The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has brought forward a proposal to ban all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in fire-fighting foams in the EU. A six-month consultation period with stakeholders will begin on 23 March.

This follows an investigation the agency carried out at the request of the European Commission into the strengths and weaknesses of five different options. It concluded that the risks posed by PFASs are currently not adequately controlled and that releases should be minimised.

Mosaic and BioConsortia, which are both based in California, have entered into and agreement to develop and launch the latter’s nitrogen-fixing microbial products for all crops, including corn, wheat, rice, fruit and vegetables, in China, India, Thailand and Vietnam.

This follows a collaboration to develop these products for the Americas at the end of 2020 and successful field trials in the US and Canada. Fertiliser producer Mosaic already has sales channels in place in the region.

Quotient Sciences, a UK-based firm that describes itself as a “drug development and manufacturing accelerator”, has integrated drug substance into its flagship Translational Pharmaceutics platform, uniting it with drug product and clinical testing activities within one organisation under a single project manager. This follows a year after the acquisition of the former Arcinova site at Alnwick.

ChemForward, a US specialist in chemical hazard data, has introduced its Safer programme, through which raw material suppliers can verify safer alternatives and market them by trade name on the B2B marketplaces of Novi Connect and ChemSec Marketplace, plus a data sharing relationship with Covalo.

Portuguese CDMO Hovione, whose key technical specialities include spray drying and particle engineering, has concluded a strategic partnership under which it will market and commercialise Zerion’s solubility enhancement technology platform, Dispersome. Zerion was spun out from the University of Copenhagen in 2019, following a decade of research.

Dechema and the German Catalysis Society have awarded the 2022 Otto Roelen Medal to Professor Robert Franke for his work on developing catalytic carbonylation, particularly hydroformylation, from theory to industrial implementation. The award will be made at the society’s AGM in Weimar on 18 June.

Franke is adjunct professor at Ruhr University Bochum and also heads up hydroformylation research at the Evonik Performance Materials site in Marl. His research focuses on homogeneous catalysis, process intensification and the modelling of catalytic processes.

Lanxess and Standard Lithium have signed an agreement under which the latter will conduct a front-end engineering design study to evaluate the economic viability and technical feasibility of an industrial-scale, battery grade, lithium carbonate plant at Lanxess’ site at El Dorado, Arkansas. This follows 20 months of testing at a pilot plant.

The final results are expected in Q4, the two companies stated. If the study is completed successful, Standard Lithium could build a plant at its own expense at one of the three sites in El Dorado.