Author Archive: Jim Lane

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Coronavirus update: The bioeconomy responds to the crisis

Coronavirus update: The bioeconomy responds to the crisis

March 15, 2020 |

First and foremost, we want to communicate that ABLC 2020 has been postponed until July 8-10, after the Mayor of Washington DC issued a health & safety advisory that we felt obliged to follow, although the advisory warned against the holding of events with 1,000 delegates or more, and ABLC audience is not quite that […]

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250% Production Volume Growth: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Amyris’s Business Model and 148% Revenue Growth

250% Production Volume Growth: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Amyris’s Business Model and 148% Revenue Growth

March 15, 2020 |

A stock worth watching is Amyris on heels of their Q4 2019 earnings call. The financial highlights, the latest numbers on their Biossance soon to be billion dollar brand, recent production results like the 10 Q4 products that totaled a product volume of 1,578 tons which is a new quarterly record and a total 2019 product […]

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Middle East’s 1st plant-based water bottle, biofoams made from seafood waste, mushrooms, bamboo diapers, biobowls, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of March 12th

Middle East’s 1st plant-based water bottle, biofoams made from seafood waste, mushrooms, bamboo diapers, biobowls, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of March 12th

March 12, 2020 |

In Abu Dhabi, food and beverage company Agthia Group PJSC is set to launch the Middle East’s first plant-based water bottle made from corn sugar with caps made from sugarcane, and can biodegrade within 80 days. And lots of new biobased packaging solutions are coming out of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s Protective Packaging Design Challenge […]

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Methanol as Fuel, Chemical Feedstock and Liquid Hydrogen Carrier: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Methanol as Fuel and Feedstock

Methanol as Fuel, Chemical Feedstock and Liquid Hydrogen Carrier: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Methanol as Fuel and Feedstock

March 12, 2020 |

Methanol is versatile – it can be used as turbine fuel, cooking fuel, and as a fuel for solid oxide fuel cells. But G.K.Surya Prakash from University of Southern California shares in this illuminating presentation other ways methanol is handy dandy, like as a liquid hydrogen carrier, how it can be used in internal combustion engines, […]

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Agriculturally advantaged traits: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Calyxt’s Plant-based Solutions

Agriculturally advantaged traits: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Calyxt’s Plant-based Solutions

March 11, 2020 |

Using a process that mimics how plants could have developed in nature, Calyxt’s proprietary gene editing technologies are bringing a variety of plant-based solutions. They were the first to commercialize a gene-edited food product and recently launched their high oleic soybean products and expect their gross margins to be greater than 80%. With over 70 patent […]

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The 7 Pillars of Technology Breakthrough: Novozymes’ innovations in yeast show the new way

The 7 Pillars of Technology Breakthrough: Novozymes’ innovations in yeast show the new way

March 10, 2020 |

Over the years we have run 727 different stories around technology or commercial breakthroughs in The Digest — there’s even a venture capital group named Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Let’s explore today — using the recent news from Novozymes about their pioneering advances in yeast — what exactly a breakthrough is, and does. That’s relevant to […]

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H2@Scale Initiative: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to U.S. DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Activities

H2@Scale Initiative: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to U.S. DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Activities

March 10, 2020 |

Check out this latest snapshot of hydrogen and fuel cells applications in the U.S. as presented by the U.S. Department of Energy. Detailed slides on existing hydrogen production facilities which total about 10 million metric tons produced annually in the U.S. with more than 1,600 miles of H2 pipeline and 4 new liquefaction plants announced, examples […]

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5 Lessons Learned on Controlling Fermentation Facility Capital Costs

5 Lessons Learned on Controlling Fermentation Facility Capital Costs

March 9, 2020 |

By Mark Warner, PE, Founder, Warner Advisors LLC Special to The Digest Biotechnology funding is surging and contract fermentation options remain limited, so companies seeking to commercialize advanced biotechnologies are again evaluating options to build required production capacity.  While the “build” approach comes with many benefits, capital costs and requisite funding required to build a […]

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Billion Dollar Brands, Ingredients, Fermentation Tech: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Amyris’s Synthetic Biology Platform

Billion Dollar Brands, Ingredients, Fermentation Tech: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Amyris’s Synthetic Biology Platform

March 9, 2020 |

So far, more than 50,000 consumers a day are engaging with Amyris’s brands just in the U.S. alone. And they have 10 fermentation products currently in production. How did Amyris get to this mass market level? What is their current status in key markets like alternative sweeteners, flavors and fragrances, baby products, skincare? What makes their […]

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Storm brewing in DC (again) over oil refinery waivers (again) as Trump Administration flip-flops (again)

Storm brewing in DC (again) over oil refinery waivers (again) as Trump Administration flip-flops (again)

March 8, 2020 |

In Washington, what must have become a weary if vigilant posse of the nation’s biofuel and farm advocates are out on the hustings again this week, over a fresh attack on the US Renewable Fuel Standard, this one led by officials in the Trump Administration, if a story reported by Bloomberg stands up against scrutiny. […]

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