by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy is supporting a project led by Pacific Northwest National Lab to develop a new deconstruction technology to provide low ash and low impurity sugars and sugar-derived intermediates …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  While we’ve been busy fleeing Hurricane Irma, it’s been a busy week for the techies running the Digest’s Very Large Gossip Array —  the airwaves have been crackling as some …

(Biofuels International)  Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a new catalyst to improve the synthesis of primary amines (derivatives of ammonia).
It is claimed that in the future the newly developed ruthenium based catalyst …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …  But pulp and paper markets have taken big hits. Headlines have centered around damaged balance sheets that make it difficult to modernize or expand, mothballed plants, bankruptcies, job losses that …

(Phys.Org/University of Borås)  Lignin, a waste product in biomass and ethanol production, now finds new value as bio-oil in new products. At the University of Borås, Sweden, a team of researchers has investigated methods to …

by Tracey Bryant (University of Delaware)  … A UD research team has invented a more efficient process for extracting the sugars from wood chips, corn cobs and other organic waste from forests and farms.
…
Basudeb Saha, associate …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Florida is a hot state, in more ways than one, and we cover the Top 5 hottest Florida spots that hopefully remain intact or recover quickly after Irma’s impact, especially …

(Södra)  Södra will invest more than SEK 100 million in the production of biomethanol, a sustainable fuel from forest raw material. The project will commence in autumn 2017 and is scheduled to be ready for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Plant Bottle has generated so much goodwill and publicity for its 30% renewable, sustainable content (and that biobased MEG) that it’s easy to forget that there are several paths …

(Biofuels International)  With the price for crude oil at less than $50 a barrel, Iowa State University’s National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centre for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) is proposing a new model for creating, applying …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The most visible advanced industrial fermentation target for a number of years has been cellulosic ethanol, but the targets are diversifying and cellulosics themselves are shifting gears from process to …

by Wayne Lee (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  …  When projects fail to meet expectations, the participant discontent inevitably leads to increased litigation. As with any specialized area, bioeconomy litigation requires the assistance of experienced experts to assist …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy is supporting a NREL-led project to establish a novel gas fermentation bioprocess for secretion of an array of fuel and chemical intermediates. The project also …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … The sexy PR is almost always and rightly focused on San Francisco and its environs — but some of the largest industrialization efforts for advanced technology take place in the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy is supporting a project to demonstrate solvent liquefaction as viable path to stable intermediates for subsequent upgrading to fuel blendstocks. This is based on a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Eddyville, Fort Dodge, Clinton, Newton, Cedar Rapids. Communities like these have been mainstays of the Iowa bioeconomy for years, even decades — home to corn and soy processing on the …

(American Chemical Society)  … “Rather than rely on inefficient chlorophyll to harvest sunlight, I’ve taught bacteria how to grow and cover their bodies with tiny semiconductor nanocrystals,” says Kelsey K. Sakimoto, Ph.D., who carried out …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … 1. Ottawa, Ontario  The biggest Canadian story of the year stems from the November 2016 announce by Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna announced that Canada will adopt …

by Keith Loria  (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The 2014 Farm Bill—otherwise known as the Agricultural Act of 2014—places a larger emphasis on energy than past farm bills have. It includes the most recent version of the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The DOE established and funded a project to develop a novel Multistage Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) of biomass and integrate with Virent’s Catalytic BioForming Process to efficiently produce cost effective “drop‐in” …

by Lorenz Bauer (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest) … Methanol and bioeconomies are two of the buzz words of the last decade. They had their origin in the “peak oil” scare and the predicted sky rocketing …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy has established a project to reduce cost of algal biofuels by increasing intrinsic algal biomass value, with two specific goals. First, to Identify and isolate scalable, …

