by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … But it shows also what smaller companies can do when they partner effectively – whether that means industrial giants like ArcelorMittal or BASF, technology accelerator schemes like Unreasonable Impact, or …

(U.S. Department of Energy/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/EurekAlert!)  ASTM International updates standard for alcohol-to-jet synthetic paraffinic kerosene based on fuel produced by PNNL partner LanzaTech — ASTM International recently revised ASTM D7566 Annex A5 — the Standard Specification …

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest)  … In Illinois, carbon recycling company, LanzaTech, and its joint venture partner, Shougang Group, a leading Chinese iron and steel producer, announced the successful start-up of the world’s first commercial facility converting …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In these top 20 projects, we usually say that we are using waste, but really we are converting something from a state of waste to a state of value — and …

by Luca Zullo (Ethanol Producer Magazine/Greenyug)  With existing capabilities, chemical coproducts represent a low-hanging fruit for the industry. Ethanol, in fact, is a better feedstock for some chemicals than oil-based sources.
…
The chemical industry predates the oil …

by James Temple (MIT Technology Review)  In the closing weeks of 2008, the US Department of Energy invited politicians and press to a dedication ceremony for the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, California. The state-of-the-art lab, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  From Southern California the report has arrived that Verdezyne is winding down as a company, and today is the last day of operations. The low oil price environment has claimed another …

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 the …

by Corine Orline Nzeteu, Anna Christine Trego, Florence Abram, and Vincent O’Flaherty (Biotechnology for Biofuels)  … In recent years, organic waste streams have been investigated as attractive and sustainable feedstock alternatives. In particular, attention has recently focused …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  ABLC 2018 wrapped up with the ABLC Wolfpack including James Iademarco from Strategic Avalanche, David Dodds with Dodds & Associates, Ron Cascone from NEXANT, independent consultant Paul Bryan, and Joel Stone from ConVergince. While they …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … For those newer to the field, one of the problems of using biomass to make a fuel is that a carbohydrate contains around 53% oxygen by weight and needs about …

by Tim Albrecht (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The ethanol industry has polished its coproduction of distillers grains. Now, a handful of companies have found different uses for DDGS, or ethanol itself, that can provide new value-added coproducts …

by Joey Aguilar (Gulf Times)  The Sustainable Development Centre (SDC) at Qatar University’s College of Arts and Sciences (QU-CAS) is now developing the techniques to produce bio-crude oil through its Qatar Biofuel Project, it was announced …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Ensyn uses its patented and proprietary RTP fast thermal technology to convert wood residues and other non-food, cellulosic biomass to liquid biofuels. Ensyn has had continuous commercial operations for more than …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Gevo has two proprietary technologies that combine to make it possible to retrofit existing ethanol plants to produce isobutanol, a four carbon alcohol which serves as a hydrocarbon platform molecule. They …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Sweetwater Energy has developed a unique and patented technology for producing low-cost sugars and clean lignin fiber from multiple non-food plant materials to help meet the modern world’s increasing demand for …

(AgriChemWhey/Biobased World News)  … Producers that can access plentiful feedstocks with the minimum of fuss can have the best of both worlds – exactly the position that Ireland finds itself in. The country is in the …

by Matt McDowell (The Battalion)  Texas A&M professor’s green energy research is helping turn bio waste into useful chemicals and fuels.  — … The MixAlco process, a term originally coined by Mark Holtzapple, chemical engineering professor, …

(Vertimass/PR Newswire)  Vertimass’ ethanol to renewable fuels and chemicals offers exceptional corn growth potential  —  The National Corn Growers Association named Vertimass LLC as one of six awardees of the “Consider Corn Challenge: New Uses for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, Rennovia has ceased operations, after the company failed to raise sufficient financing from investors and/or strategic partners to advance its pilot-scale technology to first commercial production.  The bulk of …

(Global Bioenergies/Globe Newswire)  Global Bioenergies (Euronext Growth: ALGBE) and German carmaker Audi today announced that a key milestone was reached in their multi-year agreement. Renewable gasoline components were produced and shipped to Audi.
Using its Leuna Demo …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, ABLC 2018 opens amidst a flutter of government rollbacks of deployment support but the hope of regulatory relief, breakthroughs in financial structuring, a decisive shift in early-stage projects to …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Can it be done? That is, development of a sustainable green chemistry platform for production of acetone and downstream drop-in fuel and commodity products directly from biomass syngas via a novel …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … The biggest news along that front represents early-stage technology, but we read here that engineers at Ohio State announced that they’ve devised a process that under certain circumstances can convert coal, shale gas and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  One of the purest, high-yield financial plays we have ever seen in the energy business is possibly emerging, one that could put fracking returns to shame. Vive le ROI. And Vive le IRR and DCF, while …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) hosted the 2017 Project Peer Review on March 6–9, 2017, in Denver, Colorado. During the event, approximately 192 projects in BETO’s research, …

