Chemical Industry Weekly Innovation News Round-up, Nov. 4

Ron Gerard, Huntsman's corporate sustainability officer tells CW this week that Huntsman is reorienting its R&D toward sustainable chemistries. The company unveiled a series of sustainability-advantaged technologies a year ago. Gerard is set to provide more details about the company's sustainable product development strategy in a Chemical Week webcast Tuesday 8th November. This interactive webcast is free to view to attend via the following registration page.

Huntsman's activities mirror those of several other leading chemical companies featured in extensive interviews in this week's edition of Chemical Week who say they have shifted their focus from cost reduction to profit optimization with the development of sustainabilty-advantaged products and services. To learn more about trends in this area and in regulatory compliance Chemical Week in association with CSC has surveyed 200 industry executives.

In other innovation news this week Amyris has signed a joint development deal with Method Products.

Plenty of tech and innovation news emerged - and continues to emerge - from the recent CPhI Worldwide pharmaceutical ingredients expo which took place in Frankfurt at the end of October. Lanxess's subsidiary Saltigo disclosed that it is investing in high potency active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) capability in the U.S. A raft of other excipients companies at the show, including Ashland and Cargill also have introduced new products.
 
Meanwhile, Rhodia has opened a sustainable chemistry research unit in Shanghai.


Beyond Chemical Week...

MIT details how start-up firm Renmatix is using supercritical water could cut costs for ethanol production