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5 March 202429 February 2024

Major Success for CCU: The Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) Fully Recognises CO₂ Utilisation as a Net Zero Technology

The CCU community in Europe welcomes the inclusion of Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) as a net zero technology and as an eligible strategic technology under the recently agreed upon Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA)

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Op-Ed: Facing the realities of CO2 shipping

This CO2 will be sourced from a combination of capture equipment linked to land-based industry, and equipment onboard ships

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4 March 202428 February 2024

Insempra wins €1.5M disruptive innovation grant with circular biomanufacturing concept ‘BioTreasure’

Luisa Gronenberg and her experts team develop bioplastics like polyesters and polyamide via biotechnological fermentation from organic waste feedstocks

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New sock collection featuring Recover™ shows that Arvin Goods leads the change in sustainable style

The latest launch features crew socks made from 79% recycled materials, including 43% recycled polyester and 36% Recover recycled cotton fiber

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Government of Canada supports BOSK Bioproducts in improving its capacity to produce compostable bioplastics

SME to receive $1M in financial assistance from CED to foster sustainable development in Quebec's regions by offering an ecofriendly alternative to polluting plastics

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Electricity from waste heat thanks to new piston machine

Empa/ETH spin-off aims to increase energy efficiency

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1 March 202428 February 2024

PPL, affiliate partners selected for $72 million research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations

The research project and new carbon capture system was developed in partnership with the University of Kentucky and Koch Modular, will be hosted in Louisville, Ky.

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Fun Innovations Friday: The Company Replacing Petroleum-Based Plastics With Plants

PlantSwitch has seemingly solved the issue of single-use plastics by creating a bioplastic material from plants and ensuring that it also works with current plastic processing machinery, eliminating large investments from manufacturers

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Plastic Recycling with a Protein Anchor

Peptide with a cobalt complex oxidizes polystyrene microparticles

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29 February 20241 March 2024

Advancing Certification Schemes for Bio-based Feedstock – The BIORECER Project

In four case studies the project will test the assessment framework and additionally assesses novel value chains based on biological feedstocks

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TOMRA further strengthens its position in AI with a 25 percent stake in waste analysis start-up PolyPerception

TOMRA and pioneering waste analysis start-up PolyPerception broaden their strategic AI alliance

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ELIX Polymers – chemically recycled products with up to 100% sustainable feedstocks

All material properties remain the same, so there is no need for new material approvals and all of the available technical data can be used

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Cutting-Edge Bioplastic Solutions for Both Marine and Terrestrial Environments Unveiled in Malta

The recent completion of the event titled “Biobased Plastics for Marine and Terrestrial Applications: Exhibition, Knowledge Transfer & Workshop” marks a successful milestone under the EU-funded “SEALIVE” project

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28 February 20244 October 2024

Monthly news from the Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI), February 2024

In this edition you may find that recent updates to the Swiss ecoinvent database offer new implications, tasks about the newly announced key policy project of RCI in 2024, about the European Chemistry Partnering pitching session with a focus on tech scouting, an RCI member portrait and their external publication, a free webinar and the newest RCI member

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The surprise of flash hydrogen

The choice would seem to be between electrolysis, what the ‘greens’ want; or store CO2 in empty gas fields, what the ‘greys’ from the petrochemical industries prefer. Other options still have to be discovered

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Greenhouse gas transformed in aid of carbon-free future

Waste carbon dioxide was repurposed in benchtop experiments at the University of Auckland

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Food-based aerogel recovers gold from e-waste

The protein sponge sucks up three times as much gold per gram as a typical activated carbon adsorbent

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27 February 202427 February 2024

Renewable Materials Conference 2024 – Almost final program, workshops and booths still available

World’s largest conference on chemicals and materials based on biomass, CCU or chemical recycling

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Free webinar: All About RC(I)

Discussing the Renewable Carbon Initiative and Strategy, 29 February 2024 – 14:00 to 15:00 (CET)

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IS2H4C: Industrial areas become industrial hubs for the Circular Economy

A new project aims to establish four industrial hubs: in the Netherlands, Turkey, the Basque Country and Germany, in which he focus is on innovative technologies such as carbon capture and electrolysis

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CARBIOS and De Smet Engineers & Contractors enter engineering partnership for construction of world’s first PET biorecycling plant

Carbios first commercial facility will play a key role in the fight against plastic pollution by offering an industrial-scale solution for the enzymatic depolymerization of PET waste to accelerate a circular economy

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26 February 202421 February 2024

Legal assessment on the EU packaging regulation PPWR: Special rules for plastic packaging not compatible with EU law

According to a new report by the international law firm Dentons the European Commission laws discriminate with a high probability against plastic packaging

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How CCU Platforms Stack Up

Companies like Carbon Sink LLC, CapCO2 Solutions, and HYCO1 have developed on-site carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology platforms capable of turning waste CO2 streams into high-value products

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Microsoft-backed clean jet fuel startup fires up new CO2 converter

Twelve uses a CO2 electrochemical reactor - called OPUS - that will be at the center of its first commercial SAF production plant under construction in Moses Lake, Washington

