The international trade fair expo PetroTrans, which was to take place in conjunction with expo GasTrans, has been axed due to COVID-19. The event will not take place as planned from 1-3 October, but in the autumn of 2022. The decision to postpone the trade fair did not come lightly to the organisers, but was inevitable in light of social distancing and global restrictions.... [Read More]

Clariant has revealed that due to the Covid-19 pandemic it is withholding the distribution of its regular dividend. Instead of the originally planned distribution of CHF 0.55 (52c) per share dividend by way of a par value reduction, the available earnings will be carried forward. If the economic environment and the financial condition of the company allow, an extraordinary... [Read More]

Australia and Ukraine have contributed record levels to German rapeseed imports in February. According to information published by the German Federal Statistical Office, the previously buoyant German rapeseed imports in the last 12 months marketing year continued into this year. Market participants had feared that imports would decline sharply at the beginning of this... [Read More]

Canada’s largest and longest-running conference on the bioeconomy will be postponed for 12 months because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled for June 9-11 in Prince George, the Canadian Bioeconomy Conference and Exhibition will now be held on June 22-24 next year at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre. The bioeconomy represents the development... [Read More]

Since Covid-19 first made the news when it struck in a place in China most of us had never heard of, little did we suspect the global consequences three months later. Normal daily life as we know it has been severely disrupted, thousands of people have died worldwide, borders between countries are being closed and the stock markets and our global economies have taken... [Read More]

Teeside, UK-based Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT) has signed a partnership contract with Pakistan’s JS Group to licence NPT’s technology, which converts waste plant biomass into natural platform chemicals and biofuels. The deal includes a licence for the use of NPT’s REFNOVA end-to-end fractionation process, as well as a front end loading conceptual design package... [Read More]

Renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel producer Neste has acquired a minority stake in German cleantech company Sunfire, a developer of high-temperature electrolysis technology. Sunfire’s patented technology allows the production of renewable hydrogen, as well as the direct conversion of water and carbon dioxide (CO2) into raw material for petrochemical products. “Over... [Read More]

Renewable fuels producer Gevo has secured funding under the Queensland Waste to Biofuels (W2B) Fund to support the development of waste to biofutures projects in the Australian state of Queensland. The fund provides targeted funding for pilot, demonstration or commercially scalable biorefinery projects in Queensland that use conventional waste streams or biomass to... [Read More]

Global bank BNP Paribas has closed a sustainability-linked loan (SLL) with JetBlue Airways, through an amendment to its existing secured revolving credit facility (RCF). This is reportedly the first sustainability-linked RCF for the airline industry. JetBlue has amended its existing $550 million (€506.4 million) RCF by including a ‘sustainability-linked’ provision,... [Read More]

The company building the world’s fastest supersonic airliner, Boom Supersonic, has announced that is XB-1 test programme will be carbon neutral through the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and carbon offsetting. Boom is the first commercial airplane manufacturer to commit to a carbon neutral test programme. The XB-1 is a supersonic demonstrator aircraft designed... [Read More]

Heathrow Airport in the UK has announced plans to become one of the world’s first major aviation hubs to become carbon neutral for its infrastructure. The airport is also the first to target zero carbon by the mid-2030s. Recent investments totalling over £100 million (€119.7 million) have improved Heathrow’s energy efficiency, as well as being used to generate... [Read More]

A team of bioengineers and economics from KU Leuven in Belgium has mapped out how wood could replace petroleum in the chemical industry. According to the researchers, who considered both technological requirements and financial viability, the transition from petroleum to biofuel (in the form of wood) would lead to a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Currently,... [Read More]

Italian coffee producer Lavazza will become the first Italian partner to join Dutch airline KLM’s Corporate BioFuel Programme, under an agreement signed by the two companies in February. KLM’s programme actively contributes to making the aviation industry more sustainable by stimulating the availability of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on a large scale. SAF is... [Read More]

Sarnia, Ontario-based Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) has received a CAD$15 million (€10.5 million) financial contribution from FedDev Ontario to promote new sustainable innovations and bring business support to Eastern Ontario in Canada. BIC is a business accelerator that provides support, services and investments to developers of clean, green and sustainable... [Read More]