29 April 202424 April 2024 Should plastics be recycled? Plastics are a well-established problem with respect to sustainability
14 February 20244 February 2024 Sonichem is leading a £600K Innovate UK-funded consortium to revolutionise the automotive industry with sustainable, bio-based materials One emerging solution to this problem is biorefining, which offers a method of processing low-carbon feedstocks into intermediate chemicals that can be made into renewable plastics for vehicles
29 January 202419 January 2024 Xampla & 2M Group of Companies awarded Innovate UK Smart Grant By 2031, Morro materials from Xampla could replace up to 10,000 tonnes of single-use plastic coatings and one million kilometres of plastic coated paperboard
25 January 202419 January 2024 Jiva’s New Partnership to Develop the World’s First Biodegradable PCB Laminate Jiva has developed and is commercialising a new laminate called Soluboard® to replace the glass fibre epoxy laminate
25 October 202323 October 2023 FlexSea’s biodegradable plastics attract £3m investment Using bioplastics derived from seaweed means that packaging and other products breakdown in the environment in a matter of weeks
14 March 202314 March 2023 ViridiCO2™ Secures £3m in Seed Funding to make Chemical Products from CO2 A spin-out from the University of Southampton's radical technology converts waste carbon dioxide into surfactants, plastics/polymer feedstocks and small molecules
10 February 20238 February 2023 Flue2Chem: Putting carbon waste to work for net zero Industry giants in the UK are joining forces in the first-ever cross-sector collaboration aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Flue2Chem project aims to convert industrial waste gases into chemicals that can be used to manufacture superior and more sustainable consumer products
Flue2Chem: SCI, Unilever and 13 partners launch £5.4m net zero collaboration project The £5.4m Flue2Chem Project is a two-year programme spearheaded by Unilever and SCI, with 13 other organisations involved
29 November 202225 November 2022 Bangor University: Greening some of our foundational manufacturing sectors In a £7.3 million Innovate UK research grant, called BONDIFI, the University’s BioComposites Centre is leading on the testing required to reduce the carbon footprint of some of the UK’s major and most carbon-heavy industrial sectors
4 August 20223 August 2022 Fiberight leads consortium project to capture and recycle more plastic packaging for the circular economy Company has embarked on leading a three-year £10 million large-scale demonstrator project focused on the capture, recovery and recycling of plastic packaging currently lost to landfill and incineration
24 February 20221 March 2022 Britvic joins forces with Xampla in a £1m packaging innovation partnership World’s first plant protein material for commercial use was developed from the Cambridge-University Start-up and is using pea protein
29 June 202124 June 2021 LanzaTech Part of South Wales Industrial Decarbonisation Project Proposed facility will yield around 100 million litres per annum of ATJ Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (ATJ-SPK) to build out the entire supply chain from feedstock to wing
7 January 20219 September 2021 Creating animal food from a greenhouse gas In the project React-First, scientists are working to produce a high-protein feed called Proton - more or less from thin air
2 December 20209 September 2021 Tapioca-based plastic could help reduce India’s chronic food waste Degradable bioplastic film is significantly cheaper than current films and recycles waste starch produced by the country’s sprawling cassava plant industry
23 November 202022 November 2020 Project aims to cut microplastics in pharmaceutical and chemical industries University spin-out Naturbeads is working with ChiralVision to replace plastic microbeads in the chemical industry with biodegradable ones made of cellulose
20 November 202017 November 2020 Funding from Innovate UK’s £191m sustainable innovation fund for award-winning tampliner Company together with experts from Imperial College London to further develop its award-winning tampliner to reach the highest standards of sustainability
9 November 20209 September 2021 Animal feed made from recycled carbon secures €2.5M European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator funding Deep Branch has developed a low carbon animal feed with a nutritional profile that is comparable with fishmeal
27 October 202022 October 2020 ReNew ELP to build world’s first commercial-scale plastic recycling plant using Cat-HTR technology Key benefit of the Cat-HTR technology is its ability to recycle multi-layer, flexible plastic materials or to process food-contaminated, mixed-polymer streams
3 September 201929 August 2019 Edible seaweed-based packaging gets boost from Innovate UK Innovative capsules, called Oohos, are made from a material called Notpla™ based on seaweed extract and offer a way to deliver drinks under 100ml in a plastic-free form
4 July 20192 July 2019 What Makes for Successful Innovation? Innovation is essential when developing an economy, but what differentiates innovations that make the grade?