(Environmental Law Network) TSCA New Chemicals Coalition will give the chemical community greater opportunity to engage with EPA on constructive, helpful, and informed improvements to the new chemicals review process  —  … We recognize and applaud EPA’s …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, Vertimass gained its intermediate technology validation with the US DOE’s Bioenergy Technology Office, which verified performance against negotiated milestones, provided progress on scale-up, and reviewed Vertimass’ estimated cost …

by John Cropley  (Daily Gazette)  More than $20 million is sought  —  Fage has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $20 million from a company that agreed to buy waste whey from its massive yogurt …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Today we’d like to highlight advances in the production and use of higher-value forms of carbon as examples of a society slowly moving away from a hunter-gatherer culture in energy …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Methane in biogas offers a renewable alternative to natural gas as a feedstock and intermediate in bioprocesses. The US DOE is supporting a development effort led by NatureWorks in collaboration …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  MetGen, Sweetwater Energy say “there’s gold in them thar side-streams”  —  For all of your questions about the advanced bioeconomy there’s just the one answer and that is “lignin”.  Why …

(Cision PR Newswire/Greenfield Global)  Greenfield Global Inc., (formerly GreenField Specialty Alcohols Inc.) Canada’s largest ethanol producer and a world leader in high-purity specialty alcohols, announced today that it has commenced a feasibility study to significantly expand operations …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The DOE is funding a fascinating project to develop a continuous electrochemical process to convert biorefinery waste lignin to substituted aromatic compounds for resins and resin binders. The goal? Integration into …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Long ago, the DOE shifted from a “biofuels and nothing else” focus to integrated biorefineries that can compete “across the whole barrel” with petroleum — recognizing that while chemicals make …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  nvesting in the BioEconomy is a complicated endeavor, but can offer significant opportunities for the informed investor. The industry drivers are numerous and presents a puzzle that demands quality information flow, …

(Michigan State University/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A collaborative study by Mojgan Nejad, MSU forestry, proves that lignin, a byproduct of paper and bioethanol production, can completely replace phenol in phenolic adhesive formulation. This research directly impacts …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy has set a goal to “Select and develop at least one route for catalytic upgrading of sugars/related intermediates and/or biologically derived intermediates into fuel blendstockswith …

by Susanne Retka Schill and Ann Bailey (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Ethanol Producer Magazine provides an update on 10 cellulosic ethanol projects around the world striving for continuous, large-scale production.  —  Some things have changed in the …

by Mike Hughes (Gazette Live)  Nova Pangaea Technologies at Wilton will convert trees into sugars to make household items  —  … One of the region’s newest tech companies needs 50 tonnes of it EVERY DAY to …

(Bergeson and Campbell, PC)  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Federal Register noticeon August 3, 2017, providing the names and affiliations of additional candidates currently under consideration for appointment to the Science Advisory Committee on …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  ChemCatBio is a research and development consortium dedicated to identifying and overcoming catalysis challenges for biomass conversion processes. Led by U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories, the consortium works “with …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that it will award a fourth project—up to $1.8 million—under the MEGA-BIO: Bioproducts to Enable Biofuels Funding Opportunity. In August 2016, DOE’s Bioenergy …

by Scott Goss (The News Journal/Delaware Online) … Researchers at the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation say they have discovered a highly efficient way to convert plant matter into a chemical used to make everything from car tires …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … (T)te dialogue around advanced fuels has become about the actions of doers, rather than the aspirations of inventors.
3 Hot Newstories from the World Congress Floor
1. Praj-Gevo Going commercial with …

(Biofuels International)  India-based bioethanol company Praj Industries will be working with US-based advanced biofuels company Gevo to use Gevo’s proprietary isobutanol technology to process sugarcane juice and molasses.
This follows on the back of Praj’s development …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In January 2014, REG acquired LS9 for a purchase price of up to $61.5 million. Most of the old LS9 team, including the entire R&D leadership group, joined the newly named …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Industrial biotech’s biggest and grandest show, the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology, opened today in Montreal and BIO itself was in the newsframe with a striking report debunking myths around …

