Major Stories
The Competitive Edge: Haldor Topsoe
Q: What was the reason for founding your organization – what was the open niche you saw that could be addressed with a new product or service? What was the problem, or gap, or opportunity? Haldor Topsoe is the world leader in heterogeneous catalysis and technology licensing. Ten years ago, as the signs from […]
Surf’s up with bioboards, Panasonic’s biobased appliances, CO2 textile fibers, Nestlé’s biodegradable snack bar wrapper, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of July 17th
Keep cool this summer with CO2 based textile fibers, biobased appliances, and surf the ocean waves on a biobased surfboard. But that’s not all because bioeconomy innovations are ripping and roaring! Here are the Top 10 Innovations for the week of July 17th. In today’s Digest, surf’s up with bioboards, Panasonic’s biobased appliances, CO2 textile […]
Carbon-negative fuels come clearer, closer with Oberon’s leap to demo scale
From California comes news that Oberon Fuels has been officially awarded a grant for $2,876,139 from the California Energy Commission (CEC) for a first-of-its-kind, multi-phase project to produce the first renewable dimethyl ether (rDME), with what could arguably be the most carbon-negative transport fuel ever produced at scale. Carbon neutral, zero-emission, carbon negative – what […]
Yum, yum, CO2 in my tum – NovoNutrients moves forward with CO2 to fish feed plans
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but show him how to make fish food from CO2 and he’s got fish for a lifetime. That’s what NovoNutrients is working on to solve the huge global fishmeal supply/demand issue in the aquaculture industry. You may have seen in the Digest’s “Breaking News” […]
NovoNutrients gets $300K from DOE program for CO2 to feed technology
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $600,000 in federal funding for two projects that fall under the High Performance Computing for Materials (HPC4Mtls) program. One of the projects caught The Digest’s eye in particular – California-based NovoNutrients‘ fermentation technology which utilizes energy from hydrogen to transform industrial carbon dioxide emissions into premium animal feed ingredients and […]
8-Slide Guides
Designer Proteins: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Arzeda
Proteins are molecular machines that carry out the vast majority of functions within living things and Arzeda’s unique combination of computational protein design and state-of-the-art high-throughput screening is a radical change over what’s possible with traditional protein engineering. Alexandre Zanghellini, CEO, Arzeda gave this illuminating overview of their computational protein design solution, details on their […]
One Cool Cat – Bio-TCat: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Anellotech
Anellotech’s patented Bio-TCat process produces 100% bio-based BTX (i.e. benzene, toluene and xylene) ‘drop-in’ aromatic chemicals, offering a solution to the lack of efficient, scalable processes for producing BTX from renewable, non-food biomass. In addition to BTX, Bio-TCat technology produces a heavier aromatics product, which can be used as bio-marine fuel, or can be upgraded […]
Open Innovation in Biorefineries: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to American Process
American Process has developed proprietary technologies for producing low cost cellulosic sugars from non-food based biomass. Theodora Retsina, Ph.D, CEO, American Process, gave this illuminating overview of what open innovation really means, how it takes place in biorefineries, associated challenges, and more at ABLC 2019 in Washington, D.C.
Path to Plant and Partners: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Avantium
Avantium, originally launched in 2000 as a spin-off from Shell, is a chemical technology company and develops efficient processes and sustainable products made from biobased materials. Avantium offers a breeding ground for renewable chemistry solutions – from invention to commercially viable production processes. Zanna McFerson, Managing Director of Avantium, offers this enlightening overview of their […]
11 Fatal No-No’s and 15 Yay-Yay’s: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Lobbying for Your Cause
It’s tough to win the public policy debate and the government agency funding battles, so American Diversified Energy offered this super helpful presentation at the ABLC this past April on how to make sure you are lobbying – successfully – for your cause and shared the big no-no’s to avoid. CJ Evans, Managing Director of […]
The Latest World News
Ocean Park served as financial advisor to Atlantic Biodiesel on sale to Verbio
In Canada, Atlantic Biodiesel Corporation recently closed on the sale of its Canadian biodiesel plant to VERBIO Diesel Canada Corporation. Ocean Park acted as exclusive financial advisor to Atlantic Biodiesel on the transaction. The purchaser is a wholly owned subsidiary of leading German bioenergy producer VERBIO Vereinigte BioEnergie AG (“VERBIO”). VERBIO first announced that it […]
India and Brazil to sign ethanol MOU in November
In Brazil, Reuters reports that when the Indian Prime Minister visits Brazil on an official visit in November, the two countries are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on ethanol cooperation. India is trying to boost its ethanol blending to more than 20%. At the same time, the two countries, as well as others […]
Advanced Biofuels Canada says success of LCFS in British Columbia demonstrates how nationwide LCFS could work
In Canada, since implementing its renewable fuel standard (RFS) in 2010 and a low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) in 2013, the BC market has provided direct evidence to inform the question of how the federal clean fuel standard (CFS) may impact fuel prices. Unlike forward-looking CFS cost speculations, most of which rely on a large […]
Carbio says biodiesel exports to Europe have renewed following March agreement
In Argentina, Platts reports that Carbio says impacts from the deal with Europe opening up its market to Argentine biodiesel are already being felt. The new agreement allows the country beginning in March 2019 to export 1.2 million metric tons of biodiesel to Europe annually, with 416,520 tons already seen shipped between March and May. […]
Maharashtra government to allocate 100ha for paddy straw ethanol and biogas project
In India, the Times of India newspaper reports that the Maharashtra government has allowed the transfer of 100ha of land to be transferred and used for the building of a paddy straw-based ethanol plant and biogas project. More than 700,000 metric tons of paddy straw is available annually in the two districts adjoining the allocated […]
