by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  One of the more striking outcomes from the DOE Bioeconomy 2017 conference in Washington DC was confirmation of the demise of Joule Unlimited. “We had a lot of prospects last …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … There’s been the cellulosic wave, then waste — and alongside there has been steady progress in what are known as the electrofuels. These are fuels made directly from CO2, water …

by Liz Gyekye (Biofuels International)  Industry experts have outlined their 2030 biofuels vision at the 9th Biofuels International Conference.  By 2020, the EU aims to have 10% of the transport fuel of every EU country come …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  One of these days your personal transportation system might look like this. A solar or wind energy facility generates renewable electricity, which is converted into a solar fuel using electrofuel …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Maryland, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued patent number 9,217,161for a process to ferment biomass or gases directly to hydrocarbons like hexane and octane.  The process belongs to …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Fuels, chemicals, pathways, and microbes that could shake it all up …  (H)ere are 8 Hot Targets that we can point to that could be game-changers in the world of making …

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 …

Thomas Blakeslee  (Renewable Energy World)  …Though solar electric is the clear winner based on land use, biofuels are still in the race (particularly if commercial scale) designer algae becomes a reality. Biofuels have a gigantic …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Upstream, downstream, processing, policy, finance – opportunities and challenges abound in the bioeconomy – but which challenges are the most intractable and daunting of them all?   In today’s part 2, …

Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Is the ultimate industrial fuel system going to be based on electricity, waste CO2 and brackish water – to return society to the days of energy abundance?  It will take a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …One of the perplexities of our time: why solar systems are so photon-efficient and so troubled in energy storage; conversely, how biomass systems are so photon-inefficient yet have magnificently dense …

by James Hataway  (University of Georgia)  Excess carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The first patent issued out of ARPA-E’s electrofuels program suggests that this technology class is heading for the short-list of “next big thing” in energy conversations.
…Or, that participants were aware …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Are they biofuels? We think so – even if they are post-biomass. They do what organisms have done for eons to make biomass in the first place: convert lifeless CO2, …

by James Stafford (Oilprice.com)   Following record droughts across the United States the benefits of the ethanol subsidy were once again hotly debated and biofuels in general found themselves generating quite a few unflattering headlines. But …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  With the US drought, food vs fuel has returned as an issue.  What alternatives are scientists, entrepreneurs developing to take us beyond the old debate?
…1. Feedstock diversification.  In biofuels, it …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Fewer people know that natural gas is a platform for producing ethanol – either through fermentation or catalytic conversion (typically via methanol) – and drop-in fuels using the methanol-to-gasoline method …

by Dan Krotz  (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Berkeley Lab-led team explores a way to create biofuels, minus the photosynthesis
Is there a new path to biofuels hiding in a handful of dirt? Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley …

(AOL Energy)  Researchers at UCLA say they have come up with a method for converting electrical energy into a liquid fuel, in a development that could lead to regular petrol cars being powered by electricity.
The process, which …

by James Stafford (OilPrice.com)  Rising geopolitical tensions and high oil prices are continuing to help renewable energy find favour amongst investors and politicians. Yet how much faith should we place in renewables to make up …

by Bob Brooks (Automotive Industries)  Possibly the most innovative new synthetic fuel, developed by privately financed Joule Unlimited, has proven the cost effectiveness of its system during 18 months at a pilot plant in Arizona. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  New ideas on growing hydrocarbons directly in the field tap ancient ideas of agriculture, and ancient capabilities trapped deep in the genome
…A good part of the work of modern genetics …

(Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati)  The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) recently released three Requests for Information (RFIs) related to more than $100 million in anticipated future funding opportunities. The RFIs encourage …

by Brian Wingfield (Bloomberg)  The United States lost $10.4 million on six clean-energy projects, including biofuel research at Iowa State University, that were suspended for missing performance milestones, according to the Energy Department.
…Iowa State spent about …

(US Department of Energy)  The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration to inform the possible development of future chemo/electro-autotrophic fuel production programs.  Information obtained may be used …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …So, along comes Joule. It’s a known fact that some microorganisms could be modified or evolved to ferment gaseous carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide. Combine that with some hydrogen taken …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But the New Agriculture has arisen in recent years, with new solutions to the old dilemma: how do you produce, and afford, and haul, and utilize enough feedstock to make …

by Dr. Eric Toone (Program Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, U.S. Department of Energy)  Dr. Toone described the role and mission of ARPA-E, the process related to ARPA-E’s first Financial Opportunity Announcement (FOA1), project selection and awards at …

(North Carolina State University)  The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) has awarded a grant for more than $2.7 million to North Carolina State University to support research into the creation of biofuels …

(US Department of Energy)  At a Recovery Act Cabinet Meeting today, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the U.S. Department of Energy is awarding $106 million in funding for …