By Ronald Cascone, Principal, Nexant, Inc. Special to The Digest Love-hate Most people love plastics. Most people hate plastics. Similarly, most people love nature (sunsets, the beach, walks or drives through the woods, especially for leaf peeping, flowers, furry animals, etc.), but also hate nature (hurricanes, tornados, jellyfish, biting insects, spiders, snakes, skunks, ragweed, fallen […]
Taking non-reyclable waste to sustainable chemicals and biofuels is Enerkem’s world. Current products from ‘trash’ include syngas, methanol and ethanol with alternative pathways currently under development. Andrea Redford, Chief Business Development Officer from Enerkem gave this illuminating presentation at the ABLC NEXT in San Francisco that details the latest on their Alberta Biofuels commercial scale […]
Domo arigato Mr. Roboto – How would you like an automated microfluidic system to help create an ultra-high throughput workstation for the screening and optimization of microbial strains, cell lines, enzymes, proteins and peptides? Efficient Robotics has made this happen with their NTP (nano-titer-pipe) automated microfluidic platform! Martin Mitchell, Global Sales & Marketing Director from […]
From Europe we’d like to shine a light today on “Hydrogen Roadmap Europe: A sustainable pathway for the European Energy Transition“ concludes that hydrogen is an essential element in the energy transition and can account for 24% of final energy demand and 5.4m jobs by 2050. The new study by the FCH JU was developed with […]
In the Netherlands, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) says the company has started to use biofuel in its vessels calling in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Following successful trials with biofuel blends earlier this year, MSC has decided to continue bunkering responsibly sourced biofuel blends on a routine basis. The trials were completed with a minimal 10% […]
In India, the Denton Daily newspaper reports that BPCL’s second-generation ethanol plant under construction in Odisha should be commissioned by the end of next year, ramping up to produce 30 million liters of ethanol annually from rice straw. Burning of rice straw has caused major air pollution challenges in India, culminating in suffocating New Delhi […]
In Thailand, the Bangkok Post newspaper reports that Energy Fund Administration Institute plans to stop subsidizing E85 sometime in 2020 after a decade of trying to get motors to use the fuel. The agency is also planning to roll back subsidies on 10% and 20% ethanol blends as well as biodiesel. With the subsidies in […]
In Brazil, Platts reports that its survey of analysts shows ethanol production through H1 November to be 672 million liters against its own estimates of 630 million liters and UNICA’s estimate of 712 million liters. As the sugarcane crush winds down, analysts estimate slightly more than 75% of the 10.58 million metric tons of cane […]
In India, the Indian Express newspaper reports that 15 sugar mills in Maharashtra who had planned to divert sugar production towards ethanol through the use of heavy-B molasses are still waiting for permission to start producing ethanol. It is taking longer than expected for the state to finalize its cabinet who needs to sign off […]
In New Zealand, Air New Zealand has begun trialing edible coffee cups with customers in the air and on the ground as it explores new and innovative ways to meet its sustainability challenges. The airline currently serves more than eight million cups of coffee each year. The ‘twiice’ edible cup trial backs up Air New Zealand’s recent switch to […]
