The Bioeconomy Jump to Light Speed: 10 Storylines Shaking the World: Exxon, J-M, KLM, UGI, Amyris, Tesla, Origin, More

January 12, 2022

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In recent days, we’ve had 10 stories that shook the world. The players are so big, the technologies so ambitious, the scale so huge and the risks in some cases so high — we’ve grouped them together into one Big Story. These are ‘Quakers, as in earthquakes.

1. ExxonMobil expands interest in biofuels, acquires stake in Biojet AS.

In the past 24 hours, we hear that ExxonMobil is expanding its interests in biofuels, acquiring a 49.9% stake in Biojet AS, a Norwegian biofuels company that plans to convert forestry and wood-based construction waste into lower-emissions biofuels and biofuel components. This, on the heels of an announce that ExxonMobil Neste will distribute of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel at the largest airports in France, in preparation of the 1 percent SAF mandate introduced by the French government and effective on Jan 1, 2022.

2. KLM goes to 0.5% SAF per flight, passenger option to add more

In the Netherlands, KLM will start adding 0.5% Sustainable Aviation Fuel for flights departing from Amsterdam.

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3. UGI backs Vertimass in the race for Alcohol-to-jet

In Pennsylvania, UGI has entered into a 15-year agreement with California-based technology developer, Vertimass, to utilize their catalytic technology to produce renewable fuels from renewable-ethanol in the U.S. and Europe.

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Of huge interest, for two reasons, First, it’s a big step forward for another alcohol-to-fuels competitor. Second, Vertimass gets a very high conversion efficiency and seems to avoid the NLACM problem that you can’t get enough price or volume out of the jet fuel to justify the cost of the ethanol.

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Vertimass topped the news with another announce that it inked a letter of intent with European Energy to integrate technologies for capturing carbon dioxide and converting it into hydrocarbon products. This combination takes advantage of European Energy’s expertise in capturing carbon dioxide from waste sources to produce methanol, as well as Vertimass’ technology to convert that methanol into jet, diesel, and gasoline fuels and chemicals.

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4. Major player alert: JM’s foray into SAF technology

Johnson Matthey has launched its HyCOgen tech – designed to help convert captured carbon dioxide and green hydrogen into sustainable aviation fuel. By combining HyCOgen with FT CANS Fischer Tropsch technology (developed in collaboration with bp), Johnson Matthey offers an integrated, scalable solution for use in the efficient and cost-effective production of renewable power based SAF.

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5. Methane into methanol at room temperature

A team of researchers from Stanford University and the University of Leuven in Belgium have come up with a process to convert methane into methanol at room temp. Their experiments to date have found that as methane is infused into porous iron zeolites, methanol is rapidly produced at room temperature with no additional heat or energy required. By comparison, the conventional industrial process for making methanol from methane requires temperatures of 1000°C and extreme high pressure.

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Amazing advance. Scaling this is quite another thing. A sign that times have changed but the scale-up work from this point forward may well be a sign that things haven’t yet changed enough.

6. Watts in the Ocean?

In Israel, researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have developed a new method that harvests an electrical current directly from seaweed. Certain bacteria have the ability to transfer electrons to electrochemical cells to produce electrical current. The bacteria need to be constantly fed and some of them are pathogenic.

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The research looks at the use of living organisms as the source of electrical currents in microbial fuel cells (MFC). The source of electrons can be from photosynthetic bacteria, especially cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae). In the new study, the researchers from the Technion and IOLR decided to try to solve this issue using a new photosynthetic source for the current – macroalgae.

7. Amyris, ImmunityBio form JV accelerate next-generation COVID-19 vaccine

Hard to believe that, 12 months after the first generation of vaccines came on the market and had great success and astounding global take-up, now we need a next-generation of vaccines. Using RNA gives the major players a shot at developing super-fast responses to new variants.

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8. Origin Materials, Mitsui to industrialize carbon-negative chemicals and materials

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9. Tesla sales rocking

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10. Monolith lands conditional $1B loan guarantee for turquoise hydrogen

Monolith has received conditional approval for a $1.04 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. Established via the Title XVII Innovative Energy Loan Guarantee Program, the loan will allow Monolith to expand its clean hydrogen and carbon black production facilities in Hallam, Nebraska, U.S.A.

Monolith is targeting hydrogen, ammonia and carbon black with its methane pyrolysis process.

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Monolith expects to use much of the clean hydrogen produced from its Olive Creek expansion for the production of ammonia distributed in the U.S. Corn belt. READ MORE

Exxon sets 'net zero' emissions goal from operations by 2050 (The Hill)

Exxon’s Partial Net-Zero Target Is Surprisingly Useful--Exxon Mobil Corp. is going net-zero. Kinda. Well, not really. (BloombergQuint)

Origin selects site in Louisiana for proposed biorefinery (Biomass Magazine)

Excerpt from BloombergQuint: The oil major announced Tuesday that it aims to have net-zero emissions from its operated assets by 2050, on a scope 1 and 2 basis. That is, emissions related to the production of oil and gas, not their use. This matters quite a bit when you consider that more than four-fifths of emissions from those fossil fuels relate to their use, or so-called scope 3 emissions. In short, from a societal perspective, there is no such thing as being net-zero on scope 1 and 2 emissions; it’s like being half — or, more accurately, one-fifth — pregnant. Nonetheless, Exxon’s move is useful. First, it’s not nothing for one of the world’s largest oil majors to announce any net-zero target. Deep cuts to emissions of methane, for example, represent a win against one of the most potent greenhouse gases, and may help persuade others in the industry (including its supposed regulators) to curb routine venting. Second, this is Exxon, a company that spent many years denying or obfuscating the whole concept of climate change. Sure, it’s taken the unexpected loss of a proxy battle to get to this point, but still. The most important aspect of this concerns those scope 3 emissions, however. Exxon only reluctantly began to report a scope 3 estimate last year, after announcing it would do so with the press-release equivalent of an “OK! If you insist! God!”

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In the reality that you and I call reality, oil and gas companies have lobbied assiduously to ensure that nothing — not even potentially catastrophic climate change — affects that demand.

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Reducing absolute demand for fossil fuels in favor of alternatives is absolutely society’s call. But let’s not pretend the producers have no say in it. READ MORE

Tags

Investing Aviation Fuel/Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Jetfuel (Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)) alcohol-to-jet (ATJ)/ethanol-to-jet (ETJ) Norway forest residue/waste construction and demolition waste/debris France airports mandates Netherlands fuel prices aviation fuel (SAF) price Pennsylvania California ethanol/bioethanol Carbon Dioxide (CO2) carbon capture and utilization (CCU) Hydrogen/Renewable Hydrogen electrofuels (e-fuels) Methanol/Biomethanol/Renewable Methanol Renewable Diesel/Green Diesel/HVO/Paraffinic Diesel Biogasoline/Renewable Gasoline BioChemicals/Renewable Chemicals Fischer-Tropsch/FT Belgium methane/biomethane electricity/power generation Seaweed/Macroalgae cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) photosynthesis Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantees bioeconomy bioproducts ammonia fertilizer BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production precursors/biointermediates Israel Sustainability Louisiana

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