Europe. Genencor stated that the guidelines will provide clear direction on how to build a more sustainable transport sector in the EU.

According to ICIS News, Greenpeace's German affiliate, was not satisfied, stating that the Commission's criteria did not go far enough to save rain forests in developing countries, and that the 35% greenhouse gas savings target through 2017 was too low.

In the guidelines, European Member States have to meet binding, national targets for renewable energy and that only those biofuels with high greenhouse gas savings count for the national targets, explaining also how this is calculated. Biofuels must deliver greenhouse gas savings of at least 35% compared to fossil fuels, rising to 50% in 2017 and to 60%, for biofuels from new plants, in 2018.

The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) also noted that the criteria for the guidelines are still not clear especially in defining highly biodiverse grasslands as well as a methodology for identifying degraded lands.

Non-profit group World Growth blasted the EU plan calling it a breach in global trade rules. World Growth is championing the industrial use of palm oil from developing countries.

"No matter how the Commission tries to dress up its policy on biofuels, Brussels is denying to European consumers effective, low cost, and -- in the case of palm-based biofuel -- environmentally sustainable products. The root cause is reversion by the European Union to its timeworn practice of using protectionist measures to block agricultural imports and hinder production in developing countries." --World Growth.

In honor of today's opening of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, here's an interesting tidbit about French chemical company Arkema joining big electronics manufacturer Sony in creating a unique soccer ball that will be distributed by NGOs for African children.

The soccer ball called "Join the Team" is partially made from Arkema's castor oil-based thermoplastic elastomer Pebax® Rnew found in one of the ball's dual layered surface. The ball is said to have 1.6x higher durability than conventional soccer balls.

This football donation program is part of a wider project called "Earth FC" which aims to draw the attention of the international community to the major health challenges facing Africa such as the spread of AIDS.

Not only is it green in a material sense but green as well in social aspect. Now that's sustainability!

Okay, now that I've got the excitement of the new IPhone 4 out of my system, back to blogging and this one is about California planning to become the first US state to ban single-use plastic bag.

Last week, the California Assembly approved the bill AB1998 that would ban single use carryout bags and even paper bags on or after January 1, 2012 from groceries, supermarkets and pharmacies. The bill also requires the store to provide to consumers at the point of sale a recycled paper bag at a reasonable cost, but not less than five cents.

By 2013 and every two-years thereafter, producers of reusable bags must submit a certification to California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (DRRR) that each bag meets the requirements of a bag being "reusable" -- meaning it is designed and manufactured for at least 100 uses and is made of a washable material that "does not contain lead or any toxic metal in a toxic amount, as determined by the DRRR.

Producers have to pay a fee for each certification not exceeding $10,000 per producer for the initial certification and between $2,000 and $3,000 every 2-years after. The bill authorizes DRRR to conduct inspections to enforce the ban.

For those who will not comply, penalties will be up to $500 for the first violation, and an additional $500 for subsequent violations, up to a total of $5,000. Not getting the certificate will receive fines of up to $50,000 per violation, with a max of $150,000/year.

Will this impact the plastic industry? Definitely yes, as everybody in the chemical industry knows too well that what regulation implemented in California, will not stay in California alone.

The American Chemistry Council stated that the bill would devastate statewide recycling programs for dozens of recyclable products, such as plastic dry-cleaning bags, newspaper delivery bags, consumer product wraps and retail bags.

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration and California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is reportedly supportive of the bill.

I'm trying to post as many as I can before I go to Chicago tomorrow. This one is an announcement on May 27 from Honeywell's UOP business and Boeing on their plans to get into China's aviation biofuel market.

The companies, including PetroChina, Air China, AECOM, United Technologies, China's National Energy Administration (NEA) and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USDTA) stated that they will be working to establish a sustainable aviation biofuels industry in China.

The project, slated to begin in June will look at all phases of sustainable aviation biofuel development including agronomy, energy inputs and outputs, lifecycle emissions analysis, infrastructure and government policy support.

UOP signed a memorandum of understanding to work jointly with PetroChina, Air China and Boeing to evaluate and plan a biofuel demonstration flight in China. The flight would use Honeywell Green Jet Fuel™ made from non-food feedstocks using UOP processing technology. 

In addition, Boeing Research & Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science's Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) agreed to expand their collaboration to include other research institutions and aviation supply chain entities as part of their efforts on algae-based aviation biofuel development.

