January 2011 Archives

Southeast Asian chemical companies seem to be ahead of the game when it comes to partnering with renewable chemical companies (mostly US-based).

First we had Elevance Renewable Science partnering with Wilmar for specialty chemical production in Indonesia. Then BioAmber (formerly DNP Green Technology) partnering with Mitsui Chemicals for exclusive bio-succinic acid distribution in Asia, and Glycos Bio and METabolic Explorer partnering with Bio-XCell to build glycerine-based chemicals plants in Malaysia.

Now, Myriant announced yesterday that it formed a joint venture with Thailand-based PTT Chemical through a $60m equity investment. PTT Chemical, by the way, is Thailand's largest petrochemical producer (and co-owner of Malaysia-based oleochemical player Emery Oleochemicals --- just can't resist adding this). As far as announcements in the renewable chems sector this month, this is pretty significant indeed!

Not much information was relayed to the press aside from the interesting tidbit that the companies will collaborate in the research and development for green chemicals, and that the $60m investment will help in Myriant's incoming 30m lbs/year bio-succinic acid facility currently being constructed in Louisiana and slated for startup next year.

Now, the green blog recalled that PTT previously announced in September 2009 its deal with Mitsubishi Chemical (MCC) for the development of bio-polybutylene succinate. MCC already produces GS Pla (MCC´s trademark for its polybutylene succinate), a bio-degradable polymer made from petro-based succinic acid in Japan and markets it worldwide.

The PTT/MCC collaboration aimed at that time to develop biomass-based Pbs. To make this more interesting, MCC announced to its investors in December that it is planning to establish operation in Thailand w/ PTT for the production of its bio-Pbs using "low-cost raw materials to enter new markets." Target production in Thailand is around 20,000 tons/year by fiscal year 2015.

I'm going to put two and two together (and might come up with six) but I have a hunch that a biomass-based succinic acid supply might come in handy for producing this new bio-Pbs for MCC.

I am currently trying to get more information on how the Myriant/PTT JV will proceed going forward in terms of future investments in Asia.

In the press release, PTT Chemical also noted its intention to become a leading player in bio-based chemicals as well as Thailand's government policy that encourages the private sector to set up a bioplastic plant in the country.  In fact, the company recently formed a collaboration with Thai government agencies to jointly develop bioplastics.

Searching the green blog found interesting ongoing green investments in Thailand:

• Solvay building its glycerine-to epichlorohydrin plant

• Thailand's Science and Technology Ministry plans to form a $32.2m joint venture with PTT Chemical, Siam Cement Group and Mitr Phol Group to build the country's first polylactic acid pilot plant.

• Purac aims for Thailand lactide plant start-up in second half of 2011.

• NatureWorks in talks with potential partners including PTT Plc to jointly invest in a large-scale bioplastic plant in Thailand worth about $400 million.

• Bioplastic producer Novamont signed a deal with Thantawan Industry for the distribution of its Mater-Bi bioplastic in Thailand.

• Cereplast formed a distribution agreement with Thailand-based Alphani International to supply bioplastic resins to Thailand

Posts will be sparse this week as the green blogger travels to Orlando (No snow! woohoo!) to attend the annual American Cleaning Institute meeting.

Here are this week's news roundup:

Italy-based bioplastic producer Novamont forms a new company Novamont North America, Inc. headquartered in Danbury, Connecticut. The company's goal includes a prospective a biorefinery integrated in the North American territory.

Cargill is disclosing product ingredients -- as well as the percentages of all melting ingredients -- on its Diamond Crystal® ice melter packaging. The disclosure is part of a broader effort Cargill is undertaking to inform buyers and users about ingredient performance, based on established Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) test data.

GE and Shenhua will form an industrial coal gasification joint venture to advance the deployment of "cleaner coal" technology solutions in China. The new company combines GE's expertise in industrial gasification technologies with Shenhua's expertise in coal gasification and coal-fired power generation.

Materia completed a $17 million financing from the Midwest investment group Bader/Bernstein and Dr. Alfred Bader. Materia said it looks forward on commercial rollout of several applications utilizing their metathesis olefins technology over the next several quarters.

BiOWiSH™ technology has reduced biosolids production at the Mission Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) by 75%. BiOWiSH is a biocatalyst made up of a proprietary blend of enzymes, cofactors and nutrients that speeds up bio-chemical reactions at a rate faster than unaided processes or current technologies.

Sandia National Laboratories are working on modifying an endophytic fungus so that it will produce fuel-type hydrocarbons for transportation purposes. The endophytic fungi can turn crystalline cellulosic material directly into fuel-type hydrocarbons without any mechanical breakdown.

New Jersey fund looking to curb perchloroethylene use in dry cleaning.

Cereplast has signed a distribution deal with Euroink Romania to supply it with Cereplast's bioplastic resins.

Clariant's Industrial and Consumer Specialties (ICS) business is targeting global price hikes for its entire product portfolio by up to 15% reflecting price rise on oleochemicals and petrochemical feedstock.

It's a happy week this week for all biobased chems and products manufacturers as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the launched of a new voluntary product certification and labeling program for qualifying biobased products (and chemicals).

