by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... In the world of aviation biofuels, the bands and the bunting are rolling out less frequently. But mostly, because the sector has moved out of a noise-filled early R&D phase and is heading towards deployment.
alcohol-to-jet (ATJ)/ethanol-to-jet (ETJ)
Back TO HOMEU.S. Navy Flies Supersonic With Gevo ATJ
(Gevo) Multiple Test Flights Conducted on F/A-18 "Hornet" Using a 50/50 ATJ Blend The U.S. Navy, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), and Gevo, Inc. (Nasdaq:GEVO), the world's only commercial producer of renewable isobutanol, announced today the first successful "alcohol-to-jet" (ATJ) supersonic
December 29, 2014 Read Full Article
14 for ’15: The Bioeconomy Agenda, 2015
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) 14 perspectives on policy, technologies and geographies of compelling interest in the new year -- At ABLC Next this year in San Francisco — naturally, the focus is on “what’s next” in technology, finance, deployment
December 01, 2014 Read Full Article
Righteous Heat: 10 Hot Slides from ABLCNext Do the Show-and-Tell on Who's Got the Magic
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) 10 hot companies, The Young Fresh Faces, the Later-Stagers, the Out-of-the-Box Thinkers - who is challenging the status quo and how and why? Here are new slides from the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference – ABLC Next
November 20, 2014 Read Full Article
HSBC to Join Virgin Atlantic, LanzaTech Partnership for Low Carbon Jet Fuel
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In the UK, Virgin Atlantic has announced that the UK’s largest bank, HSBC, is joining its partnership with LanzaTech in preparation for a world-first flight using a ground-breaking low carbon fuel. LanzaTech is developing a revolutionary
October 24, 2014 Read Full Article
Surface-to-Air: How Vertimass Might Shatter Conventional Yields in Alcohol-to-Jet Fuels
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Saturated E10 ethanol markets; unmet demand in aviation biofuels: can Vertimass’ technology provide the bridge? ... After all, if you dehydrate ethanol (that is, remove the water, H2O), what you have is ethylene, a hydrocarbon. And you
August 28, 2014 Read Full Article
Answers for Your Questions about the Bioeconomy, Biofuels, Renewable Chemicals and Bioproducts
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... With great sessions at conferences, delegates are usually keen to get a hold of the powerpoint decks. But how do you get a hold of the great Q&A that follows the presentations — or the
August 14, 2014 Read Full Article
Ripe for Ethanol Innovations: Midlands Research Is Boosting Value of Corn Distillation Process
by Russell Hubbard (Omaha World-Herald) It starts out as freeze-dried fungus or bacteria from Denmark and ends up being one of the key ingredients in what some are calling Nebraska’s and Iowa’s shot at the big time when it comes
August 08, 2014 Read Full Article
8 Trends Driving Aviation Biofuels Today
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... SkyNRG is undertaking its first major feedstock project in South Africa, featuring a nicotine-free energy tobacco crop that’s developed by Sunchem under the name of Solaris. Which is an excellent reminder of how much activity
August 07, 2014 Read Full Article
Advanced Drop-In Biofuels for Commercial Aviation, Marine Shipping, and Military Applications: Global Market Analysis and Forecasts
(Navigant Research) Viewed as a game changer in the race to commercialize advanced biofuels, aviation and marine biofuels represent a very significant opportunity for emerging producers in the advanced biofuels industry. Demand for advanced biofuels produced from sustainable, non-food feedstocks
July 18, 2014 Read Full Article
Biofuels Digest Posts "Hot Slides" from Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) On ABLC's opening morning, we have some of the top slides -an inside look from Inbicon, Ensyn, GranBio, Sapphire Energy, LanzaTech - hot topics such as product portfolios, refinery integration, policy cliffs, the use of
April 25, 2014 Read Full Article
Lufthansa to Evaluate Gevo's Renewable Jet Fuel
(Gevo/Biomass Magazine) Gevo Inc., the world's only commercial producer of renewable isobutanol, has announced that it has come to an agreement with Lufthansa to evaluate Gevo's renewable jet fuel with the goal of approving Gevo's alcohol-to-jet fuel (ATJ) for commercial
April 25, 2014 Read Full Article
Gevolution 2014: Gevo’s Forward Progress, and Some Side-by-Side
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As Gevo reports its 4Q results and adds back some ethanol production, we look at the short-term gains and the long-term implications. Why ethanol, why now — what’s the latest news mean from this signature
March 28, 2014 Read Full Article
Vertimass Licenses ORNL Biofuel-to-Hydrocarbon Conversion Technology
(Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Vertimass LLC, a California-based start-up company, has licensed an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology that directly converts ethanol into a hydrocarbon blend-stock for use in transportation fuels. The ORNL technology offers a new pathway to biomass-derived renewable