Boeing and QIBEBT previously announced the establishment of a joint research and development laboratory focused on algal growth, harvesting and processing technologies. The Joint Laboratory for Sustainable Aviation Biofuels will be located in Qingdao and managed by Boeing Research & Technology-China and QIBEBT, which will work together to place a strong emphasis on commercial applications for developed technologies.

Good Monday morning/afternoon blog readers! I will be traveling this week to attend BASF's Agriculture Sustainability Summit in Chicago. Follow the hashtag #AgMsBASF or my tweets at @ICISgreenblog/@ICISChemicalBiz.

I'm also starting on an article about Zero Energy homes so any chemical companies interested, send me an email this week. Enjoy this week's roundup and hopefully I'll be able to also post this month's new green chemicals launched.

Funding for bio-butanol
UK-based bio-butanol developer Green Biologics completed its investment round of £4.9m ($7.1m) to roll out its technology and commercialisation plans. The company plans to provide customers with retrofit packages to convert ethanol plants to bio-butanol.

Elevance expands Asian wax partnership
Elevance Renewable Sciences expanded its partnership with Atkins & Pearce's Asia division for the distribution of Elevance's NatureWax® vegetable based waxes. Elevance noted that candle manufacturers are seeking more stable wax supplies as securing paraffin waxes becomes more challenging.

Dow Corning invests in European solar
Dow Corning will invest up to $13m in a Solar Energy Exploration / Development Center (SEED) that will include two new buildings, a Synthesis Technology Center for the European area, that will house laboratories and chemists focusing on innovations in silicon-based materials; and the European Solar Solutions Application Center, that will focus on advancing the company's technology for use in photovoltaic cells.

Lithium investment in France
Dow Kokam will invest €5M ($6m) in a France-based production facility of lithium-ion battery systems. The facility, known as Le Bouchet 2, will begin commercial production in November 2010.

Carbon dioxide project formed
An alliance of industry, academic and government organizations, was formed to commercialize technologies that will utilize concentrated solar energy to convert waste CO2 into diesel fuel. Members include Sandia National Laboratories, Renewable Energy Institute International (REII), Pacific Renewable Fuels, Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne (a United Technologies Division), Quanta Services, Desert Research Institute and Clean Energy Systems.

Carbon capture tech rights
CO2 Solution has formed a deal with CLEA Technologies B.V. for the development of CLEATECH's proprietary Cross Linked Enzyme Aggregate technology for the carbonic anhydrase enzyme used by CO2 Solution for carbon capture applications. CO2 Solution obtains exclusive global rights for the technology until 2016.

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):
'Green' trends are becoming increasingly relevant to the chemicals sector and are now seen as a driver for innovation and an important way to differentiate companies from their competitors, consultant Simon-Kucher & Partners said.

Japanese chemical producer Kaneka has completed construction of new thin-film solar cell facilities at its Toyooka, Hyogo prefecture site and plans to start up the plants by the end of June.

The European photovoltaic industry must invest €1.24bn ($1.53bn) into research and development in the next 3 years to improve its competitiveness with established conventional energies, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) said.

Just finished my article this week about traditional chemical companies jumping into industrial biotechnology processing. That will come out on June 21 so stay tune. Meanwhile, I have a few glycerine development updates that I got hold from my Phoenix trip attending the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS) meeting -- geez, that seems like a long time ago!

Before getting deep into glycerine, another news cames out from Maryland-based New Generation Biofuels Holding (NGBF) announcing their patent application for producing glycerine-based biofuel. Since crude glycerine is a byproduct of most current biodiesel production these days, it is has been difficult for producers to get rid of their glycerine stock due to oversupply in the market.

Glycerine experts note prices for glycerine is at historical lows these days despite various end market applications for the product. So therefore, there have been increasing research on attempts to impart value to crude glycerine by expanding its usage

By the way, NGBF's current biofuel product, which uses various fats and oils (new or recycled) are mostly intended to be used for power generation, heating oil, marine and transport. The company says there is no glycerine byproduct in their biofuel process. It might be worthwhile checking this glycerine-to-biofuel development.

At the AOCS meeting, several researchers presented new possible applications for glycerine use. One is from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) who is looking at the production of bacterial polyesters such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) as well as production of glycolipid surfactants such as sophorolipids and rhamnolipids by fermenting both crude or refined glycerol.

A researcher from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, talked about the possibility of producing hydrogen using glycerol as a substrate, while researchers from Procter & Gamble (P&G) -- which is by the way is the world largest producer of USP grade glycerine -- presented their study on the production of amino alcohol 2-amino-1-propanol (2AP) using glycerine via catalytic processing.

According to P&G, amino alcohol has a wide range of potential application but the product is not readily available in the marketplace.

