There just isn’t an organization out there like Pacific Biodiesel. Labors on, fighting the good fight, hitting every sustainability grace note, and always surprising the industry with one more innovative way of doing things. And here’s one more thing to like — Maui sunflowers. Last week, after hosting an Earth Day community event the previous […]
In Washington, the Trump Administration released its “Presidential Executive Order on Promoting Agriculture and Rural Prosperity in America” — and a report from the Interagency Task Force, something this order creates, is due in 180 days. For fans of the White House Rural Council — this replaces that. It aims at regulatory, policy and legislative […]
In the past month, the Digest pointed towards a tipping point in the underlying technology that powers the industry — and a convergence in the technologies of genetics, Big Data and robotics that is rapidly and radically re-shaping the bioeconomy and the to an increasing extent the general economy. We noted that the tip of […]
News this week arrived from Canada that Enerkem has received the lowest carbon intensity value ever issued by the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines for its ethanol product under the Renewable and Low Carbon Fuel Requirements Regulation. The confirmed carbon intensity is a shocker. Where gasoline check in at the testing center at […]
You may be familiar with the story-telling factoid couplets of the Harper’s Index, and here’s an interesting set in that magazine’s iconic style: Concentration of sarin (nerve gas) required for fatal human toxicity: 0.0028% Concentration of deadly chemicals in the earth’s lower atmosphere if all the world’s stockpile of chemical weapons were simultaneously released: 0.0000000000013240774% […]
From Wisconsin we have huge news from Virent, which has appointed one of Shell New Energies’ gurus, Stacey Orlandi, as Virent CEO, succeeding Lee Edwards who is headed into retirement after a distinguished 8-year run. Most recently, Orlandi was Shell’s VP, Technology for Novel Processes and New Energies. Orlandi’s mission? To commercialize Virent’s technology for the large scale […]
Over at our sister publication Nuu, we reported this week that TerraVia got a “generally recognized as safe” OK from the FDA for its long-awaited algae butter. It’s a palm-free, non-hydrogenated, vegan solution for bakery, spreads and confectionery applications. Algae Butter will be produced by the TerraVia and Bunge joint venture, SB Oils, and marketed […]
From California arrives the very interesting news that Amyris has entered into an agreement with Blue California whereby its affiliates will provide access to its fermentation manufacturing in China and provide the necessary capital to produce No Compromise ingredients for Amyris. Turns out that China sales have been doubling. Blue California might seem an unlikely […]
In Florida, Biofuels Digest reports that the industrial biotechnology sector raised $1.128B in new capital in the first quarter of 2017, excluding debt and sovereign investments as well as M&A activity (but including expansion investment). Our complete recap by company is here. It’s the first quarter the Digest has reported with more than $1B in […]
Several weeks ago, Digest readers around the world selected the hottest topics on the sector’s agenda — we organized speakers to those selected topics under the March Madness webinar brand, and we are now halfway through that series. In all, we have assembled more than 300 slides and 10 hours of commentary and insight from […]