(Bioenergy Insight)  A new plant for the production of biomethane and carbon dioxide has been inaugurated and started operation in Montello, Italy. The biogas upgrading plant is the ‘first’ in Italy able to produce biomethane …

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest)  In California, two cofounders of Sugarlogix went from engineering yeast for cellulose based fuel production and refining biofuel fermentation processes to cultivating prebiotic sugars that could be good for your …

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, Arzeda raised $12 million in a Series A round of funding, moving it forward on scaling up of their advanced protein design technology that is used for production of …

(Phys.Org/Purdue University) Gen3Bio Inc., a Purdue Foundry-affiliated company, is developing a unique process that could more effectively and affordably transform microalgae into bio-based chemicals to maximize the value of biofeedstock and reduce landfill waste….
Okamoto (Kelvin Okamoto, …

by Erin Voegele (Biomass Magazine)  Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., recently introduced legislation that aims to establish a 15-cent-per-pound production tax credit for renewable chemicals made from biomass.
The bill, known as the Renewable Chemicals Act of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Renmatix is a technology licensor that enables the production of petrochemicals from plants. The company’s water-based Plantrose process is the lowest cost method for converting a wide range of non-food …

by Bernard Cooker (Chemical Processing Solutions/Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  Biomass-based green polymer and monomer projects, as reported in Chemical and Engineering News and Chemical Engineering Progress in Q1, Q2 2017 are surveyed. The focus here is …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  LanzaTech has developed a fully sustainable integrative gas to fuels and chemicals platform that has no impact on food, water security or high biodiversity land use.
LanzaTech’s gas fermentation platform disrupts …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Iowa, Renewable Energy Group announced that Dan Oh has resigned as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors.  The resignation was …

(Celtic Renewables)  Celtic Renewables Ltd, the innovative and award winning start-up company, set the wheels in motion of the first car to be fueled by a whisky residue biofuel.
The fuel – biobutanol – is a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Renewable Energy Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGI) is the US’  biggest producer of biomass-based diesel, and leading provider of cleaner, lower carbon intensity products and services. REG utilizes an integrated procurement, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Verdezyne is a privately held industrial biotechnology company that is developing and commercializing novel genetically engineered microorganisms for use as “factories” to manufacture renewable chemicals. Verdezyne’s unique microorganisms permit greener, …

(National Law Review) On the one year anniversary of major amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued three new “framework” rules on how it plans to prioritize and evaluate …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) A recent DOE project with MicroBio Engineering had the primary objective of a detailed techno-economic and life cycle assessment for a coal-fired power plant with two microalgae CO2 utilization and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …  By now, Tom Boussie of Rennovia has been 20 years in the forge of the chemicals business, and 9 of those years being pounded on the anvil of renewable …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Omega-3s are a great thing, but here’s the bottom line: the current applications stink. Not as in, they-don’t-work. We mean, literally.
…
Into this market and into the problem arrive from Saskatoon, the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Green Biologics is focused on the production of renewable n-butanol and other C4 chemicals from various renewable feedstocks, including sugar (cane, molasses, beets), starch (corn) and cellulosic biomass (corn residues, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Terpenes may be the most unloved class of energy molecule of all time, if you compare R&D spending to potential. Even ARPA-E, the home of high-risk, high-reward government research into energy, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Global Bioenergies is a pioneer in the development of one-step fermentation processes for the direct and cost-efficient transformation of renewable resources into light olefin hydrocarbons, the key building blocks of …

(S2G BioChem/Marketwired)  Funding Support Provided by Bioindustrial Innovation Canada; Production of Xylitol to Begin in 2018  —  S2G BioChem (S2G), a developer of natural biotechnology conversion processes, announced today that it has started work on the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  At the 2017 DOE Project Peer Review, John Staser of Ohio University gave this illuminating overview on a continuous electrochemical process to convert biorefinery waste lignin to substituted aromatic compounds …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Vertimass’ John Hannon gave this illuminating overview of one-step, high-yield production of drop-in fuels without added hydrogen, at the 2017 DOE Project Peer Review sessions.  READ MORE