by Brian Goodall (First Garden City Consulting/Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  … (I)n the case of microalgae the oil has to coaxed out of the whole plant (typically single cells) using chemical or physical means to …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  This week in the Digest, we begin a Special 8-part Series: The State of the Advanced Bioeconomy: Challenges and Priorities for 2018.
As we head into the final month before ABLC 2018, these …

by Dr. Bernard Cooker (Chemical Processing Solutions/ Lee Enterprises Consulting Inc./Biofuels Digest)  This is a review of the biomass-fed chemical process projects producing renewable chemical products which were published in Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP) and Chemical …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Can you build a catalytic process to produce alpha, omega diols from lignocellulosic biomass? Such a process, using inorganic catalysts for conversion of biomass into 1.5 pentanediol (PDO) and 1,6 hexanediols …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The Brazil Bilateral is a co-operative R&D effort between Brazil’s Petrobras and the US National renewable Energy Laboratory. It aims to demonstrate technical and economic feasibility of co-processing raw fast pyrolysis …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … The clearest intersecting theme is bio-methanol. Let’s see why.
For one, Södra has much more going on than Silva, and we reported on a major development in December when we related …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Sustainable Bioeconomy for Arid Regions (SBAR) is a multi-level research project that will cultivate two desert-dwelling crops, guayule and guar, for a sustainable bioeconomy. Scale up to profitable production, however, requires …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Sometimes, what an engine needs to roar to life is a spark. Or a SPARC, as in this case.
As in the Southeastern Partnership for Advanced Renewables from Carinata (SPARC), a consortium consisting of …

By Michael Eggleston* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  On December 5th, 2017 the Institute of Technical Chemistry (ITC) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) hosted a workshop for members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Task …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A mere “The Year in Rewind” as we sail into 2018? Not the good ship Digest! Instead, we dust off our crystal ball and offer our predictions for the year ahead.
As …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy has a goal of developing industrially-relevant strains to meet titer, rate, and yield targets for fuel precursors for the 2022 BC Platform cost target goals of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Vertimass technology was originated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where scientists discovered novel catalysts that convert a wide range of alcohols into various hydrocarbon blend stocks which can be used in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory is the only federal laboratory dedicated to the research, development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. NREL — home to the …

(Phys.Org/Cell Press)  Consumers across the world enjoy Greek yogurt for its taste, texture, and protein-packed punch. Reaching that perfect formula, however, generates large volumes of food waste in the form of liquid whey. Now researchers in …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  Responses to Request for Information DE-FOA-0001526: Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Pilot Verification Capabilities  …   In February 2016, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) reached out to industry, academia, national …

by Cliff Gladstein (ACT News)  … Attitudes toward the utility of natural gas as the environmentally preferred fuel began to change when technologies to effectively extract natural gas from local shale formations—a process called hydraulic fracturing, or …

(Neste Corporation)  Neste’s Board of Directors has decided that Neste’s additional production capacity for renewable diesel, renewable aviation fuel and raw materials for various biochemical uses will be located in Singapore. The decision initiates technical design …

(ArcelorMittal)  The world’s most prestigious award programme for the circular economy, The Circulars, has highly commended ArcelorMittal for demonstrating leadership and innovation by applying circular economy principles to its business models.
…