The new label will clearly identify biobased products for all buyers and consumers and not just federal agencies anymore. The USDA identifies biobased products as those composed wholly or significantly of biological ingredients coming from renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials. The label will have a prescribed percentage amount of biobased content certified to meet the USDA standards.

In a media briefing held last Wednesday by the USDA Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, the agency noted that there are already 5,100 designated biobased products identified by the USDA for preferred purchasing by US federal agencies.

The USDA estimates that there are 20,000 biobased products currently being manufactured in the US. The USDA also identified 50 product categories for the BioPreferred Federal procurement program including cafeteria ware, personal and institutional cleaning products, construction products, lubricants, greases, etc.

With the announcement, the BioPreferred program now has two parts: the biobased product procurement preference program for federal agencies, and the new voluntary labeling initiative for broad scale marketing of biobased products. By the way, the minimum threshold for biobased content is 25% for finished biobased products and for intermediate ingredients or feedstock not within the designated USDA categories.

There were actually a lot of interesting comments on the Federal Register on how this labeling will work and should work. Read on if you have the time. As to who can apply for the certification and product labeling, any manufacturers or distributors (vendors) of biobased products are welcomed.

In a Roundtable panel discussion yesterday held by the BIO organization, I asked the panel (which included NatureWorks, Metabolix and DuPont) about fees, NatureWorks noted that the USDA itself will not impose any fees for the label but the testing of the bio-based product (on how much biobased content it will have) via third party firms will have to be shouldered by applicants.

All three companies noted that the labeling is not yet perfect but agreed this is a first step towards having a common language for biobased products within the consumer and even industrial level. 

"The labeling provides a common authoritative reference of bio-based content" - NatureWorks

"The labeling substantiated our claims. It is important to consumers and manufacturers to verify that we are marketing our products correctly." - Metabolix

"Most of our biobased products are further back in the value chain. The labeling creates awareness from businesses to consumers of having biobased content in their end products." - DuPont

Here are some other formal comments coming from various industries and companies:

BIO
DuPont
American Soybean Association
Rivertop Renewables -

"We applaud the USDA's recent ruling to initiate the volunteer labeling program for biobased products. I'm pleased to see a decade long effort by the USDA and leaders in the renewable chemical industry culminate in this enhancement of the federal BioPreferred program. These labels will help educate consumers and spur even more demand for safer, cleaner, and more sustainable everyday products such as detergents, cleaners, and plastics." -Jim Stoppert, CEO Rivertop Renewables.

I can't believe how busy January has become with so many news popping up all over the place. Here's my current top news for the month (still subject to changes):

1. DuPont acquiring Danisco
2. USDA launches biobased product label
3. EPA defers GHG permitting requirements for industries that use biomass
4. Butamax files patent infringement against Gevo
5. Gevo targeting between $93-$100m IPO

...and several loans for biorefineries/renewable diesel investments coming from the US Department of Energy (DOE), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Iowa Power Fund.

The blog already posted the DuPont acquisition and so we'll start the next one with green loans that seem to have exploded this week.

This news from the DOE caught my attention immediately given the implication of this project to future animal fats/grease supply to the US oleochemical market.  The blog noted in September 2009 Valero and Darling International's plans to build a 137 million gallons/year renewable diesel production facility in Louisiana near Valero's St. Charles refinery primarily financed by a DOE loan.

The companies' JV called Diamond Green Diesel announced yesterday that it was finally able to get the DOE loan of around $241m. I guess it really takes a long time for government loan/grant applications to get through.

The project will produce renewable diesel fuel primarily from animal fats, used cooking oil and other waste grease streams and will be the first in the US to use UOP's EcoFining technology (see recent post on Green Diesel).

In another loan news, the USDA also announced yesterday that it is loaning a total of $405m to three advanced biofuels projects coming from Coskata, Enerkem and Ineos New Planet BioEnergy.

Coskata will receive $250m loan guarantee to construct and operate a 50m gal/year cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Greene County, Alabama; Enerkem will obtain an $80m loan to build and operate a 10m gal/year biorefinery in Pontotoc, Mississippi, which will transform municipal solid waste into ethanol; and Ineos New Planet BioEnergy will receive $75m loan to construct and operate an 8m gal/year cellulosic ethanol and gross electricity production of 6 megawatt capacity in Vero Beach, Florida, using vegetative waste, yard waste, wood waste and municipal solid waste as feedstock.

And finally, the state of Iowa through its Iowa Power Fund Board, announced a $9 million grant to DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol (DDCE)for the company's plans to build a 25m gal/year cellulosic ethanol biorefinery using corn stover as a feedstock. DDCE will match the grant with $226 million from its own funding.

Here are some of Iowa Power Fund's recent approved projects as of December 8, 2010, which included advanced biofuels from POET Project Liberty, Green Plains Renewable Energy and Bioprocess Algae, Renewable Energy Group, and Syngest (among others). I also heard that Iowa Power Fund is lending Genencor a $2 million forgivable loan and $1 million loan for a $28 million proposal to build a pilot research facility at Genencor's division in Cedar Rapids.

The pilot facility is focusing on the development of Genencor's bio-isoprene.

More about Iowa Power Fund in this link.

