Berlin BIO-TIC Workshop: Use of IB in Bio-Surfactants

BIO-TIC is organising a ‘bio-business workshop’ on the use of industrial biotechnology (IB) in bio-surfactants on 3 September 2014 in Berlin. This will be the first of a series of five workshops looking at product segments and applications in the bioeconomy that BIO-TIC have identified as having significant potential for boosting the competitiveness of European industry and benefiting society by 2030.

The workshop will take place on 3 September at the Westin Grand Hotel, Berlin and will precede the Third ICIS European Surfactants Conference as a satellite event. Registration will be opening soon.

The objectives of the workshop are to:

• identify technological, non-technological and market hurdles for the uptake of industrial biotechnology in bio-surfactants
• develop recommendations and solutions to overcome the identified hurdles 
• contribute to the development, testing and fine-tuning of the BIO-TIC roadmaps 
• bring together industrial biotechnology end users (downstream) with technology providers (upstream), innovation agencies and decision makers to stimulate interconnected discussion and knowledge exchange platforms and processes
• collect data to develop draft indicators to measure the socio-economic and environmental impact of IB and the use of renewables-based products in the European Union. 

Why attend the workshop?
Input from the market and experts in industry and research are vital to build a basis for BIO-TIC’s roadmaps. Therefore, the BIO-TIC team is working to engage with multiple stakeholders across different value chains with activities on a range of technological domains from chemistry and engineering to health and the environment.

The idea is to share knowledge with experts and receive recommendations. BIO-TIC has organised a series of “bio-workshops” across Europe, which started in June 2013 and will continue to the end of 2014. The initial workshops were held at a regional level and addressed all business cases. In 2014, BIO-TIC is holding one workshop per business case at a European level. All bio-business workshops will be announced on the BIO-TIC website.

As the bio-surfactants workshop will precede the 3rd ICIS European Surfactants Conference this means that major experts will already be there, increasing the effectiveness and the participation in the workshop and the benefits of attending both events.

Attendance at the workshop will be free of charge but prior registration via the BIO-TIC website will be required. Details of registration will be announced soon on the BIO-TIC website.

For more information on the BIO-TIC bio-surfactants workshop download the workshop flyer or contact the BIO-TIC secretariat.

More details on the 3rd ICIS European Surfactants Conference: - Understanding the key market drivers, trends, challenges and regulations impacting the region’ that takes place on 4 and 5 September can be found on the conference website. You can download a brochure for the ICIS event here.

What is BIO-TIC?
Funded by the European Commission, BIO-TIC was launched, as an FP7 project, with the aim to establish an overview of the opportunities and barriers to biotechnology innovation and propose approaches to address them.

Modern use of industrial biotechnology (IB) is critical in a bio-based economy. Deploying the full potential of biotech innovation will enable the European industry to deliver high-value products to consumers and create new commercial opportunities. New feedstock demands will lead to synergies amongst SMEs and large industrial partners. New technological developments will boost European export of technology and facilities by bringing some of Europe’s top sectors together: chemical industry, engineering and renewables.

However to date, major hurdles continue to hamper the full exploitation of biotechnology in Europe. These hurdles may vary from technological bottlenecks to limited availability of venture capital and fragmented policy frameworks.

BIO-TIC seeks to define product segments and applications that promise significant potential for Europe’s industry and society by 2030. We have now identified five major “bio-business cases” which are EU-competitive and have the potential to introduce cross-cutting technology ideas.

These are:

• Bio-plastics PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates) and PLA (polylactic acid)
• Building blocks 
• Bio-fuels 
• Bio-surfactants 
• CO2-based chemicals 

Based on these business cases, we are developing three in-depth “bio-roadmaps”. These will focus on the market potential, R&D priorities and non-technological hurdles of IB innovation. In particular, the market roadmap will provide market projections upto 2030. The technology roadmap will focus on setting R&D priorities and identifying needs for pilot and demonstration of plant activities. Last but not least, the non-technological barriers roadmap will identify regulatory and non-technological hurdles that may inhibit industrial biotech innovation reaching new market opportunities. The second draft version of the roadmaps is already online while the final version will be released in July 2015.

All BIO-TIC roadmaps, can be downloaded from our Partnering Platform. For more information about the BIO-TIC FP7 project visit our website.

F3 Factory Case Study: Intensified Reaction Technology for Surfactants

Achieving step-change process intensification in the production of anionic surfactants was the primary goal of the Procter & Gamble (P&G) industrial case study. Working with project partners the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals (ICPF), Britest and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the project focused on the intensification of two key reactions stages (S0₂ oxidation and sulphonation) using novel reaction technology and modelling of the economic viability of the concepts in the latter stage of the project.

As one of the world’s leading consumer products businesses P&G is one of the largest global manufacturers of surfactants. With no major developments in surfactants production technology for decades, potential gains from the novel F³ Factory approach could be significant.

