The review covers market activity in biobased chemicals and polymers during September 2012

1. NNFCC Market Review
Bio-based Products Issue Seven, October 2012
E
ach month we review the latest or potentially renewable energy if used in
announcements and news from an anaerobic digester. Alternatively it may
be more appropriate with some waste
across the global bio-based
streams to recover energy using either an
chemicals and materials sector for our
incinerator or gasifier.
business members.
The petrochemical industry is also looking to
Foreword waste as a feedstock for a new generation
of bio-based chemicals. Just last month,
Welcome to the October 2012 issue of our Renmatix, a manufacturer of cellulosic
bio-based products market review. Waste sugars for bio-based chemical and fuel
is becoming a major issue but also a major markets, unveiled their state-of-the-art R&D
resource. This month has seen the debate facility which will look at new sustainable
on end-of-life options for plastics intensify, feedstock sources, including waste. They
with European Environment Commissioner are just one of a number of companies who
Janez Potočnik calling for a scale back of see waste as the future.
energy recovery from plastics while others
including Nestlé and environmentalist Read on for all the latest sector news.
Jonathon Porritt believe energy from waste
could offer significant opportunities for
Highlights
waste reduction.
Page 2 End-of-life News
Recycling is clearly an important tool for
plastic waste, where there is an end market Page 2 Platform Chemicals News
for the recyclates and it is economical to
Page 4 Bioplastics News
do so. However, for difficult to recycle
waste streams – like composites – it could Page 5 Bio-based Materials News
be time for a re-think.
Page 6 Scientific Reviews
Compostable plastics, for example, can
allow brands to build supply chains where Page 7 Price Information
packaging can be converted into compost
Page 8 Events
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 1 of 8

2. End-of-life in landfill with no statistically significant
quantity of methane released. This conclusion
was reached after a series of tests to ASTM
D5526 and D5511 standards that simulated a
century‟s worth of landfill conditions.
"We work with a cradle-to-cradle approach
to zero waste. What this means in terms of
landfill diversion, for example, is ideally that
Ingeo foodservice ware would be composted
in order to enable the landfill diversion of a
food-residual stream, and that Ingeo resins
and fibres would be mechanically or
Source: Nestlé
chemically recycled and not landfilled,” said
Marc Verbruggen, President of NatureWorks.
Nestlé Interview: The future of
sustainable packaging “However, these systems are still emerging
and developing. The reality today is that a
Around 90 per cent of Nestlé packaging can percentage of Ingeo products end up in
be recycled, but it is often not viable to do so landfills. And now we can say with certainty
and these materials end up in landfill. In a that the environmental impact of that
recent interview with NNFCC, David Wiggins, landfilling, in terms of greenhouse gas release,
Head of Packaging at Nestlé UK, called for is not significant," he added.
more to be done to explore the options for
generating energy from packaging waste. Click here for more information.
Wiggins says: “The infrastructure for recycling
single-material packaging is well-established
but composite packaging – like laminates
Platform Chemicals
used for confectionery or pet food – is a
particularly difficult to recycle waste stream.”
Renmatix unveil state-of-the-art R&D
“Where it is not economical to recycle facility
packaging waste we should consider energy
recovery, like combined heat and power Renmatix, a manufacturer of cellulosic sugars
plants. When supported with a scientific life for biobased chemical and fuel markets,
cycle assessment, strategically placed CHP have opened a new research and
plants can offer an opportunity to recover the development centre in Pennsylvania. The
calories stored in packaging materials,” he multi-million dollar R&D facility serves to
added. accelerate Renmatix‟s exploration of new
sustainable feedstock sources, assist
Click here to read the full interview. downstream customers in their transition to
cellulosic sugars, and further enhance the
Study finds Ingeo biopolymer stable in economics of the Plantrose™ process to
produce the lowest cost sugar intermediates
landfills
for renewable materials.
A peer-reviewed article appearing in the
Click here for more information.
journal of Polymer Degradation and Stability
concludes that Ingeo™ biopolymer is stable
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 2 of 8