The green blogger is attending next week's American Cleaning Institute's (formerly Soap and Detergent Association) annual meeting in Orlando. I am excited to announced that I will be interviewing Seventh Generation's Martin Wolf  (Director, Product Sustainability and Authenticity) as well as companies such as Evonik Goldschmidt, Procter & Gamble, BASF, VVF Ltd., and FMC.

I was hoping to talk to Solvay as well since it's a major producer of soda ash and chlor-alkali products not to mention that I'm interested in their current glycerine-to-epichlorohydrin projects. By the way, I usually write a comprehensive market update on oleochemicals every year just for the ACI event. You can now access my latest article on ICIS Chemical Business.

Back to Solvay, the company announced in December that it is planning to build an epichlorohydrin plant in China with initial capacity of 100,000 tons/year using glycerine as feedstock.The facility is expected to start producing ECH in 2013.

Solvay's Epicerol technology will also be used by Advanced Biochemical Thailand, a subsidiary of Vinythai, which is currently building a 100,000 tons/year glycerine-to-ECH plant. This facility is expected to start operation in 2012.

According to Solvay, its Epicerol® technology reduces the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 70%, divides water consumption by 10, and volume of chlorinated by-products by eight compared to the traditional propylene based production process of epichlorohydrin.

By the way, for those who are not familiar with glycerine, Solvay previously produces synthetic glycerine before via the ECH route (as you can see on the image). Unfortunately the deluge of biodiesel production worldwide resulted in an oversupply of its co-product glycerine hence the disappearance of synthetic glycerine production.

According to my colleague Serena Seng from ICIS Pricing, only Yang Nong Jiang Su currently uses glycerine as feedstock in its 60,000 tonne/year ECH facility as pointed out by industry sources.

More and more Chinese ECH makers would likely make the switch to using glycerine since it costs lower than the traditional feedstock propylene, according to these sources. A report from ICIS news last week noted China-based Fujian Haobang Chemical has been running trials at its newly built 5,000 tonne/year ECH unit at Longyan in southern Fujian province. The company will reportedly use glycerine as well.

The Thailand ECH plant is expected to use up 120,000 tonnes/year of refined glycerin. ICIS also noted Dow Shanghai's ECH plant (expected to start-up in 2012) will utilize 150,000 tonnes/year while Samsung Korea's ECH plant (also in 2012) will process an estimated 30,000 tonnes/year.

I've been having too many interviews lately about renewable fuels not to mention several interesting regulatory news within the US ethanol industry during December. We'll get to ethanol some other time but for now, I want to post this interview I had with Honeywell's UOP business about their green diesel technology.

This interview is complement to my ICIS Chemical Business article published on December 13. As a belated holiday gift, I am making this article free for viewing (and also to entice readers to subscribe - hey, it's just $157.50/year + free chemical profile archives - a pretty darn good deal!)

As a background, renewable diesel or green diesel is different from traditional biodiesel where the latter is usually esterified fats and oils while the former is usually produced through hydrotreatment of fats and oils. Only Neste Oil and Dynamic Fuels are currently producing green diesel at scale, according to Lux Research.

In my interview with Jim Rekoske, Vice President and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP,  he explained that the company does not produces its own commercial green diesel but instead provides license for the technology. UOP currently has a small-scale production facility in operation to provide fuel for samples and testing.

"The Ecofining process, our process to produce Honeywell Green Diesel™, has been licensed to a few refiners to date. So far we have announced licenses to Eni in Italy and Galp Energia in Portugal. Both refiners are still developing plans to build a refinery to produce," said Rekoske.

While biodiesel typically has a co-product crude glycerine, which sometimes is a troublesome oversupplied commodity for biodiesel producers, green diesel on the other hand has byproducts such as green naptha and LPG. In the case of Neste's production, byproducts include biogasoline, biogas and water. Neste said it is already marketing the biogasoline in small volumes.

Dynamic Fuel's Geismar, La, plant, on the other hand can also produce n-paraffins and isoparaffins.

"Renewable diesel is produced by (1) converting the fatty acid/glyceride feed to n-paraffins, and (2) hydro-isomerizing the straight-chain n-paraffins to branched iso-paraffins. The specialty paraffinic products are separated from the n-paraffin and iso-paraffin streams. As such, these are generally not byproducts-- they are alternative products. For example, 10-30% of the plant capacity may be shifted to production of specialty paraffins." - Ron Stinebaugh, senior VP, Syntroleum.

Dynamic Fuels by the way is a joint venture between Syntroleum and Tyson Foods (where it gets its waste fats and greases feedstock). Dynamic Fuels said it can produce C14-C17 n-paraffins for use as industrial fluids or as intermediate for detergents (e.g. for secondary alkane sulfonate surfactants), C18 n-paraffin (octadecane) for use as phase change material, isoparaffinic solvents with boiling points in the range of 180 C to 310 C (similar to ISOPAR and SOLTROL products from ExxonMobil Chemical and Chevron Phillips Chemical) where the higher boiling products are well-suited for use as drilling base fluids.

Back to UOP, the company said it can use any type of natural oil or fat and has already produced demo quantities using jatropha, algae oil, camelina, as well as used cooking oils. To date, UOP's green diesel has been used in five commercial demonstration flights and multiple military flights. Neste has also been demonstrating its green diesel in several European airlines (see ICB story).

