Category: Top Stories

Cactus leather boxing gloves, fermentation-based cannabidiol, lignin-based asphalt, and more: The Digest’s Top 8 Innovations for the week of October 9th

October 8, 2020 | admin

The recent Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates have shown us that everyone has boxing gloves on these days, but now a company has created boxing gloves made from cactus leather instead of the traditional cowhide leather, making your fight a more sustainable and eco-friendlier one. In today’s Digest, lignin-based asphalt is getting a test drive, the […]

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020: The Cas9 scissors inside the CRISPR revolution

October 7, 2020 | admin

In Sweden, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for their work on the smallest and most powerful scissors ever invented: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Digest readers will easily recognize Doudna for co-founding Caribou Life Sciences (more here) and also serving on […]

The Road to Hydrogen: Coalition launches Road Map to a US Hydrogen Economy , tips 17 million ton demand by 2030

October 7, 2020 | Jim Lane

In Washington, a coalition of major oil & gas, power, automotive, fuel cell, and hydrogen companies have come together to develop a Road Map to a US Hydrogen Economy. In the most ambitious scenario, the authors concluded that hydrogen demand potential across all these applications could reach 17 million metric tons by 2030 and 63 […]

Monster on the Big Muddy: REG Geismar to expand renewable hydrocarbon production to 340 million gallons

October 6, 2020 | admin

In Louisiana, Renewable Energy Group said it will undertake a capacity expansion of its Geismar, Louisiana biorefinery by 250 million gallons annually to 340 million gallons per year. This announcement follows a thorough review and site selection process. Construction should begin in mid to late 2021 with target mechanical completion date in late 2023. The […]

Top 5 Things Any Biofuel Company Should Be Doing to Protect its IP

October 5, 2020 | Jim Lane

By David B. Fournier, Partner and Firmwide Chair of the Patent Prosecution and Portfolio Counseling Practice at Perkins Coie LLC and Linda Falcon, Associate attorney at Perkins Coie LLC Special to The Digest The global biofuels market size is in excess of $100 billion and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate […]

Hydrogen and fuel cell technology taking off, Ballard aims for $130 billion heavy and medium duty vehicles market

October 4, 2020 | admin

Ballard just hosted a 5-hour analyst day with no breaks and there was a lot to unpack in terms of how the company intends to apply fuel cells in the bus, truck, trains and even marine sectors. But the key message was the huge expanding fuel cell and hydrogen market applications – specifically the Heavy […]

Culture sushi-grade salmon, cultivated lab-beef, Porsche biobased car parts, and more: The Digest’s Top 8 Innovations for the week of October 2nd

October 1, 2020 | admin

In San Francisco, startup company Wildtype gives salmon cells nutrients, sugars, salts, amino acids and growth factor to “grow” salmon tissue in its lab. If you are still hungry after that, Netherlands-based Mosa Meat is scaling up their industrial-sized production line to demonstrate the safety of cultivated meat and introduce the first cultivated beef to […]

The Roundest Fuel That Ever Was – Suburban Propane acquires a 39 percent stake in Oberon Fuels – the how, the why, the progress with DME fuels

September 30, 2020 | Jim Lane

They’re calling it “the circular economy” these days — a vision for a fully sustainable society using renewable resources in a circle of sourcing, production and use. Which raises the question of which is the most circular of fuels — the roundest, if you will — right now, it’s looking like rDME. DME doesn’t stand […]

European Climate Policy and the Bioeconomy – Missed Opportunities or Muddling Through?

September 29, 2020 | Jim Lane

Between politics and pandemic one could be forgiven for not closely following Europe’s bioeconomy. But as we scan the globe for bio-economy green shoots, we are noticing some interesting – and disconcerting – activity “across the pond”. Today we look to Europe and try to pluck the signal from the noise in Brussels amid promising […]

New tech converts natural gas to hydrogen at scale anywhere and Plastic-eating enzyme ‘cocktail’ heralds hope for plastic waste

September 29, 2020 | admin

It’s Tuesday and we’ve got two hot-off-the press technologies making news today. And if that isn’t enough Ts in one sentence, they also hit the target in terms of solving today’s tough trials. Converting otherwise wasted natural gas into high-value hydrogen and acetylene In Florida, Transform’s patented commercial-scale microwave plasma reactor system accelerates hydrogen infrastructure […]

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