The 'green' rush is on

摘要

European companies are teaming up to push the biobased materials sector forward with American companies following closely, hot on their heels.Companies are beginning to target the bioplastics sector, since it is expected to grow at 17.7% a year and 8.1 million tonnes by 2015, according to analysts. A joint venture comes from two Italian companies: Polimeri Europa, a subsidiary of Italian energy company Eni, and Novamont. They have set up a company known as Matrica to build a chemical plant using vegetable oil feedstock to produce bioplastics, biolubricants and bioadditives for elastomers. The EUR500 million biobased chemical complex will be located on the island of Sardinia and will consist of seven new plants spanning an integrated production chain from vegetable oil to bioplastics. The full project is scheduled to be completed within the next six years but a new research centre devoted to biochemistry will start up this year.