10 January 20197 January 2019 University lands £1.1m award to investigate plastics waste UK researchers work on developing a new range of biodegradable plastics
14 December 201811 December 2018 Biome Technologies awarded further funding to scale solutions to plastic waste Government's £6 million programme aims to use industrial biotechnology techniques to produce a new range of sustainable polymers
9 August 20177 August 2017 Cyrene, a biosolvent, to end the use of toxic solvents Australian company Circa partnered with the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GCCE) at the University of York, UK and company Norske Skog to start industrial production in Europe
25 November 201623 November 2016 SynBio is gearing up Synthetic Biology's large field of applications became apparent at the EFIB-conference in Glasgow, last October
3 March 201625 February 2016 From Upstream to Downstream, the importance of the Value Chain Plant Based Summit shows optimism surrounding the commercialisation of renewable chemicals
29 February 201629 February 2016 UK Synthetic Biology Strategic Plan 2016 Strategic plan aiming to accelerate the commercialisation of synthetic biology products and services with clear public benefit
19 February 201618 February 2016 Carbon/Flax Hybrid Structures Show Improved Vibration Damping and Impact Behaviour A UK-based consortium has developed carbon/flax hybrid structures with lower cost, higher vibration damping and improved impact behaviour compared to carbon fibre
21 October 201520 October 2015 TerraVerdae Makes Major Strides in Commercializing its Line of PHA Biomaterial Products Major milestones in scale up at facilities in Edmonton, Alberta and Wilton, UK this summer demonstrateTerraVerdae's progress toward commercial deployment
11 September 201526 November 2015 Bioplastics as strong contenders in the market The pursuit of environmentally materials has been growing considerably
3 September 20152 September 2015 Trending: Biobased Microbeads, Flexible Foams Could Offer Renewable Materials for Hundreds of Products Developing technologies to produce commercial scale quantities of biomaterial products is a milestone for each company
28 August 201526 August 2015 TerraVerdae Achieves Commercial Pilot-Scale Production for PHA Biomaterials Develops commercially viable production process supported by Innovate UK grant
26 August 201524 August 2015 What is the bioeconomy? The bioeconomy – transforming challenges into opportunity
27 May 201526 May 2015 NNFCC teams with Inspire Biotech to increase Consultancy capabilities Collaboration to focus on strategic bioeconomy development and industrial biotechnology
30 April 201530 April 2015 5 years of Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant Looking forward to welcoming you at the networking event of the year!
24 April 201523 April 2015 Biome Bioplastics leads £3m sustainable chemicals development programme Researchers consortium to harness industrial biotechnology techniques to produce bio-based chemicals from lignin at a scale suitable for industrial testing
9 February 20156 February 2015 Horizon 2020: funding new technology for the UK biobased economy NNFCC workshop attendees discussed EU funding opportunities and new technologies
29 September 201415 February 2018 Almac forms academia-industry collaboration to develop green chemicals Team of scientists to develop novel chemical via an enzymatic route from under-utilised natural oil
25 June 201425 June 2014 The British plan for the bioeconomy takes a step forward Lignocellulosic technologies are an important solution for enabling the use of non-food crops with the production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals
20 June 201418 June 2014 Next generation of bioplastics could be made from trees BIOME, Warwick's University research demonstrate Lignin as low-cost feedstock for high performance chemicals
21 March 201419 March 2014 Dyson and CPI explore use of bioplastics in consumer products New research project to help pave the way for future developments in this area
24 February 201421 February 2014 Interview: Dr. Celia Caulcott, BBSRC A expert voice from the bio-based economy about the IB Catalyst initiative in the UK
20 January 201417 January 2014 2014 set to be a bumper year for biobased industry as funding pours in from the EU Bio-based Industries Initiative to help Europe compete in the global bioeconomy market
19 April 2013 An Advance in Viability of Bioplastics? Tim Sykes interviews Biome's CEO Paul Mines about bio-based plastics made from organic chemicals and lignin
4 April 2013 Biome Bioplastics to investigate new source of organic chemicals for bioplastic manufacture Research Collaboration to produce chemicals from lignin, replacing oil-derived equivalents
14 May 2012 UK well positioned to lead the world on Algal Sustainability A new report by bioeconomy consultants NNFCC says that the UK can be an international leader in algal sustainability
10 March 2011 UK and Norway sign biotech agreement First such bilateral agreement was signed by the Technology Strategy Board
7 February 2011 Funding agreed for ten feasibility studies in industrial biotechnology Results of second part of funding competition to be announced in April
18 February 2010 UK: Brake pads for trains from hemp fibre and cashew nut oil Market launch for Ecobrake is planned by 2011
15 September 2008 First completely biodegradable natural fibre reinforced plastics produced in the UK UK Companies Develop High Performance Materials from Renewable Resources