R&D News
Leaked IPCC report warns bioenergy should be promoted but limited to not risk food security
In Germany, a leaked version of the final draft summary of an upcoming IPCC report says that bioenergy can provide benefits in reducing and mitigating climate change but it must be managed in such a way that does not risk food security, desertification and land degradation. The researchers estimate that in order to reduce those […]
RFA says two new academic studies show significant GHG reductions from grain-based ethanol
In Illinois, the Renewable Fuel Association says two new academic studies released this week provide further evidence that grain-based ethanol is significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and call into question the reliability of recent “land use change” analyses based on flawed satellite imagery-based methodologies. These studies add to a large body of existing literature that […]
Indian researchers develop semi-continuous biodiesel process
In India, the Times of India reports that Center of Excellence Farm Machinery has developed a simplified, semi-continuous process to produce biodiesel from any feedstock with fatty acid content of up to 10%, from jatropha to jojoba to animal fats, be it virgin oils or waste fats. The technology was developed with small and medium […]
Michigan Technological University sheds new light on whole-tree logging for biomass
In Michigan, whole-tree aspen logging promotes renewable biomass energy from tops and branches, parts of the tree that are often left in the forest during logging in favor of the tree’s trunk, using the residual that remains after a sustainable harvest for logs. It has long been assumed that removing the leaves and branches of […]
Designer proteins lay foundation for engineered nano-scale circuits, sensors and filters
In Washington, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington School of Medicine demonstrated that artificial proteins engineered from scratch were assembled into nanorod arrays, designer filaments and honeycomb lattices on the surface of mica, demonstrating control over the way proteins interact with surfaces to form complex structures […]
Policy & Policymakers
Small refiners say they’ll sue EPA if hardship waivers not ruled upon within 60 days
In Washington, Reuters reports that if the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t rule on hardship waiver applications within 60 days from July 16, small refiners have vowed to sue the agency in federal court. There are still 40 application waivers outstanding from 2018 that required decisions by March 31, 2019. New applications must be ruled upon […]
UK MPs says E10 needed immediately
In the UK, the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Bioethanol has launched its final report on the introduction of E10. Stemming from the launch of an Inquiry in March into the lack of progress made by the DfT to publish its Consultation into E10, which closed in September 2018. The APPG made an open […]
Indonesia palm oil exports crash due to trade barriers
In Indonesia, the Jakarta Post reports that the national palm oil producers association blames trade barriers for a reduction in palm oil exports, which fell to just over 2 million metric tons in April from nearly 3 million tons in March. Exports did rebound to 2.4 million tons in May, figures were still below expectations. […]
New NNFCC report slams UK’s use of imported UCO for biofuels
In the UK, NNFCC has released a new report on the ‘Implications of Imported Used Cooking Oil as Biodiesel Feedstock.’ The report discusses how UK biofuels policy: • Is driving the growing use of imported Used Cooking Oil to produce biodiesel • Why there’s a need for rigorous checks on the providence of Used Cooking […]
India’s Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways pushes for biofuels
In India, at an event on Friday celebrating the launch of India’s first ethanol based motorcycle, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, spoke of how the use of biofuels, like ethanol and butanol in particular, could help India’s GDP growth and save foreign exchange, according to The Week. The Week reports that […]
Other Recent Articles
Mothballed Australian biodiesel plant brought back online after three years
In Australia, after being mothballed for three years in part due to an unfavorable tax regime, the former Australia Renewable Fuels biodiesel plant in Barnawartha, northeast Victoria, has reopened and brought back on 11 former employees along with it. The newly renamed Just Biodiesel facility will produce 50,000 liters of biodiesel annually but the concern […]
Ireland seen needing E10 ASAP to reach climate goals
In Ireland, one of the country’s top economists has published a report that says in order for Ireland to reach its European and Paris climate goals, it needs to implement adoption of E10 from the current E5 as soon as possible, especially in light of reliance on imported UCO “of dubious nature” for biodiesel blending. […]
Velocys scores nearly £10 million in investment for aviation biofuel
In the UK, Velocys announced that it has raised £7 million in a private placing, selling shares at 3 pence each, complementing commitments received by the company from the Altalto Immingham waste-to-sustainable-fuels project’s strategic partners, British Airways and Shell, of £2.8 million in total. Net proceeds of the Placing will be used predominantly: (i) to […]
Genera raises more than $118 million for bio-based compostable packaging
In Tennessee, Genera announced it has secured more than $118 million in new investment for its first manufacturing facility to produce its Earthable® line of sustainable agricultural fiber products. Genera will use locally grown grasses and other agricultural crops to make compostable food service packaging products like plates, bowls, and takeout containers at its new […]
REG opens first diesel fueling stations in Seneca, Illinois
In Illinois, the Renewable Energy Group celebrated the grand opening of the company’s first diesel fueling station in Seneca, Illinois. Construction on the around-the-clock, fully-automated station began earlier this year. Diesel customers from trucking fleets to local diesel vehicle owners will be able to fill up with biodiesel blended fuel to conveniently reduce harmful greenhouse […]
New Zealand seen looking at wood for power after China closes its doors
In New Zealand, with wood not able to be sold in China the alternative of it being used as biofuel can be good for woodlot owners. “The news that the export of logs to China is dropping off and harvesting of some trees for export is unprofitable should result in woodlot owners looking to new […]
