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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The US Department of Energy initiated a project to advance a hybrid conversion technology for catalytic upgrading of biomass-derived syngas to produce Alcohol-to-Jet fuel and chemicals while meeting the cost, quality …

(U.S. Trade and Development Agency)  Today (August 18, 2017), the U.S. Trade and Development Agency awarded a grant to Swayana (Pty) Ltd, a Pretoria-based energy project developer, for a feasibility study that will use innovative …

(Advantage News)  The Illinois Department of Transportation has approved implementation of a renewable energy demonstration project using grasses collected from mowing highway rights-of-way.
The work will implement the findings of a three-year study by a multidisciplinary …

(Stockhouse/Accesswire)  Aemetis, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMTX) announced today (August 4, 2017) that it has signed a Master Agreement with key exclusive rights for the use of an advanced gasification technology from InEnTec, Inc. of Richland, Washington …

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 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 …

(LanzaTech)  Acetogens are one of the oldest living organisms, with the acetogenic CO2 fixing pathway considered to be one of the first biochemical pathways on Earth. Today, these organisms still play a major role in …

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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Now on the one hand you have the theory of alternative fuels, chemicals and materials, then there is the actual making of them — often aiming for exotically high rates, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In December, we reported that Cargill and Calysta will co-create the world’s largest gas fermentation facility in Memphis, Tennessee to produce Calysta’s FeedKind protein, a family of sustainable, traceable nutritional ingredients …

by Gerald Kutney (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  A myriad of biofuel technologies exist, but which ones are truly industrial processes? The question is not always easy to answer. And one must define what is meant by …

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 …

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

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Bottom line, Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas closed the sale of its cellulosic ethanol plant located in Hugoton, Kansas under the US Bankruptcy Code. Ocean Park was the sell-side advisor …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Minnesota, Cargill and Calysta revealed that they will co-create the world’s largest gas fermentation facility in Memphis, Tennessee to produce Calysta’s FeedKind protein, a family of sustainable, traceable nutritional …

(Goethe University Frankfurt/EurekAlert!)  Goethe University Frankfurt coordinates European two million Euro project  —   Microbes are already used on a wide scale for the production of fuels and base chemicals, but for this most of …

by Beth Miller (University of Delaware)  Mixotrophy twist leads researchers to higher yields, lower emissions  —  You don’t have to be a beer lover to understand the chemistry behind new research emerging from two labs …

(Virgin Atlantic)  For the first time ever, 1,500 US gallons of jet fuel has been produced from ‘Lanzanol’, LanzaTech’s low carbon ethanol; Producing the world’s first jet fuel derived from waste industrial gases from steel mills via …

by Zia Haq (U.S. Department of Energy)  Booking a flight soon? You may be leaving on a jet plane powered with renewable fuel. With more than 87,000 flights and approximately 1.56 million barrels of jet …

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 …

(Cornell University/EurekAlert!)  Cornell University biological engineers have deciphered the cellular strategy to make the biofuel ethanol, using an anaerobic microbe feeding on carbon monoxide – a common industrial waste gas.
“Instead of having the waste go …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A Digest reader writes: I’m looking to summarize the changes over the last 2-3 years in the biofuels market. Are you aware of any articles or summaries on this topic? It’s a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Through The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes landmark green chemistry technologies developed by industrial pioneers and leading scientists that turn climate risk and other environmental problems into …

(ACS Green Chemistry Institute)  Global Bioenergies is one of the few companies in the world and the only one in Europe to develop a process to convert renewable resources into hydrocarbons through fermentation. The company …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As Global Bioenergies, LanzaTech tighten isobutene partnership, the era of “swap-in, swap out” biorefining microbes comes clear, closer  —  In France, Global Bioenergies and LanzaTech signed a new collaboration agreement …

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

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Kansas, INVISTA and LanzaTech have developed a metabolic ‘toolkit’ that has been successfully applied to generate novel metabolic pathways to bio-derived butadiene and key precursors, such as 1,3 butanediol …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest/BioChannel.TV)  In Florida, The Digest made made available for free, global streaming its LanzaTech coverage from ABLC NEXT 2015.
The LanzaTech presentation can be accessed here, and is enhanced with commentary from …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)   First plant will produce 14 million gallons per year by 2018; first production train online in 2017.  More plants to come? Up to 150 mgy potential in Europe, ArcelorMittal says; …

The Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is hosting the 2015 Project Peer Review on March 23–27, 2015, at the Hilton Mark Center, in Alexandria, Virginia. Approximately 185 projects in BETO’s research, development, and demonstration portfolio will …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As Alberta looks at what might works for them in industrial biotech — Jacobs comes up with a useful take on Renmatix, GTI, LanzaTech, Enerkem, REG and OPX Bio — …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) If you’ve known her as the globe-trotting CEO of LanzaTech — managing an enterprise based in Chicago, with lab operations (and historic ties to) in New Zealand, and progressing towards scale-up …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Think affordable, available, sustainable carbon is the biggest barrier to the growth of biofuels? Or, access to market via blender pumps?   In the case of drop-in biofuels, the biggest challenge …

(Oklahoma State University/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  … Hasan Atiyeh, assistant professor in biosystems and agricultural engineering, recently received a South Central Sun Grant Award to advance the development of a new hybrid conversion process.
“The hybrid gasification-syngas fermentation …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Beta Renewables, Abengoa, Enerkem, Proterro among the winners for Project of the Year — as residues and waste are keys to the big wins.  For Fuel of the Year, Renewable …