Partnering with technical and industry leaders …

(Phys.Org/University of Bristol)  Chemists at the University of Bristol have made the first steps towards making sustainable petrol using beer as a key ingredient.
…
Scientists from the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry have been working for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Japan, Sekisui Chemical and LanzaTech, have successfully demonstrated the production of ethanol from unsorted municipal solid waste — which can be used directly as a fuel or as a precursor to butadiene (a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Sekisui Chemicals, LanzaTech break-through in MSW-to-ethanol demonstration  —  … Were trash to acquire a substantial uplift in value, that’s the end to the landfill crisis.
In Japan, Sekisui Chemical and LanzaTech have successfully demonstrated the production of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Clariant’s sunliquid technology for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into sugars, followed by fermentation to cellulosic ethanol, is flexible to be used to convert different feedstocks on a regional basis, for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency released its final Renewable Fuel Standard renewable volume obligations for 2018. The agency finalized a total renewable fuel volume of 19.29 billion gallons , of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  You won’t hear it from the NGOs orbiting Brussels who have long figured out that bashing biotechnology is good for the fund-raising cash register, but Europe has become the hottest …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) At ABLC Next, we invited Genomatica’s Jeff Lievense as part of a special session focused on the scaling-up of fermentation technologies — from the pitfalls to the pratfalls.
Genomatica is a widely-recognized technology …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Brazil and Denmark, Braskem and Haldor Topsoe have signed a technological cooperation agreement to develop a pioneering route to produce monoethylene glycol (MEG) from sugar. The agreement calls for the construction of a demonstration …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Ensyn uses its patented and proprietary RTP fast thermal technology to convert wood residues and other non-food, cellulosic biomass to liquid biofuels. Ensyn has had continuous commercial operations for more than …

(Advanced Biofuels USA)  Advanced Biofuels USA has added a summary of the findings of its USDA-funded feasibility study based on 2016 energy beet project at University of Maryland Eastern Shore.  New charts and graphs based …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Rennovia, Inc. is a chemical process technology development company focused on the creation of novel processes for the cost-advantaged production of commodity and specialty chemicals from renewable feedstocks. Rennovia is developing processes …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Synpet Technologies is a Turkish-US company founded in 2014, which operates a 15 ton/day demonstration facility in Pasakoy, Turkey. The company developed its Thermal Conversion Process, which breaks down organic waste materials by using heat, …

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) In New Jersey, BASF agreed to buy almost all of Bayer’s seed assets including LibertyLink seeds and chemistry for $7 billion, assuming the Bayer acquisition of Monsanto goes through. If all goes …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Imagine, for example, a Boeing 777 flying non-stop between any two cities in the world. Or F-18A/F Superhornets adding significant weapon loads, or up to 30% to flight range. It’s like …

by Marcius Extavour (XPRIZE/Biofuels Digest)  … Hydrocarbon drop-in fuels are among the leading products targeted by the CO2 conversion community, be it diesel, methanol, butanol, or others. New approaches to the science and technology of CO2-to-fuels may …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Colorado State University scientists and Arizona State University’s Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation are partners in a three-year grant of up to $3.5 million from the Department of Energy, aimed …

(PR Web)  The ABBA Integrated Biorefinery project, to be built at the AVAPCO Thomaston Georgia site, will co-produce bio jet fuel and Bioplus® nanocellulose. It has received a Phase 1, $3.7 million award from the Department …

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest)  … Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, the chopping continues and there are literally tons of wood waste left behind that doesn’t get used up, but …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of one additional project, for up to $3.5 million, as part of the Bioenergy Technologies Office’s (BETO’s) Advanced Algal Systems Program funding …

(VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland/Biomass Magazine)  EU-funded project COMSYN aims to develop a production concept for competitive biobased fuels by means of a compact gasification and synthesis process. The target reduction of the biofuel …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy is supporting a project to demonstrate the techno‐economic feasibility of upgrading biomass derived pyrolysis oil using electro-deoxygenation process. A ceramic membrane that selectively transports oxygen under …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy is supporting a project to identify and mitigate the challenges of moving new fuels and vehicles into markets.  Including but not limited to: facilitating new …

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 …

(Advanced Biofuels USA)  USDA-funded feasibility study based on 2016 energy beet project at University of Maryland Eastern Shore finds Navy solicitation is best market for economic viability of project followed by advanced ethanol for Mid-Atlantic …

(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 …

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 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 …

The purpose of this solicitation is to support research and pre-commercial demonstration of fungible low carbon fuels synthesis by providing funding for innovative, pre-commercial low-carbon fuel production processes that result in the development of bio-oil …

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 Anju D. Krivov  (Biofuels Digest/Lee Enterprises Consulting/GSR Solutions LLC)  … In the late 1990s, the low oil prices of less than $20 a barrel brought down the Algal Species Program’s initiative started in the 1970s …

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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The US Department of Energy has a goal of developing industrially-relevant strains to meet titer, rate, and yield targets for fuel precursors for the 2022 BC Platform cost target goals of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Within the ChemCatBio set of core catalysis projects lies Fast Pyrolysis and Upgrading, which has as its goal “to develop cost competitive biofuels through catalytic stabilization and deoxygenation of Fast Pyrolysis …

