by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  BioAmber’s Mission? To be a fast growing producer of chemical intermediates that uses sugars instead of fossil fuels and sells competitively priced, sustainable chemicals with strong profit margins and the cleanest …

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 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 (DOE) national laboratories, we work with industry …

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 …

(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)  Solar-to-Fuel System Recycles CO2 to Make Ethanol and Ethylene  —  Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert carbon …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The US Department of Energy is supporting a project to develop and optimize a hybrid separation method to recover high-value methoxyphenols to improve the process economics and environmental impact for the …

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 led by Pacific Northwest National Lab to develop a new deconstruction technology to provide low ash and low impurity sugars and sugar-derived intermediates …

(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 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 …

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 …

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 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)  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)  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)  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 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 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 Francesca Brindle (Hydrocarbon Engineering)  Southern Oil has announced that Queensland Premier, the Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, will officially open the Northern Oil advanced biofuels pilot plant in Gladstone on 1 June 2017. The $18 …

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 …

(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 …

(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 …

(University of Washington/Biomass Magazine)  The mountain pine beetle has destroyed more than 40 million acres of forest in the western United States. That amounts to an area the size of Washington state that is strewn …

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 …

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)  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 …

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 …

(Alliance Bio-Products)  The company’s patented CTS process presents a viable option for growing biofuel production efforts with its ability to produce cellulosic ethanol at a lower cost and without harmful environmental impact  —   Alliance Bio-Products, …

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)  Licella produces drop-in biofuels from a wide range of biomass and uses a supercritical water-based technology and catalysts to break up biomass and reform it into a drop-in fuel hydrocarbon.
The …

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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Louisiana, the Diamond Green Diesel facility in Norco will expand its annual production capacity of renewable diesel from 10,000 barrels per day to 18,000 bpd (275 million gallons per …

(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 …

by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Amid an animated discussion of policy issues, one item gained the support of all five panelists: publication of the Renewable Fuels Standard renewable volume obligations for 2017 and 2018 …

(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 …

(Iowa State University)  A special issue of the journal Energy Technology details the latest advances in pyrolysis technologies for converting biomass into fuels, chemicals and fertilizers.
Two pyrolysis experts are guest editors of the issue: Robert …

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 …

(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)  The goal? Develop microbial biocatalysts to convert lignin-rich streams into value-added products. That’s subject which this project — “Synthetic Metabolic Pathways for Bioconversion of Lignin Derivatives to Biofuels,” led by Oak …

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 …

(Gevo)  Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEVO), announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has approved the pathway for isobutanol produced at Gevo’s Luverne, MN plant to be an advanced biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard Program …

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)  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 Bernard Cooker (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  The use of catalysts, both living entities, such as microorganisms, and otherwise inert synthetic and biologically-derived materials, such as supported transition metals and enzymes, are frequently key to 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)  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 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 …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) On Nov. 16, U.S. EPA’s proposed Renewable Enhancement and Growth Support rule was published in the Federal Register, officially opening a 60-day public comment period on the proposal. Comments are …

by Antoine C. Schellinger (Biofuels Digest/ International Alliance Group)  … The EPA has performed lifecycle analysis on certain pathways and published them in the CFR as approved pathways. They are labeled with sequential alphabetical characters and …

(Federal Register)  In this action, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to update both its renewable fuels and other fuels regulations to reflect changes in the marketplace and to promote the growing use of both ethanol fuels (conventional and advanced) and …

by Michael McAdams (Advanced Biofuels Association/Biomass Magazine)  As for what is left to do after Congress returns on Nov. 15, extending existing biofuel tax credits are number one on the list.
…
In early October, the U.S. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Lignocellulosic sugars and lignin have become necessary intermediates for advancing research towards economically producing biofuels and bioproducts. Recently, the US Department of Energy issued a Request for Information: Cellulosic Sugar …

by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  “I want to make this land productive again,” was a common refrain at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s 13th Annual Small Farm Conference November 11-12.  Whether returning to …

