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Bio-based Mater­i­als of the Year 2017” Announced

15.05.2017
The Innov­a­tion Award ​“Bio-based Mater­i­al of the Year 2017” was awar­ded to three innov­at­ive mater­i­als in spe­cif­ic applic­a­tions. The com­pet­i­tion focused on new devel­op­ments in the bio-based eco­nomy, which have had (or will have) a mar­ket launch in 2016 or 2017. The win­ners were elec­ted by the par­ti­cipants of the 10th Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Bio-based Mater­i­als in Cologne, Ger­many (www​.bio​-based​-con​fer​ence​.com). Award spon­sor is InfraServ GmbH & Co. Knap­sack KG, a ser­vice pro­vider for the plan­ning, con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion of plants and sites. The ​“Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Bio-based Mater­i­als” is a well-estab­lished meet­ing point for com­pan­ies work­ing in the field of bio-based chem­ic­als and mater­i­als. Almost 200 par­ti­cipants, mainly from the industry and rep­res­ent­ing 25 coun­tries, met in Cologne to dis­cuss the latest devel­op­ments in the sec­tor. 25 com­pan­ies presen­ted their products and ser­vices at the exhib­i­tion. The event was sup­por­ted by Nova­mont. Cur­rently, the bio-based eco­nomy is devel­op­ing well. We see a lot of invest­ment in medi­um-sized pro­duc­tion plants and double digit growth for new bio-based build­ing blocks and plat­form chem­ic­als. They are pre­curs­ors for new bio-based poly­mers, com­pos­ites, tex­tiles, adhes­ives, solvents, deter­gents or lub­ric­ants, which provide new fea­tures and prop­er­ties for a wide range of end products. The world­wide lead­ing com­pan­ies in the field of new bio-based build­ing blocks presen­ted their latest devel­op­ments and applic­a­tions at the event in Cologne. The con­fer­ence present­a­tions high­lighted bio-based solu­tions with spe­cial fea­tures and prop­er­ties. As rep­res­ent­at­ives of a new sus­tain­able green chem­istry, they have a lot to offer and will con­quer the mar­ket. What comes next? The win­ners of the award are great examples of this new gen­er­a­tion of bio-based products with improved fea­tures. Six com­pan­ies out of about 20 applic­ants were nom­in­ated by the conference’s advis­ory board and experts of nova-Insti­tute. Each nom­in­ee intro­duced its innov­a­tion in a short 10-minute present­a­tion to the audi­ence. The three win­ners were elec­ted by the par­ti­cipants of the con­fer­ence and announced at the tra­di­tion­al gala din­ner. nova-Insti­tute and the award spon­sor InfraServ GmbH & Co. Knap­sack KG (DE), are proud to announce the win­ners of the ​“Bio-based Mater­i­al of the Year 2017”:

First place: BIO-LUTIONS (DE): Upgrad­ing agri­cul­tur­al residues to pack­aging mater­i­als www​.bio​-lutions​.com

With its innov­at­ive mech­an­ic­al pro­cess, BIO-LUTIONS pro­duces high per­form­ance eco­lo­gic­ally sus­tain­able pack­aging and dis­pos­able table­ware made dir­ectly from agri­cul­tur­al resid­uals. For this, BIO-LUTIONS works with small farm­ers in India and China. Con­ver­ted into self-bind­ing nat­ur­al fibres, this innov­a­tion lets the con­tam­in­at­ing and energy-intense pro­cess of cel­lu­lose extrac­tion to be a thing of the past. The final products can either decom­pose under nor­mal con­di­tions, be used for bio­gas pro­duc­tion and can be recycled or burned with a nearly CO2 neut­ral car­bon foot­print. Loc­al raw mater­i­al, loc­al pro­duc­tion and loc­al mar­ket – decent­ral­isa­tion is the key.

Second place: Paptic® (FI): The next gen­er­a­tion of paper bags – light­er and stronger www​.paptic​.com

Paptic® is repla­cing oil-based plastics with bio-based, recyc­lable and reusable PAPTIC® mater­i­als, which uses a nov­el wood fibre for a bioplastic com­pos­ite paper com­bin­ing the bene­fits of paper, plastics and tex­tiles. Fur­ther­more, this mater­i­al can be recycled in exist­ing paper recyc­ling facil­it­ies. First applic­a­tion of PAPTIC® is car­ri­er bags, address­ing the EU dir­ect­ive tar­get for 55% reduc­tion of plastic bag use by 2019. PAPTIC® bags have been launched to mar­ket in June 2016. The pat­en­ted PAPTIC® tech­no­logy is based on foam form­ing tech­no­logy which is using 30% less energy and enabling up to 50% light weight­ing of products, when com­pared to tra­di­tion­al paper­mak­ing.

Third place: Phytow­elt Green­Tech­no­lo­gies (DE): High-qual­ity rasp­berry fra­grance with the help of bio­tech­no­logy www​.phytow​elt​.com

The ®-alpha-Ionone is the main com­pon­ent of rasp­berry fra­grance. Usu­ally it is syn­thes­ized chem­ic­ally as a racemate which con­tains the enan­tiomer ®-alpha-Ionone as well as the distomer (S)-alpha-Ionone. The (S)-form has a woody and musty fla­vour which gives the chem­ic­al racemate a dif­fer­ent and impure fra­grance. How­ever, it is com­plex and uneco­nom­ic to sep­ar­ate the two molecules. With its pat­en­ted pro­cess, Phytow­elt is now able to pro­duce only the desired ®-alpha-Ione. There­fore, the rasp­berry fra­grance is chir­al pure, smells intens­ive and is, because of the bio­tech­no­lo­gic­al pro­duc­tion, a nat­ur­al fla­vour com­pon­ent. It is used in food, drinks, per­fumes, drugs and oth­er applic­a­tions. This rasp­berry fra­grance is the first nat­ur­al essence in the mar­ket which can be pro­duced in high quant­ity as well as qual­ity res­ult­ing in a high com­pet­it­ive advant­age. Source: nova-Insti­tut GmbH

Note: IBB cor­di­ally con­grat­u­lates its net­work mem­ber Phytow­elt!

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