According to Rekoske, the advantage of green diesel is that it can be produced at a lower operating cost than biodiesel using the same feedstock oils. Aside from having feedstock flexibility for most green diesel producers/developers, the oxidative stability of green diesel is also equivalent to petroleum diesel meaning distributors do not need any special precautions or handling/dispensing to customers.

"Given the regulatory demands for renewable content in diesel fuels, we believe our green diesel fuel is the lowest cost way in which refiners can comply. Currently die to high feedstock cost, green diesel and biodiesel are not competitive with fossil-based diesel but this will change as more and more second generation renewable feedstocks such as camelina, jatropha, algae become available," said Rekoske.

UOP sees green diesel replacing existing biodiesel globally due to lower cost, high blendability and used in existing fuel distribution systems and in diesel engines. Rekoske also pointed out that the US Renewable Fuel standard has set a requirement for 36bn gal of renewable fuel. Rekoske said their green diesel meets the specifications under both the biomass-based diesel and the advanced biofuel standards.

UOP's Ecofining process to produce Honeywell Green Diesel is available today for commercial license. Rekoske said UOP will serve as the licensor providing the process, basic engineering, catalysts, equipment and services.

Evergreen Solar intends to shut down operations at its Devens manufacturing facility by the end of first quarter citing price pressure for 2011 because of significant capacity expansions in China combined with potential adverse changes in government subsidies in several markets in Europe.

General Motors and U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have reached a worldwide licensing agreement to use Argonne's patented composite cathode material to make advanced lithium-ion batteries that last longer between charges and can charge at higher voltages. Argonne's composite cathode material has a unique combination of lithium- and manganese-rich mixed-metal oxides in a stable materials-design approach.

Rhodia has developed a new process for the recovery and separation of rare earths contained in used low-energy light bulbs. The luminescent powders, containing high concentrations of rare earths can now be recycled at two of the Group's plants in France (Saint-Fons and La Rochelle).

JBI, Inc. entered into a formal Consent Order with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Region 9, which will allow the Company to immediately run its Plastic2Oil process commercially and begin construction of an additional processor at its Niagara Falls, New York P2O facility.

RelaDyne will distribute BioBlend's vegetable oil-based lubricants to industrial and commercial equipment operators throughout the entire Midwest and Gulf Coast regions. The lubricants are said to be unaffected by extremes in temperatures, are non-toxic and biodegradable.

DSM Pharmaceutical Products signed an enzyme supply agreement where it can use Codexis' custom biocatalysts and services, and secures supply of Codexis enzymes for commercialization of sustainable enzyme-based pharmaceutical manufacturing routes developed by DSM's InnoSyn™ route scouting services.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) received 3,114,835 notifications of 24,529 substances under the EU's Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) regulation by the 3 January deadline.

European ethanol prices for January and the first quarter rose because of higher feedstock costs and tighter supply, market players said.

The latest lawsuit from the state of Texas opposing greenhouse gas emission regulations could prevent as many as 167 construction projects from proceeding, environmental groups said.

There have been sooo many biofuel news last week, I decided to separate them from the blog's weekly news roundup...

India's petroleum firm IndianOil and LanzaTech will collaborate to demonstrate fuel grade ethanol production in the region using LanzaTech's gas fermentation technology. The collaboration will enable the parties to accelerate techno‐economic and feasibility analyses.

Valero in cellulosic ethanol 
Oil refiner Valero Energy proposes to invest up to $50m of equity to finance the construction of Mascoma's commercial scale wood-based cellulosic ethanol biorefinery slated to break ground in Kinross Charter Township, Michigan, this year. The biorefinery will produce 40m gal/year of cellulosic ethanol to be covered by the off-take arrangement with Valero.

Woodland Biofuels closes a common equity investment as part of a $12m demonstration plant financing to produce cellulosic ethanol from any type of biomass. The plant will be located at the Bioindustrial Innovation Center in the University of Western Ontario's Sarnia-Lambton Research Park.

Flint Hills buys ethanol plants
Flint Hills Resources Renewables will buy ethanol plants located in Iowa Falls and Fairbank, Iowa from Hawkeye Renewables in an all cash transaction. The transaction will close in the first quarter of 2011.

Green Plains Renewable Energy signed an asset purchase agreement with Otter Tail Ag Enterprises, LLC to acquire its 55 million gallon per year capacity dry-mill ethanol plant near Fergus Falls, MN. If completed, the acquisition would increase Green Plains' ethanol production capacity by approximately 8% to 712m gal/year.

Fulcrum BioEnergy has entered into a 15-year feedstock supply deal with Waste Management of Nevada for the delivery of post-sorted municipal solid waste to Fulcrum's 10.5m gal/year Sierra Biofuels plant, which is expected to produce ethanol as well as renewable electricity and propanol in late 2012.

My ICIS Chemical Business article about the increasing use of biomass feedstock in chemical production is out now (free access!) and one of the companies featured on the story is NY-based Anellotech, which is developing aromatics that use biomass feedstock.

I had the opportunity to interview Anellotech CEO David Sudolsky in December as their BTA - Biomass to BTX (benzene, toluene and xylenes) technology really piqued my interests ever since I've heard about it at the Biobased Chemicals East conference in September.

