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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
In Washington, members of Congress Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Congresswoman, Dupont’s Jan Koninckx and US Assistant Secretary of the Navy Dennis McGinn are among the keynote speakers announced by the US Department of Energy for its annual Bioenergy 2016 meeting, which will be held July 12-14 in Washington. In addition, Bernardo Silva, Executive President, […]
In Washington, 39 senators sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, urging EPA to ensure the final 2017 Renewable Fuel Standard rule “promotes growth in the U.S. biofuel sector and capture economic opportunity rather than drive investment overseas.” The 2017 proposal calls on refiners to blend 14.8 billion gallons of conventional biofuels in 2017, […]
In California, SteelRiver Infrastructure Fund North America has taken a minority stake in Davis-based Sierra Energywhose FastOx gasifier is now under construction in partnership with the U.S. Army and the California Energy Commission. Using steam and oxygen, FastOx gasifiers break down trash into an energy-dense fuel, without burning. This fuel can then be used to […]
