Biobased Battery, Starch-Based Gift Cards, Future Fashion, Plant-Based Flame Retardants, and More: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the Week of September 5th

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) This week is a merry mix of biobased innovations around the world. From the creation of artificial reefs made from PLA in Israel and Spain’s starch-based gift cards to the U.S. where biobased battery materials are reality in Washington state and where flame retardants made from plants are being developed in Michigan, it’s pretty exciting times regardless of where you live in the world. Here are the top innovations for the week of September 5th.

In today’s Digest, biobased battery, starch-based gift cards, future fashion, plant-based flame retardants — these and more, ready for you now at The Digest online. READ MORE

#7 Dutch biotech company nabs funds for industrial sugars and biobased MEG

In the Netherlands, biobased chemical producer Avantium has been awarded a €6 million (USD$6.7 million) grant to advance its Dawn and Mekong technologies.

The funding was part of a SPIRE grant under the EU’s Horizon2020 subsidy program. The Mekong technology is a catalytic process to produce monoethylene glycol from biomass, while Dawn is a biorefinery process technology to convert non-food, plant-based feedstock into industrial sugars and lignin.

Avantium will also lead the IMPRESS research consortium, which received a €13 million (USD$14.4 million) SPIRE grant. The IMPRESS program aims to demonstrate a “new biorefinery concept based on integrating novel processes such as Avantium’s Dawn and Mekong technologies for the first time,” Avantium says in a press release. “It also intends to develop new separation and purification methods.” The integration of Dawn Technology with the production of plant-based MEG by the Mekong technology will be further improved by using the advanced high throughput R&D systems of Avantium Catalysis.

“The objective is to create a value chain starting from non-edible biomass to renewable chemicals and materials that meets both economic and sustainability criteria,” the company adds.
More on the story, here.

#10 Azotic brings natural nitrogen fixing tech to US

In the UK, Azotic Technologies has laucnhed its natural nitrogen fixing technology, Envita, in the US market. Envita is derived from a naturally occurring food grade bacteria (Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus) that enables plants to fix nitrogen from the air and replace up to 50 per cent of their nitrogen needs as an alternative to fertiliser. It is environmentally-friendly, cost-reducing and also proven to increase crop yields.

After positive field trial results on maize, soybean and rice, Envita is now commercially available to growers in 26 US States. In 2018, farm scale trials across 11 states validated the previous 6 years of research with encouraging results and feedback from growers.

Azotic has also carried out a series of successful rice trials in Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. In three Vietnamese rice trials the response was a mean average 20% (825 kg/ha) yield increase across all the field trials (2017). Two rice trials were carried out in Thailand and two in the Philippines in 2018. Overall on the N-Fix treated plots yields were significantly higher than the untreated at every fertiliser N level tested with the N-Fix treated plots yielding 17% (645 kg/ha) more than the untreated. At 50% of the recommended N fertiliser application a substantial 29% (1t/ha) increase was seen. Further rice trials are being carried out in Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

Azotic’s N-Fix/Envita technology is applied to plants via the seed creating a symbiotic relationship within the plant. This enables the plant create its own source of nitrogen thus reducing dependency on nitrogen fertilisers. The seeds are treated with a liquid inoculant before planting and the bacteria are incorporated into a plant’s cells via the seed to boost its ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere.
More on the story, here.