By Lorenz Bauer Ph.D., Lee Enterprises Consulting “Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.” Samuel Coleridge Managing the water in biomass processes like food production, fermentations, pyrolysis, and biodiesel production is critical to success. There is an increasing appreciation of the value of clean water. The […]
Yes, ARPA-E has unveiled its latest moonshot and is investing $22M in Macroalgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Resources — also known as MARINER. The projects that comprise ARPA-E’s Macroalgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Resources (MARINER) program seek to develop the critical tools to allow the United States to grow into a world leader in the […]
The US Department of Energy is supporting a project to advance transformative Co-Solvent Enhanced Lignocellulosic Fractionation to achieve high yield production of “drop-in” oxygenated liquid fuels from poplar wood. The project also aims at high yield co-conversion of C5 and C6 sugars directly to MF and DMF fuels in only two reaction steps directly from biomass. […]
In Slovakia, Enviral has acquired a license to use Clariant’s sunliquid technology as part of its goal to realize a full scale commercial cellulosic ethanol plant for the commercial production of cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues. The new plant will be owned and operated by Enviral and is planned to be integrated into the existing […]
In the UK, Green Biologics has achieved kosher and halal certification for the 100 percent bio-based n-butanol and acetone, produced at the company’s commercial facility in Little Falls, Minnesota. These certifications enable Green Biologics’ chemicals to serve as ingredients for personal, homecare and food products. “The kosher and halal certifications that have been granted to our Little […]
The US Department of Energy is supporting a project to demonstrate the techno‐economic feasibility of upgrading biomass derived pyrolysis oil using electro-deoxygenation process. A ceramic membrane that selectively transports oxygen under an applied electric potential is integrated with a fast pyrolysis unit for in-situ removal of oxygen to stabilize bio-oil. Overall, the research team led by Elango […]
In Switzerland, Geneva Airport has partnered with Neste to introduce sustainable and renewable jet fuel for aircraft operations, with a target of at least one percent of the annual jet fuel consumption starting late 2018. This collaboration marks Geneva’s transition into the implementation phase of the Carbon War Room/SkyNRG-initiated project. CWR and SkyNRG first brought […]
The US Department of Energy is supporting a project to identify and mitigate the challenges of moving new fuels and vehicles into markets. Including but not limited to: facilitating new fuel standards needed for introduction into the marketplace; identifying vehicle, distribution, and infrastructure compatibility of new candidate bio-blendstocks; interacting with all market sector stakeholders for […]
While we’ve been busy fleeing Hurricane Irma, it’s been a busy week for the techies running the Digest’s Very Large Gossip Array — the airwaves have been crackling as some familiar faces re-surface. Let’s review. Bayer, Ginkgo’s $100 Million Baby News just arrived from Germany that Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks will create a new company […]
The US Department of Energy is supporting a project led by Pacific Northwest National Lab to develop a new deconstruction technology to provide low ash and low impurity sugars and sugar-derived intermediates from lignocellulosic feeds for use in catalytic and biochemical conversions. As the researchers note, “catalysis and biochemical conversions of sugars and sugar-derived compounds can produce open-chain hydrocarbon […]