(Globe Newswire/Amyris)  — Amyris, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMRS), the industrial bioscience company, and the Government of Queensland, Australia today announced the next step their plans to develop a leading industrial biotechnology hub in Southeast Asia. Plans call …

by Travis Poland (Lambton Shield)  Farmers can earn more money without doing more work  —  A new technology will allow local farmers to get more cash out of their cash crops without any extra work.
Comet …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The value of cellulosic fuels has reached $4.33 per gallon in the California market. That’s real-world, today, including the energy and the low-carbon attributes, and not based on speculation. The …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Soletair process, developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology, is using carbon dioxide and solar power to produce renewable fuels and chemicals and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … In the latest news, the Soletair process, developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology, is using carbon dioxide and solar power to produce renewable …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Genomatica is a widely-recognized technology leader for the chemical industry, delivering new manufacturing processes that enable its partners to produce the world’s most widely-used chemicals from alternative feedstocks, with better economics …

by Lorenz Bauer (Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc./Biofuels Digest)  After many years of development biomass pyrolysis is finally maturing as a commercial technology. Pyrolysis is not incineration. The goal is to use heat in the absence of …

(Alliance BioEnergy Plus Inc.)  Alliance BioEnergy Plus Inc. recently announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, AMG Energy Group, has entered into a sublicensing agreement with Earth’s Renewable Energy LLC of Newport Beach, California. The sublicense agreement permits Earth’s …

by Mark Warner (Warner Advisors LLC/Biofuels Digest)  Advanced biotechnology has historically focused on fermentation as the key technology for development, with synthetic biology and proprietary organisms the key intellectual property. As any biotechnology moves toward commercialization, …

by Eduardo Baral (Novvi/Biofuels Digest)  Reverdia is a joint venture between Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, and Roquette Frères, the global starch and starch-derivatives company. Reverdia is dedicated to be …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) 200,200 downloads for the DOE’s classic report on value-added chemicals — but some hot molecules are missing!  —  “Top Value Added Chemicals from Biomass” a 2004 survey, completed by staff led …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As we wrote in our Digest Top 10 Predictions for 2017:
Whether it is Intrexon, Calysta or potentially Synata Bio, companies have been switching to methane as a source of cleaner …

by Judy Newman (Wisconsin State Journal)  If Madison-based Virent‘s biofuels are going to fill the tanks of cars and airplanes, it will be up to Stacey Orlandi to drive the company there.
Orlandi, 45, took over …

by Patrick C. Miller (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The Department of Energy’s three bioenergy research centers have no intention of resting on their accomplishments. —  In the 10 years since the U.S. DOE established three bioenergy …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Alcohol-to-jet. Several are working on it – Byogy, for example, and Vertimass, Virent and LanzaTech. But Gevo has been working through the rigorous ASTM process for six years, which includes extensive …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  DuPont has developed a multi-part strategy to deliver new technologies to the growing biofuels and chemicals markets market. The strategy includes:
(1) improving existing ethanol production through differentiated agriculture seed products …

by Sam A. Rushing (Advanced Cryogenics, Ltd./Biofuels Digest)  … Concentrated by-product sources such as ethanol v. Lean flue gas fermentation is a critical part of the merchant co2 supply network in north america, particularly in the united …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US can support rubber/energy crops the size of corn or soybean with hundreds of thousands of new jobs, says Katrina Cornish of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …  Anellotech’s Bio-TCat process is designed to produce cost-competitive renewable aromatic (BTX) chemicals (benzene, toluene and xylenes) from non-food biomass for use in making plastics such as polyester, nylon, polycarbonate, …

by Silke Schmidt (University of Wisconsin-Madison News)   Technologies for converting non-edible biomass into chemicals and fuels traditionally made from petroleum exist aplenty. But when it comes to attracting commercial interest, these technologies compete financially with …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Passmore Group? It’s like global advanced technology wrapped up inside a maple leaf. There’s hardly a technology wave that’s in any way sustainable or renewable that Jeff Passmore et al …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Velocys enables modular gas-to-liquids and biomass-to-liquids plants to convert unconventional, remote and problem gas and waste biomass into valuable, drop-in liquid fuels.
After 15 years and some $300 million in investment, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  There are news items, then there are trends, and finally there are wave trends — trends of critical importance and that carry the likelihood of having long-lasting impact. Like the fast ripples …

