Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF) is to fund the Green Chem consortium in building “an ecosystem for transfer in the field of green chemistry” with up to €10 million. The 29-strong consortium is led by Covestro, Berlin-Chemie and three universities in the city, and includes regional technology clusters, private firms and foundations, among others.

Verdimine, a US-based specialist in green chemistry, has revealed that it has developed an aqueous-based manufacturing process for the synthesis of imines, aryl aldimines, oximes and related compounds using a renewable and biodegradable solvent that the FDA has approved for use as a food additive. Synthetics USA, a US-based fine chemical marketing firm, will be its business development representative in the North American marketplace.