In my recent biomass article, consultant Mark Morgan of Nexant pointed out that in terms of development, biomass-based hydrocarbons such as olefins and aromatics are not as popular as oxygen-containing intermediates (such as succinic acid, n-butanol, adipic acid, etc) mostly because the former generally required another step (such as oxygen removal usually by a petrochemical process) after converting biomass into an oxygen intermediate.

Sudolsky pointed out that Anellotech's technology converts the biomasss into an intermediate from which oxygen can be removed, and then does this removal all in the same reactor in a one step process.

Anellotech says it can easily produce high-volume BTX and even olefins from cellulosic biomass using catalytic pyrolysis. The company's patented process and catalyst technology was developed by Anellotech founder George Huber, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Unlike gasification, which results in a mixture of carbon and hydrogen called synthesis gas (syngas), pyrolysis turns biomass into liquid fuels in a single-step economical process at a very large scale, says Sudolsky. The company uses a single-step fluid-bed reactor (no biological processing involved here) and that its inexpensive and recyclable zeolite catalysts is said to be similar to widely-used catalysts in the petroleum refining industry.

The patented process can currently create 50 gallons of BTX per tonne of biomass. Anellotech aims to produce 85 gal/tonne in the future. By-products of the pyrolysis process include water, as well as CO2 and carbon monoxide gases that are reusable.

"The energy value of a tonne of waste wood, for example, was probably $20 and our process is economical up to beyond $100/tonne. We're targeting to compete with oil priced at $30/bbl assuming no tax credits or subsidies," said Sudolsky.

Anellotech estimates value of the global BTX market of 30bn gal in 2006 at $100bn. The market is expected to grow at 4-4.5%/year, or 1.2bn gal/year. The company expects to have a small-scale commercial plant with a capacity of 8m gal/year to be completed by late 2014. Larger plants will follow, according to Sudolsky.

"We are on track with our commercial yield goal. Our key priority is raising Series A venture financing. We are also looking to bring in a strategic partner to accelerate the process commercialization, as well as line up the first customers for the technology," he says.

Anellotech is looking into collaborating and contracting with feedstock developers and suppliers. Sudolsky said the company is currently in discussion with potential partners who wants to be involved early on so they can potentially have the right to get the first plant. The company is looking into both joint ventures and licensing.

"We see multiple licensing and rapid uptake of licensing because unlike biotechnological processing, our technology does not need specialized equipments and technical people. The skill set needed to build and operate our plants is not that different from what the petrochemical industry already has," said Sudolsky.

As for feedstock, the company said they can use and have been working with any type of lignocellulosic biomass such as sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, corn stover [and] energy crops. 

"Because of the higher profitability coming from our process, we can afford to contract and pay higher prices for feedstock. The paper industry is currently operating on this kind of business model," added Sudolsky.

I've been wondering who has the most active press communications based on press release announcements among the companies that I've previously covered. Amyris and Cereplast seem neck and neck but I'm betting on Cereplast.

The blog received 3 announcements the past two weeks alone. The biggest one is the company's plans to open a manufacturing plant in Europe sometime next year that will handle at least 200m lbs of capacity, double the size of its US production facility in Seymour, Indiana. Cereplast announced in January 4 that it opened its European headquarters in Bonen, Germany to support its operation expansion in this region.

The company noted demand for bioplastic resin continues to grow in Europe as a result of legislation ban in the sale of plastic bags including the recently approved ban in Italy.

Today, I just saw their announcement about entering a multimillion dollar supply and distribution deal with BioWorks PI to supply Cereplast bioplastic resins to the Polish market. BioWorks is a division of Galant, a European manufacturer and distributor of plastic products such as cutlery, cups, straws and extruded films for shopping and garbage bags.

Finally, Cereplast officially opened last week its nationwide design competition called 'Make Your Mark' for a symbol that represents bioplastic. The symbol will indicate that a product is made from green, bio-based material and not petroleum-based material. The new symbol will serve in a similar fashion to how the recycling symbol is used to identify products that are made from recycled materials and/or are recyclable

If you're feeling creative, you can submit your entry via www.iizuu.com/cereplast. Deadline for entries is March 4, 2011. Like American Idol, the top 50 entries will be determined based on a public voting system at the website but the top 3 designs will be be selected by judges.

The winner will be announced on Earth Day Eve, April 21, and will receive $25,000. Check out some of the designs here.

2011 seems to be starting with a big bang for industrial biotech after hearing two acquisitions activities worth billions of dollars within a month.

After DSM's announcement of its $1.09bn acquisition of Martek late December, DuPont announced yesterday its $6.3bn acquisition of food ingredients company Danisco, which has big enzymes and burgeoning biofuels/biomaterials businesses. Many analysts were surprised with the acquisition and a bit concerned with the huge DuPont money involved, which will include $5.8bn paid in cash and assumption of $500m of Danisco's net debt.

The acquisition was expected to be financed with about $3bn in existing cash and the remainder in debt.

DuPont officials during a conference call yesterday, however, were very enthusiastic in what they call as the creation of a global industrial biotech and ag leader. DuPont pointed out that both companies have a combined industrial biotech revenues of around $1bn in 2010. Danisco's enzymes business under Genencor had 2010 revenue of $860m and accounts for 33% of Danisco's total revenues.