(PR Newswire/The Business Journals/GreenField Global) New Name Reflects Strength of Product Lines, Global Reach, and Scale  — GreenField Specialty Alcohols, Inc., Canada’s largest ethanol producer and a world leader in high-purity specialty alcohols, announced today …

(ACN Newswire)  At 24 March 2017, the Big Data Report of Trade Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative 2017 released. According to the figures, It was reported that the total trade volume between China …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Former Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack put it best: “The bioeconomy is a catalyst for economic development in rural America, creating new jobs and providing new markets for farmers and ranchers. Investing …

(CleanTech Canada)  In a discovery that could help jump-start the hydrogen economy, a team of physicists at the University of Houston have found a catalyst that can divide water using low-cost materials  —  Hydrogen gas …

Since enactment of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act last June, a logjam of new chemicals under review at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unable to enter commerce has …

(Gevo/Globe Newswire)  Bill HB2368 Permits Isobutanol to be Used as a Fuel Additive for On-Road Vehicles  —  Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEVO), announced today that a bill recently signed by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey will let gas stations …

(Phys.Org/Tomsk Polytechnic University)  Gold nanoparticles serve as catalysts for obtaining valuable chemical products based on glycerol. Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University and their international colleagues are developing gold catalysts to recycle one of the main …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Arzeda’s proprietary technology combines targeted computational enzyme design and protein optimization with state-of-the-art metabolic bioengineering to create entirely novel designer cell factories capable of industry-scale chemical production.
CEO Alex Zanghellini gave this illuminating overview of Arzeda’s breakthrough …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  BioAmber reported an unsurprisingly lackluster sales figure and a Q1 loss of $10.5M compared to a loss of $8.1M for Q1 2016 – unsurprising given the delays at major customer PTT. …

(Bergeson & Campbell)  Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) is pleased to announce the publication of New TSCA: A Guide to the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act and Its Implementation, released today by the American Bar Association …

by Kathleen Phillips (AgriLife Today)  Waste material from the paper and pulp industry soon could be made into anything from tennis rackets to cars.
“We have overcome one of the industry’s most challenging issues by discovering how …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) When it comes to Blue Marble’s coordinates in the bioeconomy star-field, think advanced flavorings made from seemingly impossible materials. Most recently we reported that Missoula’s Masters of Metamorphosis this past summer released …

(Recycling Magazine)  TO-SYN-FUEL is a project funded by Horizon 2020 EU’s new research and innovation programme, with the aim to build-up, operate and demonstrate the production of Synthetic Fuels and Green Hydrogen from waste biomass.
…
Twelve …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Last December , the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would support the country’s 10th Manufacturing USA Institute with $70 million over five years, subject to federal appropriations. Another $70 million is …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Bioprivileged molecules – that was the subject of this illuminating presentation given at ABLC 2017 by Iowa State professor Brett Shanks  head of the Center for Biorenewable Chemicals – looking at …

(Gevo)  Funding Being Provided Through Department of Energy’s Small Business Voucher Program —
Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEVO) announced today that it was selected to collaborate with researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of …

