Author Archive: Jim Lane

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Prices for EU rapeseed see “massive decline”: UFOP

Prices for EU rapeseed see “massive decline”: UFOP

July 3, 2016 |

In Germany, UFOP says that comparatively low producer prices have dampened trade in the upcoming rapeseed crop for a long period of time. June bids for rapeseed on the cash market saw a massive decline in the wake of substantially declining rapeseed prices in Paris and slow demand. Prices ‘free to the Lower Rhine’ as […]

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Global climate bonds trade surges to $694B in 2016: new report

Global climate bonds trade surges to $694B in 2016: new report

July 3, 2016 |

In the UK, The Climate Bonds Initiative has published its 5th annual report ‘Bonds and Climate Change: the State of the Market in 2016’, finding that climate-aligned bonds market now stands at $694bn  – A jump of $96bn (16%) from the 2015 figure.  This total is comprised of unlabelled climate-aligned bonds at $576bn and labelled […]

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Pacific Biodiesel drops Maui prices as county scraps proposed tax hike 

Pacific Biodiesel drops Maui prices as county scraps proposed tax hike 

July 3, 2016 |

In Hawaii, Pacific Biodiesel rolled back the retail price of its Maui pump station biodiesel by 9 cents per gallon – the amount of the on-road biodiesel fuel tax exempted by Maui County in its fiscal year 2017 budget, which also took effect today. Previously Maui County had increased the County Road Tax on biodiesel by 9 cents per gallon and […]

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USDA charts impact of changing oil prices on Brazilian sugarcane, ethanol production: new report

USDA charts impact of changing oil prices on Brazilian sugarcane, ethanol production: new report

July 3, 2016 |

In Washington, the USDA’s Economic Research Service released a new report “Brazil’s Agricultural Land Use and Trade: Effects of Changes in Oil Prices and Ethanol Demand.” In a high-price scenario, the oil price rises 45 percent by 2024. With increasing oil prices, sugarcane area increases by 946,000 hectares during the forecast period, or about 11 […]

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Turn and Face the Strange: The new Algae makes a Bowiesque pivot into new markets

Turn and Face the Strange: The new Algae makes a Bowiesque pivot into new markets

June 30, 2016 |

What are our tiny green friends doing to earn their living, now? 2009 – that was the Summer of Algae. It seemed like every venture forming had algae somewhere in its sights. The ventures were bold in their vision — renewable fuels, proving protein for a hungry world, and recycling CO2, re-using land that had […]

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Intrexon: Will its GTL business arrive in 2018?

Intrexon: Will its GTL business arrive in 2018?

June 29, 2016 |

The indictment was handed down this week in The Motley Fool, which averred: Intrexon is…failing to learn the dangers of over-promising on manufacturing milestones. While investors have been told to expect the natural gas-to-fuels platform to be commercialized by 2018, real-world indicators essentially guarantee that won’t be the case — and hint that it won’t […]

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Amyris busts a move: major deals with Givaudan, Ginkgo

Amyris busts a move: major deals with Givaudan, Ginkgo

June 29, 2016 |

Zombies with attitude. New partnerships for making magic molecules and exploitin’ the heck out of ’em. These days, nothing in Hollywood beats a great zombie movie, more than 50 have been released in recent years. Zombies rise from the dead, and change everything around them. It’s not always pretty, or predictable, but they’re a disruptive force. […]

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The top 20 ways to capture and make use of carbon

The top 20 ways to capture and make use of carbon

June 27, 2016 |

It was back in 2010 that the first large-scale set of projects were funded to to test innovative concepts for the beneficial use of carbon dioxide, part of a Recovery Act investment into carbon capture technology. The DOE pumped $106 million into the effort. 12 projects did phase 1 feasibility studies, six went on to […]

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The 20 Hottest Carbon-Capturing Technologies of 2016

The 20 Hottest Carbon-Capturing Technologies of 2016

June 27, 2016 |

Well, you can’t just capture carbon these days. That’s mundane. You have to use it, in a sustainable and novel way that makes carbon capture more affordable and cycles carbon more effectively through the industrial system. As LanzaTech’s Jennifer Holmgren observed in a recent article by Peter Forbes in Aeon: “Carbon is precious. This means we […]

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Brexit and the bioeconomy

Brexit and the bioeconomy

June 26, 2016 |

OK, the UK is exiting the EU, Cameron has resigned, Scotland is considering secession, Moody’s put the British credit rating on watch, and over the weekend 12 shadow ministers of the Labor Party were either sacked or resigned, as the UK’s extraordinary political crisis unfolds. Markets melted on Friday, with $2 trillion in value wiped off the […]

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