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 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 …

by Mike McAdams (Advanced Biofuels Association/Biofuels Digest) In December of 2007, President Bush—with overwhelming bipartisan support—signed the RFS2 into law. Since that time, it has become clear the law has worked for first-generation corn ethanol and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Honeywell’s UOP has developed a renewable jet fuel processing technology, a renewable diesel process, as well as a joint venture, Envergent Technologies, that will market technologies and equipment for generating …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Colorado, ChemCatBio announced a new 2017 directed funding assistance opportunity. It’s an opportunity for industry and academia to engage with ChemCatBio to tackle challenges associated with these core research themes, to leverage …

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 Lalit Kumar Singh (Editor), Gaurav Chaudhary (Editor) (Wiley)  Biofuels production is one of the most extensively studied fields in the energy sector that can provide an alternative energy source and bring the energy industry closer …

(Penn State News)  Slowed as much by extremely low oil prices as supply-chain and technological challenges, the effort to integrate biofuels into the nation’s aviation fuel supply is nonetheless progressing, according to a researcher in …

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)  Lysle Whitmer on behalf of an Iowa State-led group of researchers gave this illuminating overview of Liquefaction of Forest Biomass to Drop-in Fuels, at the 2017 DOE Project Peer Review sessions. …

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

by Geert De Clercq (Reuters)  Norwegian utility Statkraft has found a way to produce biofuel from wood chippings and other solid organic waste, which it says replicates in minutes a process that made crude oil underground …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Mark Huntley and Zackary Johnson gave this illuminating overview of the MAGIC Marine Algae consortium project at the 2017 DOE Project Peer Review sessions.  READ MORE

by Blaine Friedlander (Cornell University)  In a classic tale of turning trash into treasure, two different processes soon may be the favored dynamic duo to turn food waste into green energy, according to a new …

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 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 …

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) …  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)  Not long ago, we updated on Steeper Energy, which has been executing on a $3m grant from Sustainable Development Technology Canada towards development of a $30M 100 barrel per day demonstration project …

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 …

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)  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 …

(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 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 …

by Tux Turkel (Portland Press Herald)  ‘The biggest obstacle now is financing,’ says Stephen Fitzpatrick, president of Biofine Technology LLC, which is partnering with UMaine on a pilot plant at the site.  —  The former …

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, …

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 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 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 …

edited by John Love and John A.  Bryant (Wiley-Blackwell)  With increased public and scientific attention driven by factors such as oil price spikes, the need for increased energy security, and concerns over greenhouse gas emissions …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Clariant’s sunliquid technology for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into sugars, followed by fermentation to cellulosic ethanol, is flexible to be used to convert different feedstocks on a regional basis, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Earlier this month, we reported that Comet Biorefining had successfully closed an investment round to fund its proposed cellulosic sugar production facility using stover and wheat straw as feedstock. PM Equity Parnership, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Honeywell’s UOP has developed a renewable jet fuel processing technology, a renewable diesel process, as well as a joint venture, Envergent Technologies, that will market technologies and equipment for generating …

(Government of Canada/CNW)  Investments support Canadian-based technologies and create opportunities for businesses to grow and contribute to clean economic growth. —  Technology and the innovation it helps promote are key to the future of Canada’s …

(Green Car Congress)  UNICA, Brazil’s Sugarcane Industry Association, has noted with potential concern that a current EPA proposal that would allow, among other things, biofuel producers to partially process renewable feedstocks at one facility and …

by Emily Witty (MD Biz News)  … (Ryan) Powell and his business partner Onur Unal are the founders of Manta Biofuel, a Baltimore-based biotechnology firm producing renewable crude oil through the harvesting and processing of algae. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As the project team behind this presentation explains, there’s trouble right here in River City when it comes to accessing good market and technical data on making hydrocarbons from a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … But there’s something so cool in that technology that we can’t take our eyes off the company and its progress, even though looking at the balance sheet can feel like watching …

(University of Minnesota/Biomass Magazine)  A team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, has invented a new technology to produce automobile tires from trees and grasses in a process that could shift the tire …

by Jessie Stolark (Energy and Environmental Study Institute)  The Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), in the Office of Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy (EERE), released its updated strategic plan in January. Revised every five years, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  To “Demonstrate an advanced biofuels technology that integrates a catalytic biomass pyrolysis step and a hydroprocessing step to produce infrastructure compatible biofuels,” that’s the ratuional behind a DOE project with …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Switzerland, Avalon Industries has launched a research project to replace formaldehyde in phenol-formaldehyde resins with a bio-based, non-toxic platform chemical 5-HMF, The R&D partner is the Institute for Materials …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …  And it (the history of fracking) reminds us that one of the great tipping points for world civilization is when technology liberates a value great enough that the fear …