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 overview of Arzeda’s breakthrough technology …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Lignocellulosic sugars and lignin have become necessary intermediates for advancing research towards economically producing biofuels and bioproducts. Recently, the US Department of Energy issued a Request for Information: Cellulosic Sugar …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Fulcrum BioEnergy has developed a “game-changing process for converting municipal solid waste that would otherwise be landfilled, into renewable transportation fuels including syncrude, jet fuel and diesel”. The company has …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  The results of the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office’s (BETO’s) Cellulosic Sugar and Lignin Production Capabilities Request for Information (RFI) are now available on the RFI responses web page. This …

by Terry Mazanec (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  … So the process removes and processes about 25 tonnes of earth to obtain each gram of Pt, valued at about $35. It is a very lucrative business.
Biomass is much …

by Meghan Gordon (Platts)  US advanced biofuels production could get a boost under a rule change the Environmental Protection Agency is considering that would allow conventional refineries to receive renewable fuel credits for using drop-in biofuels …

(Gevo/Globe Newswire)  Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEVO), announced today that it has completed production of the world’s first cellulosic renewable jet fuel that is specified for commercial flights.  Gevo successfully adapted its patented technologies to convert cellulosic …

by Meghan Gordon (Platts)  US advanced biofuels production could get a boost under a rule change the Environmental Protection Agency is considering that would allow conventional refineries to receive renewable fuel credits for using drop-in biofuels …

by Michael Hirtzer (Reuters)  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed tweaks to its Renewable Fuel Standard that would allow biofuels to be processed at more than one location and would allow cellulosic ethanol to …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  This past June, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in partnership with Particulate Solids Research, Inc. and Springs Fabrication, installed a recirculating regenerating riser reactor (R-Cubed) in their pilot-scale …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  This season, The Digest is hosting the Strategic Intent webinar series, looking at the plans, progress and future milestones of strategic stakeholders in the Advanced Bioeconomy.  In this slide deck, …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Renewable Energy Group Inc. is quietly celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a series of videos being released to commemorate the company’s—and the biodiesel industry’s—significant growth and maturation over the past decade. …

(Bioenergy Deployment Consortium)  A successful BDC Fall Symposium was held in Washington DC on September 27-28, 2016.  A combination of Government Agency Directors and Sr. Advisors were joined by outstanding leaders in the bio-industry to …

by Erin Voegele (Biomass Magazine)  … Within the proposed rule, the EPA explains that the RFS registration, reporting, recordkeeping and product transfer document (PTD) requirements were designed with the general expectation that renewable biomass would be …

(Fuel Marketer News)  Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released their proposed rule for Ethanol Flex Fuel and Renewable Enhancement and Growth Support (REGS) Rule. This proposal intends to provide regulatory clarification for ethanol blends …

by Terry Mazanec (Lee Enterprises Consulting)  Biomass is a rich salad of chemicals that contains many highly valuable materials that are precursors to fine chemicals, nutrients, and pharmaceuticals. But this strength is also a weakness of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) From Italy word has arrived that Novamont have opened the world’s first commercial-scale facility for the bio-based production of bio-based 1,4-butanediol, in Bottrighe (Adria), North East Italy. Having licensed Genomatica’s technology, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The factories of old — a technological wave that swept in with the Industrial Revolution — these were inorganic manufacturing centers, and they are now the wave of the past.
They …

(Global Bioenergies/Biomass Magazine)  Global Bioenergies and Clariant are proud to announce the first isobutene production from a wheat straw hydrolysate, in the industrial pilot of Pomacle Bazancourt. This success is the result of a collaboration …

(Novamont/Biomass Magazine)  Novamont, the Italy-based world leader in bioplastics, with 1,000 patents in biopolymers and biochemicals, announced it has opened the world’s first commercial-scale facility for the biobased production of a major intermediate chemical in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  You may recall that The Bloomberg investigative team of Ben Elgin & Peter Waldman in 2013 published an expose on Chevron claiming that the company had developed — then buried …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  his season, The Digest is hosting the Strategic Intent webinar series, looking at the plans, progress and future milestones of strategic stakeholders in the Advanced Bioeconomy.  In this slide deck, we looked …