March 17, 2014 Read Full Article
BRICS and Mortar: The Fast-Growing BRIC Economies Take Aim at Aviation Biofuels
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Brazil, Russia, India and China — and throw in South Africa for a complete BRICSA set. The vaunted new economic engines for the 21st century — and, lately, home to a beehive of activity around drop-in,
March 11, 2014 Read Full Article
The Four Horsemen of the Financials: Gevo, Solazyme, Amyris Report for Q3
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In years gone by, it was not too hard to write up a summary of Gevo, Solazyme and Amyris — all aimed at fuels, all in the development stage, all used synthetic biology in closed
November 07, 2013 Read Full Article
Avianca Brasil Selects Byogy To Source Clean Aviation Biofuels
(Avianca Brasil/Byogy/PR NewsWire) Continuing its commitment to deliver economical, 100% drop-in replacement biofuels, Byogy is delighted that Avianca Brasil has selected the Byogy Renewables Alcohol to Jet ("ATJ") fully renewable aviation biofuel process to source their environment friendly alternate low
October 17, 2013 Read Full Article
Avianca Brasil Selects Byogy To Source Clean Aviation Biofuels
(PRNewsWire/BizJournals.com) Byogy and Avianca Brasil Announce Collaboration to Accelerate Global Certification Continuing its commitment to deliver economical, 100% drop-in replacement biofuels, Byogy is delighted that Avianca Brasil has selected the Byogy Renewables Alcohol to Jet ("ATJ") fully renewable aviation biofuel process
October 10, 2013 Read Full Article
Seeking Delta: Biofuels, Algae, Natgas, CO2 and the Finding of True Value
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... “What you really are in the business of,” Aemetis CEO Eric McAfee reflects, “is capturing the arbitrage between the commodity price of your most expensive feedstock — and the price of your finished molecule plus
September 09, 2013 Read Full Article
Michael Bennet, United States Senator for Colorado, Visits Gevo, Advocates for Renewable Fuels and Chemicals
(Globe Newswire/Gevo) United States Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado toured and met with Gevo, Inc. (Nasdaq:GEVO) today to discuss the importance of renewable fuels and chemicals for Colorado and the U.S. economy. Senator Bennet met with Gevo executives including chief executive
August 26, 2013 Read Full Article
Commercial Aviation Biofuels: Translating Green Ambitions into Green Miles
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) How to get from available field to affordable fuel in 14 steps. The MASBI report is out, and that’s good. ... Last week, the Midwest Aviation Sustainable Biofuels Initiative, led by United Airlines, Boeing, Honeywell’s UOP, the
July 05, 2013 Read Full Article
Aviation RFJ: Are You Getting on Board? Technical Pathway Development--Expanding Supply and Reducing Cost
by Aino Siirala (Advanced Biofuels USA) Steve Csonka, as director of Enviro Strategy and Ecomagination, GE Aviation, the world-leading provider of jet engines, gave an overview of the importance of renewable jet fuel specifications leading to commercialization at the Biomass
April 26, 2013 Read Full Article
Cobalt, Mercurius, BioProcess Algae, Frontline Land $17.7M in Military Biofuels Grants
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Pilot-scale biorefineries for drop-in military diesel, jet fuel the focus of the DOE’s latest grant round. In Washington, the US Department of Energy announced up to $17.7 million in grants to four pilot-scale biorefinery projects aimed
April 23, 2013 Read Full Article
Up, Up and Away: Aviation Biofuels Players Start Building Capacity
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...Now – it’s all about organizing sustainable, affordable feedstock and building capacity. And, airlines providing capital for the first commercial projects — to ensure that capacity building reaches levels in line with the industry’s self-imposed
January 11, 2013 Read Full Article
The Solyndra Effect, or Why Alcohol-to-Jet Fuel Is a Tough Sell
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...What we keep running into is what Aemetis CEO Eric McAfee once described to me as the immutable “Natural Law of Alternative Commodity Markets”. ...NLACM states that “the value of any intermediate products produced in any
November 19, 2012 Read Full Article
Aviation Biofuel: Technology-Ready, Needs Capex Infusion, RIN Reforms
by Marsha W. Johnston (Renewable Energy World) By all rights, many believe aviation biofuel producers should be attracting deep-pocketed investors ambitious enough to build the infrastructure necessary to meet a clearly burgeoning industrial-sized demand. At the Aviation Biofuels Development Conference, representatives
October 24, 2012 Read Full Article
6 Treacherous Biofuels Crevasses, 6 Guides to Steer You
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...Those momentum killers. Company wreckers. The investor flight-inducing crevasses along the route to the top – that take away a level playing field, remove your access to markets, delay a counted-on early-stage customer, or frighten
October 15, 2012 Read Full Article
The Hillary Step: 7 Biofuels Contenders, 7 Routes to Scale, Who’s Near the Summit, Who Will Plant the Flag?
