Kemira and its pension fund, Neliapila, have signed a pre-agreement and lease agreement with a consortium of Ahlström Capital, Kirkon Eläkerahasto and Aktia Life Insurance. Under this, they will build a new research centre for Kemira as part of the Green Chemistry Park within a 5.5-hectare site at Espoo, near Helsinki in Finland.

French bio-based surfactants firm SurfactGreen has received €4.7 million in investment, with €3.1 million in grants and repayable advances from ADEME and Bpifrance and €1.6 million in capital from its shareholders. This will enable it to double the workforce to 24, start international sales and accelerate the commercialisation of its products, the firm said.

Agrifood giant Cargill is joining forces with two French companies to further develop and scale biobased acrylic acid based on a lactic acid technology it licensed in from Procter & Gamble earlier this year. This is claimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in production by 50% compared with conventional means of production.