The global industrial enzymes market is noted by DuPont at around $2.7bn. Enzymes is Danisco's most highly research-intensive business and the company reportedly spends around 6.5% of sales on R&D. DuPont expects to achieve some synergies by rationalizing redundant R&D infrastructure but the enzymes business will still remain R&D intensive compared to DuPont's current consolidated R&D spend at around 4.5-5% of sales.
 
Aside from accelerating growth through Danisco's enzyme capabilities, other long-term revenue synergies include opportunities to introduced bio-based alternatives for DuPont's industrial chemical and material products, and development of new biomaterial building blocks.

The blog notes Danisco's Genencor is currently developing bio-isoprene (and other bio-isoprene derived chemicals) and has a bio-isoprene project with Goodyear. In the biofuels area, Danisco currently has its cellulosic ethanol JV with DuPont. Both DuPont and Genencor also had a history in the development of bio-propanediol (PDO), which is now produced and marketd by DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, LLC in Loudon, Tennessee.

With this kind of acquisition, as the blog said, good times ahead for industrial biotechnology.

Big news this week is DuPont's acquisition of Danisco for $6.3bn. We will analyze more about the implication of this acquisition in another post in terms of DuPont expanding its industrial biotechnology (and biofuels) portfolio. Meanwhile, last week saw a slew of  more biofuel news as you can see in this week's roundup:

Cellulosic ethanol developer Qteros partnered with Praj Industries to accelerate commercialization of low-cost cellulosic ethanol. The companies plan to retrofit Praj's existing pilot plant in Pune, India with Qteros' technology plantform, which will become the foundation for accelerated production scaling. In another news, Qteros closed a $22m series C financing, which is expected to find the company's development and commercialization plans.

Virent Energy Systems and HCL Clean Tech have been awarded a $900,000 grant from BIRD Energy, a program for US-Israel joint renewable energy development. The project combines HCL's lignocellulosic conversion technologies with Virent's Bioforming technology that converts plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules.

Ineos Bio and its joint venture New Planet Energy received a conditional commitment for a $75m loan guarantee from the US Department of Agriculture 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program. The funds will be used for the construction of Ineos Bioenergy center in Florida, which will produce 8m gal/year of biomass-based biofuel.

Amyris signs Glycotech farnesene deal Amyris signed definitive agreements with Glycotech and Salisbury Partners for Glycotech to provide chemical processing at Salisbury's Leland, NC, facility to convert Amyris' Biofene renewable farnesene into finished products. The facility can produce farnesene-based industrial lubricants, polymers and transportation fuels, which will be owned and distributed solely by Amyris.

Ciris Energy has raised equity in its second round of financing led by Khosla Ventures. The financing will allow Ciris to implement its first commercial scale in-situ biochemical conversion of coal to methane and ex-situ biochemical coal conversion technology to commercial-ready status.

Rhodia has acquired a guar derivatives production unit from Suzhou HiPro Polymers in China. The polysaccharide is used in various applications including agrochemicals, cosmetics, and oil and gas extraction.

US renewable chemicals company BioAmber is developing a micro-organism, licenced from agribusiness firm Cargill, which can reduce the production cost of bio-based succinic acid by 25%.

Shell and ethanol group Cosan received unconditional merger clearance from the European Union (EU) for a proposed $12bn (€9bn) joint venture (JV) in Brazil, which is expected to be launched in the first half of 2011.

Here is an industry insight on bioplastics from Jim Lunt of Jim Lunt and Associates, LLC. The blog asked his opinions on the industry's performance in 2010 and his perspectives on the trends for 2011.

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The start up of Braskem's bio HDPE plant indicates the acceleration of a predicted expansion of bioplastics into the durable products arena. Continuing advancements of earlier non-compostable biobased products such as Nylon 11, derived from castor oil, plus a range of partially biobased polyamides and polyesters such as biobased PET and PTT, indicates that the transition from an almost single-minded focus on compostable disposable products to a market ultimately dominated by renewable resource containing durable products, is well on its way.

Another significant trend observed in 2010 was an increased synergy between the biofuels and bioplastics initiatives:

• Bio ethanol, which has primarily been focused on the fuel market, is now a key building block for bioderived polyethylene and for biobased monomers such as ethylene glycol - used in PET for the so called "Plant Bottle" launched by Coca Cola.

• Bio butanol, which is approaching commercialization for fuels, is also being adopted as a chemical building block for materials such as butyl rubber, acrylics and potentially terephthalic acid (TPA).
  

• Even in the biodiesel field we see the accompanying development of materials such as soy-based polyols for urethanes. Finally, with the increasing interest in Algae as a potential next generation fuel, we see emerging leaders in this field already looking for opportunities to penetrate the renewable chemicals and plastics markets.

It seems that almost every month we see initiatives in providing new or existing monomer "building blocks" from renewable resources for a wide range of plastics. We will observe an increase in existing and new performance plastics being produced either partially or completely from renewable resources.