(Aemetis)  Aemetis, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMTX) announced today (May 10, 2017) that its Universal Biofuels subsidiary has won its first contract to supply biodiesel to the India government-owned Oil Marketing Companies (“OMC”) in a public tender …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Canada, Advanced Biofuels Canada revealed a signficant expansion of its membership. New members include: Cellufuel Inc. is currently operating a demonstration-scale facility producing clean synthetic diesel from lowvalue forestry residues. Ensyn Corporation …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  ICM is a company on the leading edge of an exciting industry—one dedicated to realizing every benefit of biofuels technology. Our equipment and processes are already used in the majority …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …  If you’re not chasing biosuccinic or at least salivating over it, check your pulse. DSM, PTT, Mitsui, Roquette, Corbion, Vinmar and BASF are just a few of the major …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Neste is a refining and marketing company, with a production focus on premium-quality, lower-emission traffic fuels. The company produces a comprehensive range of major petroleum products and is the world’s …

by Erin Voegele (Biomass Magazine) … During an investor call, the company described plans to convert its Luverne, Minnesota, biorefinery to exclusively produce isobutanol and hydrocarbon products.
…
Gevo produced approximately 100,000 gallons of isobutanol at its …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Changing expectations, changing demographics in a fragile world. Those are just some of the drivers for sustainable chemistry. Performance or sustainability? Consumers demand both. Those drivers are behind a surge …

(Global Bioenergies)  European financing package amounting to €9.8 million, of which €4.4 million for Global Bioenergies; Industry consortium led by Global Bioenergies and bringing together Clariant, INEOS, IPSB, TechnipFMC and Linz University; Aim: converting agricultural residues …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  On May 7, Praj Industries Ltd. unveiled a demonstration-scale biorefinery capable of producing 1 MMly of cellulosic ethanol. The facility, located near Pune, India, is expected demonstrate the production …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Royal DSM is a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. By connecting its unique competences in Life Sciences and Materials Sciences, DSM is driving economic prosperity, environmental …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Digest’s Complete March Madness webinars – 700+ slides available for your on-demand review.  —  The Digest’s March Madness series – 20 webinars covering the hottest topics as selected by …

(Business Standard/Press Trust of India)  Praj Industries, the global process solutions company, today said it has commenced its first integrated second generation technology (2G) smart bio-refinery to produce ethanol from agri-waste in Gujarat.
The 2G demo …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Can we enable the sustainable, nationwide production of biofuels that are compatible with transportation infrastructure, displace a share of petroleum‐derived fuels to reduce U.S. dependence on oil, and encourage the …

(Biorenewable Deployment Consortium)  The Biorenewable Deployment Consortium (BDC) honored BioAmber
with the organization’s Spring 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award for their leadership and commercial
progress in the biorenewable industry, successfully deploying the largest renewable succinic acid plant in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Digest had a well-received webinar on biobased plastics, featuring Drop-in Fuels 2020 author and in-demand industry consultant Will Thurmond and NEXANT principal Ron Cascone, on hand to detail the …

Join the Environmental Law Institute and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health for a day-long conference exploring the federal government’s implementation of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st …

(CHASSY)  … Yeast is already the powerhouse behind many food flavourings, the anti-aging compound Resveratrol, the malaria drug Artemisinin, the grapefruit extract Nootkatone, insulin, bioethanol, bioplastics, and there is potential for many more industrial applications.
To better …

(Bio-Based News (Google Translation))  The nova Institute has analyzed the Commission’s new RED II proposal and presented the most important results in one paper.
CO 2 -based fuels are on the up, but the uneven treatment …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The Digest had a well-received webinar on C5 and C6 sugars, featuring in-demand industry consultant David Dodds and Fluid Quip exec Jeffrey Robert — looking at transformative approaches to making sugars and …

(Extension.org)  The Northeast region of the United States (from the Ohio River to the New England coast) has the natural, social, and technological resources needed to help create a sustainable, rural renaissance by using biomass …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Digest had a well-received webinar on drop-in renewable fuels, featuring Drop-in Fuels 2020 author and in-demand industry consultant Will Thurmond on hand to detail the very latest in a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Although the bigger players — China, the US, Brazil and the EU take most of the headlines in the advanced bioeconomy, Canada is definitely “boxing above its weight class” these days, …