by Karyn Jones (EcoEngineers/Biodiesel Magazine)  The U.S. EPA’s proposed Renewables Enhancement and Growth Support rule, published in the federal register Nov. 16, proposes a wide-range of regulatory and compliance changes that affect the renewable fuel standard …

by Will Smith (Springhouse Consulting/Biodiesel Magazine)  While the majority of U.S. biodiesel is still produced from soybean and canola oil, the role of alternative feedstock has increased steadily over the past decade. The lower production …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Cellana uses the most productive plants on earth—marine microalgae—to photosynthetically produce its ReNew line of Omega-3 EPA and DHA oils, animal feed, and biofuel feedstocks. Cellana’s patented ALDUO system, a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Last week we reported that Toray Industries has teamed with Mitsui to produce cellulosic sugars from bagasse leftover from the sugar production process at Thai sugar mills.
The companies will invest up …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Honeywell’s UOP has developed a renewable jet fuel processing technology, a renewable diesel process, as well as a joint venture, Envergent Technologies, that will market technologies and equipment for generating …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  We reported this week that Avantium has acquired Liquid Light’s assets and will take the technology forward. Liquid Light developed electrocatalytic technology to make major chemicals from low-cost, globally abundant …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A mere “The Year in Rewind” as we sail into 2017? Not the good ship Digest! Instead, we dust off our crystal ball and offer our predictions for the year ahead.
As the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  LanzaTech’s gas fermentation platform disrupts the current highly centralized global energy system by enabling the regional production of low-cost energy from local wastes and residues, including gases as varied as …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  Today, the Energy Department (DOE) announced the selection of six projects for up to $12.9 million in federal funding, entitled, “Project Definition for Pilot- and Demonstration-Scale Manufacturing of Biofuels, Bioproducts, and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  GreenLight Biosciences is a bioproduction company that has developed what it terms “a revolutionary cell-free manufacturing platform”.
The cell-free platform is capable of synthesizing complex chemicals through a sustainable, clean, biological …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed four new technologies available for license:
Streamlined Saccharification from Lignocellulosic Biomass, 2015-143
Translation Control …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  With the Agile BioFoundry project, the National Lab consortium, in partnership with academia and industry, aims to achieve a 40% decrease in the energy intensity of current manufacturing processes.
Plus, a …

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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Syngip talked here about the possibility of producing liquid hydrocarbons from waste feedstocks at costs as low as €100 per ton. … What’s this deal all about? In two words, cheaper …

by Bernard Cooker (Chemical Processing Solutions/Biofuels Digest)  This is a review of the biomass-fed chemical process projects to renewable chemicals which were published in Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP) and Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN) from 1/1/16 …

(Leaf Resources)  Leaf Resources’ patented biomass pretreatment process- GLYCELL – is an innovative, high-yield route to clean, economical cellulosic sugars —  Leaf Resources today announced a collaboration with Novozymes, the world’s largest producer of industrial …

(Growth Energy)  Today, at a hearing in Chicago, Chris Bliley, Director of Regulatory Affairs for Growth Energy testified before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the Renewable Enhancement and Growth Support (REGS) Rule.
During his testimony, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Greenyug is a privately held technology development company with a mission to research, develop and commercialize production of commodity chemicals, specialty chemicals, polymers and fuels derived from renewable sources. The …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Clariant’s sunliquid technology for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into sugars, followed by fermentation to cellulosic ethanol, is flexible to be used to convert different feedstocks on a regional basis, for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Ensyn uses its patented and proprietary RTP fast thermal technology to convert wood residues and other non-food, cellulosic biomass to liquid biofuels. Ensyn has had continuous commercial operations for more than …

(Fortress Paper/Lesprom.com) Fortress Paper Ltd. announces a strategic supplement to the already announced birch usage project (the “Birch Project”) at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill aimed at extracting hemicellulose from underutilized species such as birch (the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Byogy has developed a catalytic platform that converts any source of ethanol, butanol, mixed alcohols, or related olefins, into full replacement, and cost competitive biofuels including gasoline, diesel and jet …

by Aswin Mannepalli (Philadelphia Inquirer)  The King of Prussia company takes biowaste and converts it into useful materials such as bioplastics. So far, it counts Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates as a backer. He led a $14 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In 2011, KiOR raised $150 million in its June IPO, claiming that it was generating yields of 67 gallons per ton in its Demo unit operations. But it was miles …