3. making there in May, according to a
statement released after the close of regular
trading yesterday.
Gevo is working on “certain specific parts of
our technology” to boost isobutanol
production rates, according to the statement.
The Englewood, Colorado-based company
estimated that the facility won‟t reach “our
Source: Solazyme desired year-end run rate” until next year.
Click here for more information.
Solazyme announce commissioning
of algae oil biorefinery in Illinois
Butamax signs up eight ethanol plants
Solazyme have announced the successful for butanol retrofit
commissioning of its first fully integrated
biorefinery in Peoria, Illinois, with a capacity to Eight ethanol plants with a combined annual
produce two million litres of algal oil annually. capacity of 900 million gallons have signed
up with advanced biofuels company
The biorefinery was partially funded with a Butamax to be retrofitted for butanol
grant from the US Department of Energy in production. Butamax is a joint venture
December 2009 to demonstrate the between oil giants BP and chemical giants
integrated commercial-scale production of DuPont. Butamax say they can undertake the
renewable algal-based fuels. The company retrofitting at a cost of about $1 per gallon of
began running fermentation operations at a plant's initial output capacity.
the Peoria facility in the fourth quarter of 2011
and has gradually scaled-up production Click here for more information.
efforts, which have included multiple 128,000-
litre scale fermentations. Kiverdi receives US gov’t funding for its
carbon conversion platform
Click here for more information.
Kiverdi, a sustainable chemicals company,
Gevo to switch back to ethanol has been awarded a $0.75m grant from the
production from biobutanol California Energy Commission's Research,
Demonstration and Development program to
Shares in US biofuel producer Gevo, which is further develop beneficial uses of CO2.
backed by French oil company Total and
specialty-chemicals maker Lanxess, fell to a Kiverdi's proprietary Carbon Engineering
record low after announcing plans to stop Platform transforms carbon from industrial flue
producing isobutanol at its facility in Luverne, gases into high-value oils and chemicals,
Minnesota. including palm oil and palm kernel oil
replacements, say the company. Kiverdi also
Gevo declined 35 per cent to $2.14 at the announced that the company was selected
close in New York, the lowest price and the by a competitive peer-review process to
biggest loss since its February 2011 initial become an industrial user at the Molecular
public offering. The company is shifting to Foundry, where Kiverdi has access to world-
ethanol production at the plant while it class, state-of-the-art facilities and services.
adjusts its manufacturing process for
isobutanol, a more complex fuel it began Click here for more information.
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 3 of 8

4. BioBased Technologies expand Agrol Dr Carol Lin, who led the research team,
family of polyols described the food biorefinery process, which
involves blending the baked goods with a
mixture of fungi that excrete enzymes to
BioBased Technologies® has expanded its
break down carbohydrates in the food into
family of Agrol® polyols to include a variety of
simple sugars. The blend then goes into a
new feedstocks and a polyol specifically for
fermenter, a vat where bacteria convert the
flexible slabstock formulations.
sugars into succinic acid.
The company will introduce the new
Click here for more information.
products, Agrol Prime™, Agrol Star™, Agrol
Platinum® and Agrol™ AO+, during the
Centre for the Polyurethanes Industry‟s
Polyurethanes International Technical
Conference in Atlanta Sept. 24-26. The new Bioplastics
products are made from a range of raw
materials including soyabeans, castor oil and
cashew nut shells.
Click here for more information.
Source: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola accelerates global
production of PlantBottle™ packaging
Coca-Cola has announced a partnership
with JBF Industries to further expand
Source: Dr Carol Lin production of the plant-based material used
in the company's PlantBottle™ packaging.
From Starbucks croissants to succinic
Coca-Cola have sold more than 10 billion
acid: Baked goods could become
PlantBottle™ packages to date but this new
bioplastics supply partnership will help Coca-Cola deliver
its target of using PlantBottle™ packaging
Scientists have developed and tested a new technology in all of its plastic bottles by 2020,
“biorefinery” intended to change food waste said the company. To support this partnership,
into a key ingredient for making plastics, JBF Industries will build the world's largest
laundry detergents and scores of other facility to produce bio-glycol; the key
everyday products. Their report on a project ingredient used to make the PlantBottle™.
launched in cooperation with the Starbucks
restaurant chain ― concerned with The facility, to be located in Sao Paulo, Brazil,
sustainability and seeking a use for spent will produce glycol using local sustainably-
coffee grounds and stale bakery goods ― sourced sugarcane and sugarcane
was presented at the National Meeting & processing waste. Construction of the facility
Exposition of the American Chemical Society. is expected to begin at the end of 2012 and
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 4 of 8

