In Washington, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and “an array of biobased stakeholders” will be on hand for display of biobased products at the United Soybean Board’s Biobased Stakeholder’s Dialogue, held at USDA headquarters. The Dialogue features speakers from across the federal government who are sharing their success stories using products from USDA’s BioPreferred Program. According […]
In Washington, researchers found that C. thermocellum uses a previously unknown mechanism to degrade cellulose, in addition to other known degradation mechanisms. This discovery helps explain C. thermocellum’s superior ability to digest biomass and demonstrates the highly diverse strategies evolved in nature for biomass conversion. Researchers are using the study’s findings to develop optimal systems […]
In California, 57 fuel producers and trade associations wrote to California Senate President Pro Tem De León and Speaker Rendon, urging support for the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, “which will reduce the carbon intensity of California’s fuels by 10 percent by 2020.” The LCFS is a critical tool that California needs to achieve its […]
The boom Remember how natural gas was the no-brainer of all time. Gas-to-Liquids was the rage, and a gold rush of companies popped up such as Siluria Technologies, Calysta, and Mango Materials. Fuels, chems, materials and more. The world had discovered new technologies for making a chemical building block out of methane, instead of a runaway […]
In Delaware, DuPont Industrial Biosciences announced the launch of OPTIMASH AD-100, an innovative new enzyme product that will help biomethane producers improve biogas yields and process robustness, which is expected to ultimately increase their revenue and profitability. OPTIMASH AD-100 represents DuPont Industrial Biosciences’ entry into the growing biogas sector, with an enzyme that has been […]
In Germany, the AVA cleanphos pilot plant in Karlsruhe, sponsored by the German Federal Environment Foundation (DBU), came online at the beginning of July 2016. Leading biotechnology company AVA-CO2 has developed the AVA cleanphos process which enables efficient and cost-effective recovery of phosphorus from sewage sludge. The process also allows for co-incineration in the future and […]
In Germany, a team headed by Prof Dr Beatriz Roldan Cuenya from Ruhr-Universität Bochumsaid that how plasma-treated copper can be used as a catalyst to performs highly selective conversion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into ethylene – an important source material for the chemical industry. The report was published in Nature Communications. PhD student […]
In England, Nova Pangaea reports that birch chips having been processed through the company’s hemicellulose hydrolysis technology yielding 90% monomer xylose from the hemicellulose, the chip size reduced during the hydrolysis process. The pilot ws originally designed at the 40 kilo/hr scale and was scheduled to be installed at the Wilton chemical complex on Teesside, […]
In Massachusetts, a new report from Lux Research concluded that “Robotics can be competitive with human labor in some cases already, and falling costs over the next decade will open up more applications.” Lux Research analysts studied automation in agriculture and the developers of robots. Among their findings: • Robots near parity with labor in corn […]
In Switzerland, Brazilian Biodiesel and Biojetfuel Union has joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials and RSB is also now a member of Ubrabio. Ubrabio is based in Brazil and will be part of RSB’s Chamber 7: Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs), governments, and research/academic institutions. As members, Ubrabio and RSB will be engaging in discussions and decision-making […]