The current business model is to produce bulk surfactants at large-scale, centralised locations and then ship to finishing sites. A step change in the base technology could lead to differentiated supply chains including more distributed, less transport-intensive scenarios and reduced business risk.

In changing the operating strategy for anionic surfactants, P&G is seeking to unlock the benefits of flexibility, agility and long-term sustainability.

Technological developments

Process intensification is seen as the main lever available to progress the supply chain to a more sustainable and lower cost model. Concentrating on the two unit operations is essential to an overall step change; therefore, the project has focused on SO₂ oxidation and sulphonation.

The size and inertia of current SO₂ oxidation towers negatively impacts on the whole plant agility. In addition, due to limited use of intensification, sulphonation forces the dilution of SO₃ with large amounts of air. This markedly increases the plant’s capital, volumetric and environmental footprint.

Proof-of-concept work focused on:

• obtaining targeted lab scale information on oxidation of SO₂ in micro-channel settings
• identifying technical intensification strategies for sulphonation
• development of two new reactor designs

The project team investigated the concept of a microstructured reactor with an adiabatic section at the beginning of the reactor beginning and one cooling section at the rear of the reactor. Based on experimental measurements of kinetics, simulations of the reaction kinetics and heat transfer; a new reactor design with two parallel microstructured reactors was developed (see below).

The project team also investigated the concept of a new intensified device for sulphonation. The experimental study focused on hydrodynamic behaviour of lab scale equipment in a wide range of operating conditions. The pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient were determined and an adequate correlation developed.

The sulphonation process on the lab scale reactor prototypes, that were designed and manufactured at ICPF in Prague, was tested during the demonstration phase of the project in P&G’s pilot plant facility in Brussels. This intensified sulphonation process developed new learning, which may help in further intensifying current reaction systems.

What, when, where

The F³ Factory programme has been a unique collaborative endeavour that could stimulate the transition to a new business model for the whole chemical sector.  In this new model flexible, modular, continuous and intensified technologies are used to meet the challenge of producing “what’s needed, when needed, where needed” therefore minimising the environmental and economic footprint and reducing business risk.

For the P&G case study, intensification of two key reactions stages (S0₂ oxidation and sulphonation) in the production of anionic surfactants using novel reaction technology was largely proven at the lab scale. The challenge going forward will be to prove the economic viability of modular production technologies on highly optimised, large scale surfactants manufacture.

More information

For more information visit the F3 Factory Project website or contact Diederik Vanhoutte at P&G.

Sustainable Surfactants and the Bioeconomy

CESIO 2013 - the 9th World Surfactant Congress and Business Convention – has convened in Barcelona from 10 to 12 June and Pádraig Naughton Innovation Manager - Resource and Energy Efficiency at Cefic is participating today (12 June) in a panel discussion entitled: ‘BioEconomy – Opportunities and Challenges'. SusChem News caught up with Pádraig before he be departed for Barcelona.

The bio-economy and the use of bio-based feedstocks and energy are seen by many as major contributing solutions to societal challenges such as climate change, availability of fossil-based resources and the competitiveness of Europe for the future. And the surfactant sector is no exception.

Europe has a strong research and development tradition and Pádraig is confident that the development of the technology and knowledge to meet these expectations will be forthcoming and Europe can play a leading role in the world.

However, Europe's recent track record on commercialisation of new technology does not instill confidence that we can convert newly developed expertise in the bioeconomy into local growth and jobs. Other regions are also working hard in this field and are ramping up their investment. Pádraig’s contribution addresses concerns in this area and is entitled ‘BioEconomy: Growth and jobs for Europe or elsewhere?’

Balanced approach
An integrated, balanced approach is needed, building on Europe’s strengths and identifying and addressing the gaps to reach a long-term vision for the future of this region argues Pádraig.

“In order to create growth and jobs in the European economy, it is essential to ensure sustainable business through market pull, rather than technology push,” he says. “Past EU developments have a good track record in research and development and technology development, but too often we have not been able to reap the benefits locally.”

Pádraig’s talk will address the consequences of this weakness and the barriers that need to be addressed to cross the “innovation valley of death” to a sustainable bioeconomy in Europe.

He is hopeful that Europe can rise to the challenge in a united manner and that large-scale collaborative research and innovation has a role to play in this. “Conducting innovation and creating long-term value from these efforts is a primary goal of Horizon 2020,” concluded Pádraig.

What is CESIO 2013?
CESIO 2013 is organised on behalf of the European Committee of Organic Surfactants and their Intermediates (CESIO) a sector group of Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council.

The Congress offers a one-of-a-kind location to meet the relevant actors in the global surfactant industry, its suppliers and customers, and service companies to share expertise, discuss market trends, learn about new developments and to network within the supply chain, consultants and academia.