(Lanza Tech)  Evonik Industries and LanzaTech have signed a three year research cooperation agreement which will see Evonik combining its existing biotechnology platforms with LanzaTech’s synthetic biology and gas fermentation expertise for the development of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A numbers of readers responding to “Biofuels from a raging fireball” (Friday’s Top Story, on research work with the raging fireball, Pyrococchus furiosus, to make biofuels and renewable chemicals from …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Today in part II, we look at a new set of technologies coming along that are redefining our ideas about scale and cost.
… A barrier to long term deployment? The …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A long war of opinion has been waged for years between advanced biofuels’ detractors and supporters.  Mirage or reality? Completion of 6 key projects 2012 decided much of the debate. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … In the biofuels revolution, the primary focus has been not on producing methanol (and, ultimately, gasoline) from syngas, but primarily on the production of ethanol. Three of the major …

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, …

(INEOS Bio)  Florida project is first large-scale facility to receive registrations for the production of advanced cellulosic biofuels from non-food vegetative waste materials

INEOS Bio announced that its joint venture project in Florida has been granted Parts …

(Business Wire/Lux Research)  Harvesting Technologies Can Cut Feedstock Costs by $25 per Ton, says Lux Research.
The bio-based materials and chemicals industry needs to tap newer, non-food sources of biomass and cellulosic material and raise volumes …

(Platts)  Construction of Ineos’ $130 million biorefinery joint venture project in the US has been completed, with production expected to begin in the second half of 2012, said Peter Williams, CEO of Ineos Bio, the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Four projects, four technologies, four feedstocks, four geographies.  Couldn’t be more differentiated, couldn’t be more linked in terms of affirming investor confidence in advanced biofuels.
…Virent CEO Lee Edwards… outlined four basic …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Guido Ghisolfi is a confident man. A chemical engineer by trade, at 55, he’s already spent three decades leading research and development (R&D) activities at Italy-based Mossi & Ghisolfi …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Here are five types of technologies that straddle the political divide between green and black.
Re-using industrial waste gases  Here are three companies aiming at capturing CO2 and either directly converting to …

by S. Heather Duncan (Macon Telegraph)  Wearing green hard hats with the LanzaTech logo pasted over the words “Range Fuels,” officials of the company that now owns a Soperton ethanol plant visited the site this …

by S. Heather Duncan (Macon Telegraph)  Although the company that purchased a defunct ethanol refinery in Soperton has some of the same financial backers as previous owners who lost the plant to foreclosure, leaders of …

by S. Heather Duncan (Macon.com)  The new owner of a shuttered ethanol plant in Soperton plans to eventually add hundreds of jobs there to produce ethanol and other chemicals, a company official said this week.
That …

(Cal-Bay International/MarketWire)  Cal-Bay International, Inc.,  announced the company is negotiating a land acquisition deal for its renewable forest division for the production of Clean Energy & Power.
The company has entered negotiations for the purchase of multiple …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In Vero Beach, Florida, they’ll be celebrating Tax Freedom Day, but also Energy Freedom Day. As of April 15th, the 8 million gallon INEOS Bio cellulosic ethanol plant is expected …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …First commercial projects from newly-minted public companies Solazyme, Gevo and KiOR. Two trash-to-biofuels projects from INEOS Bio and Enerkem, located in Florida and Alberta. Europe’s largest biosuccinic acid project, scheduled …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The first gas fermentation technology to come to the public markets: Coskata files its $100 million IPO.  Here’s our 10-minute version of the filing, with a translation of the risks …

by Will Nichols (Business Green)  Government research body says next generation biofuels made from waste are a feasible low carbon option
The UK could miss its renewable transport targets unless it spends £900m over the next …

(Coskata)   With More than 15,000 Run Hours, Company Focus Turns to Commercial Scale Facilities
Coskata, Inc., a developer of technology for the production of advanced biofuels and biochemicals from biomass and waste materials, achieved two …

Laurel Harmon (LanzaTech Inc.) LanzaTech, Inc., was founded in January 2005 by CSO Dr. Sean Simpson in New Zealand. Funds were mainly from New Zealand government US$ 10M, Khosla Ventures US$ 12M in …

(US Department of Energy)  In support of the Obama Administration’s comprehensive efforts to strengthen U.S. energy security,  U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced up to $12 million to fund three small-scale projects in Illinois, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Can synthetic biology capture and utilize CO2 to such an extent that it not only can make money – but can mitigate the carbon intensity of no-no feedstocks like coal, …

(INEOS Bio/PR NewsWire)  Florida project is first large-scale advanced biorefinery facility in U.S. to close financing in latest round of USDA backed financing

INEOS Bio announced that its joint venture project closed private financing on a $75m loan …

(US Department of Energy)  …More than 600 speakers, moderators, sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees were able to listen to discussions about the ongoing challenges and achievements in the bioenergy industry. Biomass 2011 addressed key issues in important …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But a new generation of technologies is coming along fast, primarily in advanced biofuels, which is gasifying biomass at the front end along its path towards making fuels, chemicals or …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … That the freighters out of China contain low-cost manufactured goods would surprise no one. The trick of the trade, from the ship owners’ point of view, has always been …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …(I)ndustry experts discussed their views toward integrating cellulosic production at existing corn ethanol facilities.
…The panelists seemed in agreement that integrating cellulosic ethanol production with existing first-generation plants presents an …

(Iowa State University)  Laura Jarboe pointed to a collection of test tubes in her Iowa State University laboratory.
Some of the tubes looked like they were holding very weak coffee. That meant microorganisms – in this …

(US Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Biomass Program will be conducting detailed biennial peer review meetings of its activities throughout the first half …

(Advanced Biofuels USA)  …(T)here is a third, hybrid process which combines both biochemical and thermochemical elements, capturing the benefits of each pathway while mitigating some of their deficiencies.  This process, called syngas fermentation, is a …