In Brazil, RenewablesNow reports the most recent biodiesel auction held by the ANP fuels agency saw more than 1 billion liters of biodiesel sourced for a total of $503.8 million. A total of 99.36% of the fuel contracted had the social fuel seal indicating the feedstock was sourced from small family farmers. The biodiesel sold […]
In Washington, Platts reports that Energy Information Administration data shows that the ethanol industry’s efforts to mothball production in line with falling demand is finally paying off. At last, ethanol stocks fell by more than 1.3 barrels after five straight weeks of increasing stocks. Production fell to a 12-year low of 537,000 b/d. The Gulf […]
In Texas, ICIS reports that Valero said in an investor call that the company sees significant ethanol demand destruction due to COVID-19. Its own production is running at less than 50% production capacity with eight plants mothballed and six currently operating. Valero expects fuel demand to eventually return to normal with ethanol playing its role […]
In Brazil, Terra reports that the Brazilian biodiesel industry is begging the government to speed up the implementation of B13 in an effort to support prices during the COVID-19 pandemic. National policy foresees a 1% increase in the blending mandate every year through 2023 when it is meant to reach 15%. The blend increased to […]
In California, Caltech researchers wanted to learn even more about you from your skin, and to that end, he has developed an electronic skin, or e-skin, that is applied directly on top of your real skin. The e-skin, made from soft, flexible rubber, can be embedded with sensors that monitor information like heart rate, body […]
In Washington, Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer (IA-01) announced the introduction of the Clean Fuels Deployment Act of 2020. The bipartisan legislation, co-sponsored by Reps. Angie Craig (D-MN), Don Bacon (R-NE), and Roger Marshall (R-KS), would provide funding for installing and converting fuel pump infrastructure to deliver higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel. The bill authorizes $500 million […]
On Monday, we’ll wake up to the work of the bioeconomy, and something will be different. Jonathan Male, the Director of the BioEnergy Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy, will not be at his desk. He’s off to another adventure which we hope to report on shortly. It was the Biomass program when […]
DNA is changing the world. That’s what Twist Biosciences is focusing on with synthetic DNA being the future of chemicals, food, therapeutics, diagnostics and even data storage. From next-gen sequencing to synthetic biology, Twist Biosciences envisions a huge expanding market of about $2.3 billion, and their TWIST Silicon Platform can make 9,600 genes, or up to […]
By Randall Bolten, data scientist, professor at UC Berkeley Extension, author of Painting with Numbers Special to The Digest No, we’re not doing enough testing – not if we look at the rest of the world. We’ve all heard that testing is a measure of how effectively a country is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
In Kansas, the conclusion of a new peer reviewed technical paper published in the Journal of Air & Waste Management is that ethanol blends reduce vehicle emissions and save lives, validating previous research efforts by the Urban Air Initiative that find when ethanol is added to gasoline, it significantly reduces toxic emissions tied to air […]