The use of non-food-based feed stocks, primarily from ligno cellulosics such as wood pulp will approach commercial reality. And finally, as countries such as Thailand, China and India become recognized as central supply and manufacturing locations we will see increasing globalization for both compostable and durable renewable sourced bioplastics.2011 will be a fascinating year as we witness key players emerging to drive these transitions.

I am excited to be a part of this evolving industry and hope to continue my contribution at the upcoming conference I will be chairing in Las Vegas, February 01-03, 2011. This conference entitled "Bioplastics Reshaping an Industry" is focused on the trends, technologies and companies who are shaping and driving the transitions we have discussed.

More information can be found at www.reshapinganindustry.com

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As Managing Director of Jim Lunt & Associates, LLC, Dr. James Lunt is a specialist in performing due diligence on new ventures and commercialization of both new and under-exploited technologies. His principal skills and services include technical and business development guidance to clients by bringing a "common sense" approach to new technologies; process/product troubleshooting; new product development in polymer blends and compounds, coatings, temperature buffering polymers and melt processable renewable resource based plastics and fibers.

A recipient of the Presidential Green Chemistry Award in 2002, Dr. Lunt is also the co-inventor on more than 20 patents in various fields, all involving performance polymers and chemistry solutions in new and emerging applications.

On top of school -- yes, it's back to school again! -- I will be attending two great events within the span of a month, which would make me a very busy girl.

The first one is the American Cleaning Institute (formerly the Soap and Detergent Association) annual meeting which will be held from Jan. 25-29 in Orlando, Florida, and the second is Infocast's 2nd annual Biobased Chemicals Summit in San Diego, California, which will be held on February 14-17. All places without snow! Yeah!

I am currently working on an oleochemical market update article for ICIS Chemical Business' January 24 issue, which will be distributed at the ACI meeting. Watch out for my FREE-TO-ACCESS article on that week.

Hopefully, I will also be able to talk to several companies during the event about market updates in surfactants. Big name consumer product companies such as Procter & Gamble, Clorox, Colgate-Palmolive, Henkel, Unilever, Church & Dwight, Seventh Generation, Kao, SC Johnson and private label retailer Sun Products are all going to be there.

For the Biobased Chemicals summit, the first 3-days alone will be packed with topics such as commercialization strategies, technological advancements and business developments, perspectives from the feedstock side, government policy drivers and incentives, investor perspectives (especially regarding IPOs) and other new biochemical innovation.

Looking forward to seeing familiar and new faces/companies at both events and hopefully I'll bring back juicy stories for the blog.

ICIS News (subscription only) has been reporting this spilled animal fat in Houston Ship Channel today.

Some 250,000 gallons of beef tallow leaked on early Tuesday evening from ruptured storage tank owned by Jacob Stern & Sons Inc., a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based agricultural products company. About 15,000 gallons of the beef fat ended up on the Houston Ship Channel via a storm drain, causing the closure of a small portion of the waterway.

The US Coast Guard reported that the leak was contained by booms and traffic in the channel resumed early Wednesday.

Fortunately, animal fat is easy to clean unlike oil spill and there should be little or no environmental damage because of the material's near-solid condition, according to the Coast Guard.

One industrial application of animal fats is feedstock for oleochemical production.

[Photo from the US Coast Guard]

That's right folks, you read it first right here on the Green blog. We just received a scoop that BioAmber (formerly DNP Green Technology) is developing a new generation of microorganism for succinic acid production under exclusive license from Cargill.

As soon as this microorganism is ready for commercial action, BioAmber plans to use it on all of their commercial plants. Right now the company is producing bio-based succinic acid at its 2,000 ton/year plant in Pomacle, France, which started in early 2010.

The company is actively engaged in discussions to build large-scale plants in North America and Asia. I believe the blog had an interview with BioAmber in April 2010 where the company mentioned planned initial annual capacity of 25,000 to 30,000 MT for these facilities. The near-term objective they said is to sign technology licenses for both plants so that they can be operational in 2012. That timeline might have shifted a bit by now.

Not much information on the type of microorganism Cargill has but it was reported that this bug can dramatically increase BioAmber's existing plant capacity with minimal investment and further reduce cost to manufacture biobased succinic acid. The bug can also use non-food feedstocks such as lignocellulosic material.

We will try to get more information tomorrow at the earliest, which ICIS News readers (sorry folks...protocols of my day job) will get first dibs. Not to worry, I will also spill out contents here on the blog as much as I can.

Time to say goodnight for now...

After the dark economic events of 2009, 2010 is a brighter year for renewable chemical/industrial biotechnology/green chemistry companies as far as project milestones, investment activities and company exposures are concerned.

More traditional chemical [and petroleum] companies are jumping into the concept of using renewable-based feedstock as alternative to petroleum, as well as expanding investments in chemicals/materials that are used in clean technology platforms such as solar, wind, electric vehicles and biofuels.

My database of start-up companies in the field of renewable-based/industrial biotechnology field have greatly expanded and the green blog is now having a hard time keeping tabs. My focus is still within the US but activities have increasingly spread worldwide especially from Brazil and Asia. There were also news coming from Western Europe but interestingly enough, Brazil and Asia seemed to be more active in the second half of 2010. Several US companies are definitely smacked on the scene on a lot of these increased global activities.