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Every biofuels contender has its own route to the top – with unique advantages and technical challenges. Who is nearing the Summit, what’s their Hillary Step, who’s got Sherpas, who’s got oxygen? It’s the race
October 08, 2012 Read Full Article
Fly the Bio Skies: 10 Milestones in the Summer of Aviation biofuels
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...But in many respects, its been a summer about aviation biofuels – starting with the demonstration of the US Navy’s Green Strike Group and continuing to announcements of projects right through the summer. The
August 31, 2012 Read Full Article
The Navy’s Green Strike Group Sails on Biofuels Blend: Will It Sail Again?
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As the Pacific-based forces of Can-Do battle the Washington-based forces of Shouldn’t-Try, we look at the 6 Big Myths of Military Biofuels In Hawaii, the US Navy demonstrated its Green Strike Group as part of the 2012 Rim
July 19, 2012 Read Full Article
Air Force Tests Jet Using Gevo Biofuel
by Mark Harden (BizJournals.com/Denver Business Journal) The U.S. Air Force has flown the first successful test flight using a type of biofuel provided by Colorado’s Gevo Inc. The single-seat, twin-engine Air Force A-10 Thunder Bolt jet flew June 28 at Eglin
July 04, 2012 Read Full Article
Sustainable Alternative Jet Fuels Update on ASTM Approval
by Nate Brown (Federal Aviation Administration) Power Point presentation with graphics illustrating the steps for new aviation fuel approval, graphic descriptions of anticipated aviation fuels (and progress of various pathways along the process). Includes alcohol to jet, direct sugar to
May 30, 2012 Read Full Article
IN FOCUS: Pricing and Supply Key to Unlocking Large-Scale US Biofuel Use
by Lori Ranson (FlightGlobal) Successful commercial biofuel flights operated by US carriers in late 2011 were underpinned by an understanding that price and supply chain infrastructure remain the big hurdles to creating a viable full-scale alternative aviation fuels industry in
February 23, 2012 Read Full Article
The 11 Top Biofuels Trends of 2011
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) There were IPOs a go-go, a big comeback from biodiesel. The global ethanol fleet has acquired new popularity amongst advanced biofuels developers looking for capital light steel in the ground. Meanwhile, gasification got hot. Seemed
December 28, 2011 Read Full Article
Economic Jet-A Fuel from Ethanol Achieved
by Bob Brooks (Automotive Industries) United Airlines recently announced its intention to purchase 20 mllion/gal/yr of bio based, ASTM spec Jet-A fuel on condition it results in at least 50% reduced GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions from aircraft engines and is cost
December 10, 2011 Read Full Article
Byogy Seeks up to $30 Million to Market Alcohol-Based Jet Fuel
by Christine Boynton (Air Transport World) California-based Byogy Renewables will seek as much as $30 million in funding from private equity and strategic investors by mid-2012, Bloomberg reported. The funds will be used to commercialize its alcohol-based fuel, and for
December 08, 2011 Read Full Article
Why the Shift over to Alcohol-to-Jet Fuels? Will ATJ Avoid the Cost Problems Plaguing Oilseed-bBased Fuels?
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...But to make affordable jet fuel, say at a $4.00 cost per gallon to the airline, you really need to get feedstock at under 30 cents per pound, or less than $600 per ton. Otherwise,