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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Pennsylvania, Bill Gates is leading the latest investment round into the pioneering cellulosic sugars producer Renmatix as energy giant Total joins in with second investment and a 1 million …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Amidst the discussion this week of the future of first-gen and advanced biofuels, and the launch of Hot 40 and Hot 50 voting —  we were intrigued by this slide …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Biotechnology Innovation Organization has released its new report “Advancing the Biobased Economy: Renewable Chemical Biorefinery Commercialization, Progress, and Market Opportunities, 2016 and Beyond,” documenting substantial, ongoing growth in the renewable …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Amidst all the discussion this week of deal-making in cellulosic and sugar-based fuels — the likes of Tesoro-Virent and Lufthansa-Gevo — we were intrigued by this slide deck on a pathway …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Colorado, Gevo has entered into a heads of agreement with Lufthansa to supply Gevo’s alcohol-to-jet fuel from its first commercial hydrocarbon facility, intended to be built in Luverne, MN. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Wisconsin, Tesoro reached an agreement for Tesoro to acquire Virent. The acquisition, the partners said, will support the scale up and commercialization of Virent’s BioForming technology for the production …

by Scott Goss (The News Journal)  … Now the rather smelly, colorless liquid is poised to become the cornerstone of a Delaware startup that is seeking to revolutionize the biochemical industry and even possibly — maybe someday — upend …

(btg-btl)  Technip announced … that it has signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with BTG BioLiquids B.V. (BTL) to provide EPC(1) services for its modular pyrolysis plants. The plants will be based on BTL’s Fast Pyrolysis …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  This week, we conducted a webinar on Biorenewables Megatrends with NEXANT principal Ron Cascone, who gave these incisive slides on the state of commercialization in fuels, chemicals, biomaterials and nutrition. READ …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  This season, we are conducting Strategic Intent, our 19 webinar series on major companies and their partnerships, progress and plans in the Advanced Bioeconomy. In this edition, we explored Bayer, …

by Terry Mazanec (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  … The US EPA estimates that 250 million tons of municipal solid wastes are sent to landfills each year. These materials have a wide range of chemicals in them, including …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  From the company’s IPO Prospectus: “Our proprietary technology platform combines industrial biotechnology, an innovative purification process and chemical catalysis to convert renewable feedstocks into chemicals that are cost-competitive replacements for petroleum-derived …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, a US Navy research team at China Lake led by Ben Harvey reported that 2,3-Butanediol, which has received a significant amount of interest based on the ability to generate …

by Erika Ebsworth-Goold (The Washington University) …  Now, a team from the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a way to make the production of certain biofuels in …

by Lorenz Bauer (Lee-Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)   Recent declines in oil prices and the failure of start-up biofuel processes to meet production cost targets have increased the interest in producing value added chemicals from biomass as coproducts. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Gevo says: We’re staking our near-term prospects on marine biofuels.  Investors hear: We’re underwater.
Gevo says: Timing delay in our isobutanol gallonage, took longer to get the fixes implemented, we’ll make …

(American Science and Technology) New Patent Will Increase the Incentives to Use Renewable Resources for Chemical Production  —  American Science and Technology (AST), an emerging technology company, has been awarded a patent for a system and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the US Department of Energy announced up to $11.3 million for three projects that support the development of biomass-to-hydrocarbon biofuels conversion pathways that, as the DOE remarked, “can …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today up to $11.3 million for three projects that support the development of biomass-to-hydrocarbon biofuels conversion pathways that can produce variable amounts of fuels …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As Irshad Ahmed observed recently in The Digest, “until such time that we internalize the true life-cycle costs of extracting and using fossil fuels, and distinguishing fossil-BTUs from bio-BUTs, we will …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, U.S. Department of Energy is seeking input from industry, academia, national laboratories and other biofuels and bioproducts stakeholders to identify existing capabilities to produce lignocellulosic sugars and lignin …