(Amyris)  Amyris, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMRS), the industrial bioscience company, today announced that it has successfully expanded its world-class expertise in strain engineering and optimization to 26 key metabolic precursors across multiple organisms, as part of its …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Digest had a well-receive webinar on thermochemical technology horizons, featuring former DOE Biomass Program manager and in-demand industry consultant Paul Bryan on hand to detail the very latest in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) READ MORE

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … The evidence is mounting up, and another set of it arrives via the reports from the preindustrial demonstration consortium in France known as Toulouse White Biotechnology.
At TWB, they’ve been rightly …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Florida, Biofuels Digest reports that the industrial biotechnology sector raised $1.128B in new capital in the first quarter of 2017, excluding debt and sovereign investments as well as M&A …

The Delaware Sustainable Chemistry Alliance (DESCA) and ACS GCI Biochemical Technology Leadership Roundtable (BTLR) are collaborating to offer a new biobased conference this May 10-11, 2017 at the Rockwood Park Carriage House in Wilmington, Delaware. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In our March Madness webinar series, a popular entry has been the session on “butanol and other 4C molecules: prospects and progress”. We looked at a number of companies in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  News this week arrived from Canada that Enerkem has received the lowest carbon intensity value ever issued by the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines for its ethanol product …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Reverdia is a joint venture between Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, and Roquette Frères, the global starch and starch-derivatives company. Reverdia is dedicated to be …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Not long ago, George Huber and Robert Brown wrote in a special issue of Energy Technology of their desire to “highlight recent advances in pyrolysis technologies and to discuss the …

by Daniel A. Lane and Joel A. Stone (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  … As the market for gasoline grew, a shortage soon developed for the lighter fractions of crude oil. This shortage led to the development of …

by Luke Geiver (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A Nebraska-focused tech startup and a Latin American chemical supplier highlight two options for using ethanol as the building block for intermediate chemicals.  —  The future of ethanol for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  From Wisconsin we have huge news from Virent, which has appointed one of Shell New Energies’ gurus, Stacey Orlandi, as Virent CEO, succeeding Lee Edwards who is headed into retirement after a …

(Vertimass, LLC)  One of four advanced biofuels and bioproducts technology companies invited to present  —  Vertimass LLC is proud to announce that it is one of four companies selected to present at the “Pitch for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Algae Butter can reduce saturated fat by up to 50 percent in most applications.
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While butter doesn’t exactly rival gasoline as a market — it’s pretty substantial, when you get down …

by Chandana Banerjee (Christian Science Monitor)  In 60 cities in India, 16,876 tons of plastic waste are generated each day, according to data from the country’s Central Pollution Control Board. Multiply that by 365, and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  From California arrives the very interesting news that Amyris has entered into an agreement with Blue California whereby its affiliates will provide access to its fermentation manufacturing in China and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Recently, Nexant principal Ron Cascone joined us for a March Madness webinar on the horizons for Biobased Plastics. Here below are his illuminating slides presented on the day.  READ MORE

Bernard Cooker (Chemical Processing Solutions/Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  Cheap, plentiful lignocellulosic biomass (LCB), consisting of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, is deconstructed to release useful chemical intermediates in the bioeconomy. These include glucose from cellulose, glucose …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Many microalgae strains have received attention in biomass production due to their high biomass productivity per unit time and per unit area. Algae produce oil as well as carbohydrates, occurring mainly in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  This week, news arrived from MetGen that they have developed a novel chemo-enzymatic process that leads to oxidized forms of 5-HMF. They report that “this form of sugar is known …

by Liz Gyekye  (Bioenergy Insight)  A new paper by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) describes a process that captures methane from natural gas and biogas and that uses photosynthesis to convert it into biomass feedstock.
The …

by Lorenz Bauer (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  … The use of biomass to produce value added chemicals for polymer synthesis is a major focus of the effort to replace fossil carbon. The theory is that these …