Verbruggen: ‘Europe has the sugar beet, the best crop for biopolymers, but does not use it.’

Europe has the best feedstock for producing biopolymers, beet sugar, but instead aims at developing cellulosic crops. An example of Europe’s ineffectiveness. ‘A Southeast Asian delegation recently remarked to me: While Europe talks, we build,’ says Marc Verbruggen, CEO and president of Natureworks, the largest PLA producer in the world. At a Wageningen (the Netherlands) conference on biopolymers, he also confides to be very optimistic about bioplastics.

The best agricultural land
Marc Verbruggen feels that Europe still has enough time and opportunities to participate in the growth of the bioplastics industry. ‘In the next three to five years, major investment decisions will be taken on the sites of the bioplastics industry. However, whether Europe has any chance to play a role in this, is very much dependent on the European financial and resource policies.’

…Full Text: http://www.biobased-society.eu/2013/07/marc-verbruggen-natureworks-europe-has-the-sugar-beet-the-best-crop-for-biopolymers-but-does-not-use-it/

Tags: bioenergy, biofuel, cellulose, pilot plant, Asia, competitiveness, PLA, carbon dioxide