Covestro, Neste and Borealis aim at closing loop for automotive industry

Discarded tires liquified via chemical recycling, then processed into base chemicals and further into polycarbonates of high purity

13-Jun-2024 - Neste, Borealis and Covestro have signed a project agreement to enable the recycling of discarded tires into high-quality plastics for automotive applications. The collaboration aims at driving circularity in plastics value chains and the automotive industry. When no longer fit for use, tires are ...

Research team develops process for bio-based nylon

Electrons and microbes are the decisive factor in this

05-Jul-2023 - Until now, nylon has been produced from petroleum-based raw materials. However, this is quite harmful to the environment because non-renewable fossil resources are used, a great deal of energy is required, and climate-damaging nitrous oxide is emitted during production. A research team from the ...

New pathways found for biotechnological degradation of industrial waste

Microorganism breaks down phenol under extreme conditions

19-Jan-2021 - Scientists led by Dr Meina Neumann-Schaal of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, have characterised the breakdown of phenol by Saccharolobus solfataricus. Using methods from the fields of metabolomics and ...

From petroleum to wood

Cost-efficient and more sustainable

17-Feb-2020 - An interdisciplinary team of bio-engineers and economists from KU Leuven has mapped out how wood could replace petroleum in the chemical industry. They not only looked at the technological requirements, but also whether that scenario would be financially viable. A shift from petroleum to wood ...

'Tricking' bacteria into hydroxylating benzene

15-Jun-2018 - Breaking carbon-hydrogen bonds is notoriously difficult in lab chemistry, yet nature does it effortlessly. Now, scientists have used E.coli bacteria to oxidize the C-H bonds in benzene to generate phenol, with a genetically inserted enzyme (cytochrome P450BM3), that originally evolved to target ...

SONGWON begins large scale manufacture of functional monomers

21-Mar-2018 - Having started to develop functional monomers about two years ago, SONGWON has now begun bulk manufacture at its production site in Ulsan, South Korea. These monomers provide resins and polymers with special functions, one of the most important being improvement of the physical and chemical ...

A way to synthesize drugs from renewable precursors

16-Nov-2017 - The scientists of RUDN University together with their Russian colleagues have developed a new approach to the synthesis of benzofurans from cheap raw materials. Original furans can be produced from wastes of agriculture and wooworking industry, such as sawdust, cobs and other by-products of crop ...

Biocatalysts are a bridge to greener, more powerful chemistry

15-Nov-2017 - New research from the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute is building a bridge from nature's chemistry to greener, more efficient synthetic chemistry. Researchers in the lab of Alison Narayan analyzed biocatalysts evolved by nature for their effectiveness in a variety of synthetic ...

Is there something up with stinky inflatable pool toys?

Potentially hazardous substances identified in four inflatable toys

21-Apr-2017 - Inflatable toys and swimming aids, like bathing rings and arm bands, often have a distinctive smell which could indicate that they contain a range of potentially hazardous substances. Some of these compounds, which include carbonyl compounds, cyclohexanone, phenol and isophorone, might be ...

Full speed ahead for the lignin market

The market potential of the four products analysed in a new Market Insight is over $130 billion

12-May-2014 - Long considered a waste product of the pulping industry, lignin, a major component of biomass, is currently being used for low and medium-value applications (e.g. binding and dispersing agents), representing a market of $730 million. However, according to Frost & Sullivan, strong signals indicate ...