Aside from amino alcohol, one product that I am not familiar of is glyceric acid, which according to researchers from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), can be used as potential material to produce branched polylactic acid (PLA) polymers that have lower crystallinity and glass transition temperatures than those of linear PLA. The AIST researchers were able to find specific bacterial strains that can covert crude glycerol to glyceric acid.

At the AOCS meeting, researcher from Houston, Texas-based Rice University Ramon Gonzales received this year's Glycerine Innovation Award sponsored annually by The Soap and Detergent Associate (SDA) and the National Biodiesel Board (NBB). Gonzales and his team developed the metabolic processes and conditions that convert glycerine to ethanol using an E. coli strain. The researchers are also looking to produce hydrogen, formate, succinic acid, lactic acid and 1,2 propanediol from crude glycerine.

In fact, Gonzales is the founder and currently the scientific advisory board chairman of GlycosBio. From my last post about GlycosBio, the company is building a biochemical plant that will produce bio-based acetone, technical grade ethanol and isoprene, as well as a biotech R&D facility in Malaysia.

Another additional information comes from my ICIS* colleague, Ben Lefebvre, who recently noted an interesting development on one pontential huge glycerine market --the antifreeze market. Glycerine suppliers are said to be making headway in their negotiations to have their product approved for heat transfer applications, which would open the door for more glycerine to get into the huge anti-freeze markets.

[Access to story on anti-freeze market potential for ICIS subscribers only]

I was able to attend Zeachem's conference call yesterday as the company had their groundbreaking ceremony for its new 250,000 gal/year cellulosic ethanol facility in Boardman, Oregon, which is expected to start operating next year. The facility will use poplar, which is plentiful in Boardman, as its feedstock.

Zeachem expects to generate 292 direct and indirect jobs in Oregon from the facility.

Zeachem's CEO Jim Imbler noted that it will also add the company's core fermentation technology, which will use the microorganism acetogen to produce acetic acid in the front end of the processing and ethyl acetate as its final commercial product. Ethyl acetate is mainly produced by the esterification of ethanol with acetic acid.

Zeachem expects to start producing ethyl acetate for commercial testing by the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012. Imbler pegs the US ethyl acetate market at around 400m lbs. The company plans to have a joint venture or partnership for ethyl acetate.

Imbler says it will also license its processing.

"Once we get the first plant built, we would be able to build out our business more in the US and then go international - mostly likely via licensing with a partner internationally. We don't see ourselves going international except through licensing arrangements." - Jim Imbler.

Imbler expects its first commercial ethanol plant license signed by the end of next year and construction starting the year after.

Deadlines! Can't write a lot so here are this week's news roundup.

Bayer R&D in sugarcane ethanol
Bayer CropScience and the CTC - Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira, the Center for Sugarcane Technology, São Paulo, Brazil, formed a research and development partnership to develop sugarcane varieties with higher sugar content, aiming to increase the production efficiency of ethanol.

Cereplast bioplastic distribution
Cereplast formed a distribution agreement with Ashland Distribution to supply Cereplast's bioplastic resins to their global distribution business, and with Thailand-based Alphani International to supply bioplastic resins to Thailand.

UPM mulls biofuel plant
UPM is planning to build a biofuels plant at the Kaukas mill site in Lappeenranta, Finland, which will produce biodiesel, bio gasoline, kerosene and naphtha. Raw materials used would be liquid bio-based organic compounds, like fats oils and forest industry by-products.

"Trashanol" production in Iowa
Maryland-based Fiberight LLC will soon produce organic waste-based ethanol in a converted corn ethanol plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The plant will use International Paper's organic fiber waste from its Cedar River recycled paper mill, as well as organic pulps made from residential trash. The plant is expected to reach full capacity of 6m gal/year of renewable cellulosic ethanol sometime in 2011.

Westinghouse solar partnership
Akeena Solar, installer and manufacturer of high-performance solar panels, has formed an exclusive global deal to manufacture, distribute, market and install its solar panels under the Westinghouse name. Akeena's wholly-owned subsidiary Andalay Solar will be renamed Westinghouse Solar.

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):
The economics minister of Germany's Saxony-Anhalt state has called for a research centre focused on technologies to convert lignite coal (brown coal) into chemical feedstocks.

Finland's Neste Oil is on schedule to bring on stream the world's biggest renewable diesel plant in Singapore late this year.

Cellulosic and algae biofuel producers are calling for the extension of a cellulosic production tax credit and tax parity for algae-based fuels in order to stimulate recession-stunted private investment.