International Energy Agency is an autonomous organization that works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 30 member countries and beyond. Dr. Paolo Frankl, Head of Renewable Energy Division at IEA, gave this illuminating overview of four key actions to accelerate biofuels and bioenergy, what the ideal policy landscape would be, immediate opportunities […]
GoodFuels is the the market-leader in developing and delivering advanced sustainable fuels for the transport sector, offering a cost-effective pathway towards a low-carbon society. Their focus is on the aviation, shipping and heavy road and rail sectors. Bart Hellings, Head of Innovation at GoodFuels, gave this illuminating overview of the rationale for biofuels in shipping, evaluation […]
In Russia, the Tass news agency reports that local company CosmoCourse plans to use ethanol to fuel its tourist space vehicles. With flights ready to take passengers by 2025, they should expect to experience up to five minutes of zero gravity. High taxes on ethanol have kept ethanol from being commercialized as a fuel but […]
In South Korea, Reuters reports that as of March 15 utilities will be able to replace fuel oil with biofuel oil to produce electricity following a delay in formalities that originally saw the biofuel coming into the power matrix on January 1. The majority of the country’s power comes from coal and nuclear sources, however, […]
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? Most chemical building blocks, platform chemicals originate from fossil sources. Especially for aromatics, no sustainable production route was available at […]
In Washington, the Biomass Research and Development (BR&D) Board, an interagency collaborative composed of senior decision makers from federal agencies and the White House, co-chaired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), recently released its “The Bioeconomy Initiative: Implementation Framework”, which serves as a guiding document for the […]
In Iowa, Renewable Energy Group announced that “the Company’s Board of Directors has decided to pursue a sale of the Company’s life sciences business unit,” known as RE Life Sciences. “As a result, the fourth quarter and year-end financial statements have been adjusted to reflect the life sciences unit as discontinued operations for all historical […]
By James Cogan, Ethanol Industry & Policy Analyst Special to The Digest Europe’s ethanol bosses – the main ones being the leaders of Tereos, Cristal Union, Alco Group, Crop Energies, and industry association ePURE – have a hard time putting a value on their assets. The ongoing battle to convince regulators that domestic crop based […]
The pace of bioeconomy invention and change continues at a frenetic pace. Here are the top innovations for the week of March 6th. In today’s Digest, super corn microbe, self-healing concrete, jute gene tweak, mushroom root Styrofoam replacement, biodegradable food packaging. #1 Mushroom-root Styrofoam replacement wins Lebanon Student Startup competition In Lebanon, a team from […]
Today, the US Department of Energy took a bold step forward in wastes to biopower and gaseous fuels for medium and heavy-duty vehicles. It’s part of a major $51 million funding package for advanced vehicle technologies that also includes work on energy-efficient engines and fast-fueling for hydrogen fuels. In the topic most relevant to the […]
