by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The pace of invention and change is just too strong, we’ve realized, to highlight annual or even quarterly or monthly rankings and summaries of significant product and service advances. For now, we’re going to be tracking these on a weekly basis to keep pace with the changes. Here are the top innovations for the week of July 11th.
#1 PHA plant starts up in Italy, targets microbeads …
#2 Borregaard opens Florida lignin plant …
#3 Biodegradable battery breakthrough could one day reduce electronic waste …
#4 Amfora announces technology to increase the protein in all crops …
#5 Avantium set to open pilot biorefinery …
#6 Purdue research leads to cellphone E. coli detection …
#7 New kind of spider silk vaccine could help fight cancer and diseases …
#8 Califia Farms lands $50 million to expand plant-based beverage manufacturing …
#9 Promiscuous enzyme could be lignin-busting breakthrough
In the United Kingdom, researchers at the University of Portsmouth have developed a new, “promiscuous” enzyme that can convert plant waste into fuel, nylon, plastics and chemicals.
The cytochrome P450 enzyme—which is called promiscuous because it will work on a wide range of molecules—breaks down lignin, one of the main components of plants but a notoriously difficult material to convert. “To protect their sugar-containing cellulose, plants have evolved a fascinatingly complicated material called lignin that only a small selection of fungi and bacteria can tackle,” says Professor McGeehan of the University of Portsmouth. “However, lignin represents a vast potential source of sustainable chemicals, so if we can find a way to extract and use those building blocks, we can create great things.” The study was published in Nature Communications.
#10 From dust to dirt – The Living Urn changes the funeral industry READ MORE