Highlighted bio-based chemicals in 2010 are succinic acid, butanol, acrylic acid, butanediols, propanediols, biodegradable/compostable polymers (e.g. PLA, PHA, starch-based, sugar-based), lactic acid, glycerine, adipic acid, ethanol, glucaric acid, itaconic acid, levulinic, acetyls, furanics...did I miss anything else?

Another strong topics for 2010 are government mandates, chemical restrictions (debated, planned and incoming), subsidies, grants and as always, the need for common definition/labeling on what is green, sustainable, renewable, bio-, and "clean". There are also talks throughout the year on which should be best pursued by start-up renewable chemical companies: drop-in or novel chemicals? I also noticed an increased differentiation between using biotechnology versus thermochemical vs bio/thermo hybrid processing.

I am currently working on an 2010 overview/2011 outlook article on the renewable chemicals market for ICIS Chemical Business and according to several industry players, the funding landscape for 2010 especially during the second half of the year definitely improved. The hard part now (for some companies anyway) is to prove to these investors that they can go beyond pilot phase, be able to form ventures/partnerships with existing well know companies (either in the chemical/feedstock/consumer areas), and start producing in commercial quantities.

Legislation, government grants, partnerships and the volatility of crude oil will be closely monitored this year. With the prediction of oil price going above $100/bbl, that will encourage more investors (and customers) to eye the green chemicals field. One industry player noted the growing understanding of investors about the field of renewable/green chemistry, which makes them more open and amenable into financing in renewable chemical companies.

Speaking of investing, 2010 saw the entrance of IPOs in this sector, and the prophesy is to expect more companies filing this year. Solazyme is already being talked about as a future candidate.

As I've mentioned, legislation is an important driver in further R&D and investing for renewable chemical companies. Certain legislations around the world are already making a impact on the quest to find alternatives especially chemicals that are being smeared thoroughly in the media such as bisphenol-A and phthalates. California's Green Chemistry legislation, Europe's REACH and Renewable Energy Directives (RED), the US EPA's GHG mandates as well as the overahaul of US TSCA (Toxic Chemicals Safety Act) are just some of the big regulatory topics that will be continuously covered this year. Of course, issues on BPA and phthalates will not yet fade away anytime soon.

2011 seems to be a good, exciting year again for green/renewable/sustainable chemistry. As noted on previous annual outlook posts, these are just my amateurish insights and not to be taken (too) seriously. Believe at your own risks - that's my disclaimer for the year ;-)

As closing remarks, here are some of the recent outlooks from various professionals that you might want to take a look into. You might also want to check ICB's Outlook 2011 feature stories this week.

Chemical industry predictions for 2011

Planning for Uncertainty (Chemicals & The Economy)

Overconfidence The Biggest Risk For 2011 (Asian Chemical Connections)

Cleantech predictions in 2011

Neil A Burns LLC Review and Outlook 2011

2011 Outlook for Clean Energy Jobs in the U.S. - Beating the Trend | The McBreen Group

[Photo from the McBreen Group]

I hope everybody had a great holiday off and wishing all a successful 2011 ahead!

As expected, news were thin for the last week of the year. The green blogger managed to scrap some interesting news and currently trying to rack her brains for some brilliant 2011 industry insights all the while trying to meet deadline for two articles. It's juggling time!

Bangkok Post reported Thailand's Science and Technology Ministry plans to form a one-billion-baht ($32.2m) joint venture with PTT Chemical Plc (PTTCH), Siam Cement Group (SCG) and Mitr Phol Group to build the country's first polylactic acid pilot plant to supply materials to make biodegradable plastic. The PLA plant is expected to have annual production of 10,000 tonnes.

Casey Container plans to increase production capacity of its biodegradable plastic preforms and bottling products, which uses the biodegradable plastic additive EcoPure supplied by Bio-Tec Environmental. Casey Container received purchase orders from three bottled water companies, one international and two domestic, with combined orders of nearly 40m preforms over the first 12 months once production commences in early 2011.

Sime Darby is collaborating with Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. of Japan to construct and operate a bioethanol demonstration plant that will convert palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) into bioethanol. The demo plant will be able to process 1.25 ton/day of EFB using hydrothermal pre-treatment and enzymatic hydrolysis technology.

Arkema said sales is growing faster than expected for its EnVia certified emulsion polymer products designed to help coatings formulators meet strict environmental regulations. Products that meet EnVia™ self-certification guidelines include 100% acrylic, styrene acrylic, vinyl acrylic and vinyl acetate ethylene binders, as well as the company's new SNAP™ 720 Structured Nano-Acrylic Polymer.

Riverdale Capital Ltd. will acquire WSPVA Bio Products International, which holds an exclusive license to develop and market PVA Film in North America utilizing a patented machine technology. Riverdale believes this PVA Film will have a unique niche in the plastic industry due to its water-soluble, non-toxic and biodegradable characteristics.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit temporarily delayed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) takeover of greenhouse gas emission permits in Texas.

German engine maker Tognum has decided to exit its fuel cells activities as the business is not likely to become commercially viable.

The uncertainty that permeated the US ethanol and biodiesel markets in late 2010 has been replaced by optimism for early 2011 following the December passage of subsidy and tax credit extensions by Congress.