5. last for 24 months. At full capacity, the facility their work at the Society for General
will produce an estimated 500,000 metric tons Microbiology‟s Autumn Conference.
of material each year.
Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polyesters are
Click here for more information. synthesised by a wide variety of bacteria as a
source of energy when their carbon supply is
Bioplastics manufacturer Cereplast plentiful. Poly 3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is the
opens new office in India most common polymer in the PHA family.
Currently, growing bacteria in large
Cereplast Inc. has opened a corporate office
fermenters to produce high quantities of this
in India to better serve current and future
PHB is expensive because glucose is used as a
clients in the Southeast Asia markets. That
starting material. Now, work done at the
market, according to Cereplast, includes
University of Wolverhampton suggests that
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,
bacterium, Ralstonia eutropha H16, could use
and offers 1.6 billion potential new consumers.
waste cooking oil as a starting material to
reduce production costs of the plastic. The
Frederic Scheer, CEO of Cereplast, said that
next challenge for the group is to scale-up
India is a key emerging market for the
experiments; enabling the manufacture of
company and opening an office in India will
bioplastics on an industrial level.
allow Cereplast to establish a client base that
could require between 20 to 2,000 tons per
Click here for more information.
month of biobased product.
Click here for more information.
Biome Technologies announce Bio-based Materials
proposed sale of its 50 per cent stake
in Biotec
UK bioplastics company Biome Technologies
has proposed the sale of its 50 per cent stake
in Biotec, the Group‟s manufacturing joint
venture with Sphere. Biome will receive a
cash consideration of £5.2m. Biome say the
sale will allow the group to focus on its
strategy to develop high margin, application
Source: Bridgestone
led products.
Click here for more information. Bridgestone unveils 100 per cent
sustainable tyre concept
Waste cooking oil could make
Bridgestone is exhibiting a concept tyre of
bioplastics cheaper
“100 per cent sustainable materials” at the
2012 Paris Motor Show, as part of a new
Bioplastics that are naturally synthesised by
initiative to encourage sustainability.
microbes could be made commercially
viable by using waste cooking oil as a starting
Bridgestone Corporation, the world‟s largest
material, according to scientists presenting
tyre manufacturer, is diversifying the regions
where it produces natural rubber and also
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 5 of 8

6. replacing the synthetic rubber, carbon black and hardwood lignin yielded monomeric
and rubber compounding agents in its tyre compounds in different compositions with a
with alternatives synthesised from biomass. maximum yield of 2.0 per cent for syringic
acid and 3.6 per cent for syringol,
Bridgestone wants sustainable material tyres respectively. The results of the study showed
to be commercially available from 2050. As a that under applied conditions competition
next step in the process, the company will occurred between lignin depolymerisation
“initiate” the technologies to begin mass and recondensation of fragments.
production of bio-based tyres.
Click here for more information.
Click here for more information.
Bio-based production of chemicals,
materials and fuels –
Corynebacterium glutamicum as
Scientific Reviews versatile cell factory
Sustained photosynthetic conversion Abstract: Corynebacterium glutamicum,
of CO2 to ethylene in recombinant gram-positive soil bacteria, traditionally well-
cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803 known as excellent producers of l-amino
acids are becoming flexible, efficient
Abstract: Ethylene is the most widely production platforms for various chemicals,
produced petrochemical feedstock globally. materials and fuels. This development is
It is currently produced exclusively from fossil intensively driven by systems metabolic
fuels, and its production is the largest CO2- engineering concepts integrating systems
emitting process in the chemical industry. In biology and synthetic biology into strain
this study, we report on a photobiological engineering. This study reviews the potential
process for sustained production of ethylene of Corynebacterium glutamicum in the
from CO2. The efe gene encoding an production of bio-based chemicals, materials
ethylene-forming enzyme from Pseudomonas and fuels.
syringae pv. Phaseolicola was previously
expressed in cyanobacterial strains, but was Click here for more information.
not stable. We modified the gene sequence
to enhance its stability, and expressed it in Toward biotechnological production
Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, leading to of adipic acid and precursors from
continuous ethylene production.
biorenewables
Click here for more information.
Abstract: Adipic acid is the most important
commercial aliphatic dicarboxylic acid in the
Lignin depolymerisation in chemical industry and is primarily used for the
supercritical carbon production of nylon-6,6 polyamide. The
dioxide/acetone/water fluid for the current adipic acid market volume is about
production of aromatic chemicals 2.6m tons/yr and the average annual
demand growth rate forecast to stay at 3–3.5
per cent worldwide. Hitherto, the industrial
Abstract: Valorisation of lignin plays a key role
production of adipic acid is carried out by
in further development of lignocellulosic
petroleum-based chemo-catalytic processes
biorefinery processes the production of
from non-renewable fossil fuels. However, in
biofuels and bio-based materials. In this study,
the past years, efforts have been made to
supercritical depolymerisation of wheat straw
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 6 of 8

