Chemical Industry Weekly Innovation Round-up, Nov. 18

The new wave of biomaterial tech firms is already incoming; The big innovation news this week is that start-up BioAmber took a commercial step forward with its IPO.

As an observer at Cefic's Long-range Research Initiative (LRI) Workshop in Brussels this week my big take away was that the $10 million global funding for LRI and its enabling of innovation is more important than ever.  For a multi-billion dollar global industry, the $10 million/year funding for the program is a small amount to pay, yet its reach is significant; BASF and other multinationals say they rely heavily on the output from LRI, including knowledge generated about nanomaterials. The long term contribution of LRI to toxicology may be even more important.

On the ethanol front John Fotheringham of Celanese asks 'why restrict ethanol resources to renewables?' Fotheringham talks about the Celanese route to produce ethanol from gas at two thirds of the cost of corn-based methods.

In other news Asahi Kasei Chemicals (AKC), an Asahi Kasei subsidiary, says it has started construction of an Innovation Center at the company’s site at Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.