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23 February 202422 February 2024

Advanced Recycling on the Rise – Rapid Growth in Capacities at Global and European level

The update and expansion of the nova-Institute's report "Mapping of advanced plastic waste recycling technologies and their global capacities" provides a detailed insight into technological advances, identifies key players in the field and describes the current state of advanced recycling in Europe and worldwide

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World’s First Pilot Plant for Bio-Based Aniline

Opening ceremony with guests from the world of politics and science

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Twelve Launches First Commercial-Scale SAF Production Facility

The plant will run on hydropower and use CO2 captured from a nearby ethanol plant, which will be fed through OPUS and turned into synthetic gas, which is basis of SAF

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22 February 202420 February 2024

UC engineers’ CO2 conversion helps industry, addresses climate

National research team led by UC professor develops more efficient system to address climate change - a new approach to converting CO2 into ethylene

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Rumpke and Eastman join forces to expand recycling of PET waste

Rumpke will begin collecting and sorting hard-to-recycle and colored PET packaging waste, and will provide 100 percent of this waste stream as feedstock to Eastman’s molecular recycling process

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Alt.Leather’s $1.1 million seed round marks a new era in Australian bio-based textiles

Alt.Leather’s first 100% bio-based leather alternative contains zero plastics and utilises agricultural waste to make textiles

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21 February 202416 February 2024

H&S completes set-up of a recycling plant for end-of-life mattresses in the Netherlands

Newly built recycling plant with RetourMatras to convert PU foam from 200,000 mattresses into repolyols annually

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Fermentation revolution?

Trash becomes treasure as bio-waste yields valuable acetone and isopropanol

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20 February 202416 February 2024

Capturing greenhouse gases with the help of light

Researchers at ETH Zurich are developing a new method to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. It involves molecules that become acidic when exposed to light. Their new process requires much less energy than conventional technologies

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Circular economy and green products at SILBAERG

The new boards are made using Fuse Tape from Sachsenleinen and processed into A.L.D.-tech.® Hemp Preforms using Dry-Fiber-Placement technology

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19 February 20247 February 2024

The EU has fired the starting gun for the race to deploy carbon dioxide removals in Europe

Positioned as a frontrunner in carbon removal technology, Europe’s policy frameworks are likely to be picked up across the world

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Transforming textiles into bricks: FabBRICK

The use of various waste-derived, biologically inspired, technologically advanced innovative materials has been increasing in line with many concerns and goals recently

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16 February 20246 February 2024

Home compostability certification for Metsä Board paperboards

All these paperboards can be recycled after using or be composted with your biowaste

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The Unbearable Complexity of Defining Recycling 

What is recycling and how can it be measured? This question may sound quite trivial at first but on a closer look turns out to be rather complex – and vital

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15 February 20245 February 2024

Dressed to Impress: McDonald’s Debuts New, More Sustainable Uniforms in the U.S.

These new aprons, jeans and graphic T-shirts are made with innovative CiCLO® technology, which enables polyester fibers to biodegrade like wool

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Letter to the CBE JU community

Nicoló Giacomuzzi-Moore will be the new Executive Director for the CBE JU

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Borealis appoints Mirjam Mayer as Vice President Circular Economy Solutions

Prior to Borealis she gained extensive experience as a consultant with McKinsey for several years

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14 February 20244 February 2024

Green Methanol for the Circular Economy – New Catalyst Developed at LIKAT

This process is highly selective (it produces virtually no by-products) and completely dispenses with fossil raw materials

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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

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Transforming textile waste

Berlin-based start-up Re-Fresh Global today launches the EPR-Promise campaign in preparation for the EU EPR 2025 regulation on sustainable circular economy in the textile industry

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Bayreuth scientists find a close-loop recycling process for one of the most widely used plastics

A pioneering development enables the targeted replication of the chemical structure of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), a plastic that has been difficult to imitate until now, and shows great potential for sustainable alternatives in the plastics industry

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13 February 20244 February 2024

Aston University scientists to tackle challenges of converting rice straw into the next generation of biofuels

Plant dry matter such as rice straw is seen as a better alternative to current crops because it doesn’t affect food security

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12 February 20243 February 2024

Breakthrough for an Alternative to Crude Oil & Palm Oil: COLIPI Receives €1.8 Million Seed Funding for Further Development of CO2-Neutral Climate OilTM

Start up is going to enter the market with its Climate Oil and scale precision fermentation processes to 10 cubic meters the pilot scale

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Products made from oxo-degradable plastic: the General Court endorses the prohibition on the placing on the market

The European legislature did not make a manifest error when it adopted a prohibition in line with the objective of protecting the environment and human health

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France made composting compulsory. What does it mean for the bioeconomy?

France already has had the third highest rates of circular material usage in the EU after the Netherlands and Belgium in first and second place

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9 February 20242 February 2024

Drax to launch new business focused on becoming the global leader in large-scale carbon removals

New research published today by Foresight Transitions highlights the critical and cost-effective role that BECCS will play in aiding the United States in the delivery of its ambitious decarbonisation