7. find alternative routes for adipic acid purification methodologies, and chemical
production from renewable sources by modification, as well as the analytical
biotechnological processes. This study reviews methods necessary for xylan related research.
the approaches and the progress made
toward bio-based production of adipic acid. Click here for more information.
Click here for more information. Economic and Environmental
Assessment of Bio-Based Chemicals
From plant biomass to bio-based Production in Singapore's
chemicals: Latest developments in Petrochemical Cluster
xylan research
Abstract: Current refining capacity in
Abstract: This review is focused on xylan, the Singapore is 1.3m bpd and ethylene capacity
second most abundant plant polysaccharide is 2.1m tons per year, projected to reach 4m
on our planet. Some xylan-derived products tons per year by 2014. The petrochemical
have already found commercial applications industry in Singapore is heavily dependent on
(ethanol, xylitol, xylo-oligosaccharides) while fossil-based feedstock. This paper investigates
others could have a great future in a wide the feasibility of incorporating bio-based raw
range of industries. The chemical and materials into the slate of feedstocks
structural variations of xylans produced by available for chemicals production in
different plants, and the concentration of Singapore.
xylan in various plant resources are
summarised. This review discusses the latest Click here for more information.
research developments in extraction and
Price Information
Item Price, US$ (Aug 07) Price, US$ (Aug 12) % Price Increase
Crude oil (petroleum, barrel) 70.13 ↑ 105.28 50.12
Maize (corn, metric ton) 151.01 ↑ 332.17 119.97
Sugar (pound) 0.0961 ↑ 0.2053 113.63
Rapeseed oil (metric ton) 1006.75 ↑ 1221.67 21.35
Soybean oil (metric ton) 797.09 ↑ 1188.51 49.11
Ethanol (gallon) 2.43 ↑ 2.72 11.19
For details on indexes please see www.indexmundi.com/commodities
Crude Oil (petroleum), simple average of three spot prices; Dated Brent, West Texas Intermediate,
and the Dubai Fateh. Ethanol details available at www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/66.html
Arrows indicate rise (↑), constant (–) or fall (↓) from previous month.
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 7 of 8

8. Comparison of Price Indexes (2005 = 100)
300
Price index (relative terms)
250
200
Agricultural Raw
150 Materials
100 Food
50
Crude Oil (Petroleum)
0
Sep-97
Sep-98
Sep-99
Sep-00
Sep-01
Sep-02
Sep-03
Sep-04
Sep-05
Sep-06
Sep-07
Sep-08
Sep-09
Sep-10
Sep-11
Sep-12
For details on the nature of these commodities please see www.indexmundi.com/commodities
Events
Life Cycle Assessment Workshops, 07-
7th European Bioplastics Conference, 08 Nov 2012 in York, UK
06-07 Nov 2012 in Berlin, Germany www.nnfcc.co.uk/events
en.european-bioplastics.org
Two workshops have been developed to
The annual European Bioplastics Conference provide a basic understanding of LCA and
offers a unique information platform for how to set about doing one. The first
industry trends and innovations in material workshop covers the principles of LCA,
and application development. requirements, problems and issues. The
second provides a „hands on‟ opportunity to
learn to carry out an LCA. The workshops can
be taken together or separately.
Credits and Disclaimer
NNFCC Market Review is edited by Dr Matthew Aylott for NNFCC members. Feedback is welcome.
The Review has been compiled in good faith and NNFCC does not accept responsibility for any
inaccuracies or the products or services shown.
NNFCC
The Bioeconomy Consultants
NNFCC, Biocentre, Phone: +44 (0)1904 435182
York Science Park, Fax: +44 (0)1904 435345
Innovation Way, E: enquiries@nnfcc.co.uk
Heslington, York, Web: www.nnfcc.co.uk
YO10 5DG.
NNFCC Market Review, October 2012, Page 8 of 8