Category: Top Stories

The Fickle Finger of Fuel Fury: avoided cost, fish oil, Maytag, and biofuels

The Fickle Finger of Fuel Fury: avoided cost, fish oil, Maytag, and biofuels

September 26, 2013 |

How do you really value something that takes a bad outcome (high gas prices) and prevents a worse outcome (outrageous gas prices). Preventative medicine – you never really feel the value, see the value — so how do you measure the benefits of renewable fuels in ways that have meaning to individuals? If you are […]

Read More

Energy as easy as Waffles

Energy as easy as Waffles

September 25, 2013 |

One day, biofuels microbes may be so adept at making fuels, it will be a case of “just add water”. For now, there’s the hard slog of unlocking feedstocks that are affordable, available and aggregated. As we look for recent victories in low-cost feedstock development, What can we learn from natural gas? People from Minnesota […]

Read More

KiOR, and the “hard yards” of commercialization

KiOR, and the “hard yards” of commercialization

September 25, 2013 |

“The first cut is the deepest” goes the old saw — no more so than in first commercial, first-of-kind advanced biofuels projects – especially when they are undertaken by newly-public companies under extraordinary scrutiny.  In short, the KiOR story. And, as allegations fly, we look at the data on the ground and find that things […]

Read More

E85’s value is looking better and better: can the good times last?

E85’s value is looking better and better: can the good times last?

September 25, 2013 |

For several months now, we have been highlighting the favorable spread that is emerging for fuel customers in Iowa who choose E85 ethanol blends, as opposed to gasoline. New data has been arriving this week from the Iowa Renewable Fuel Association that confirms that the trend is still favorable — in fact, the price discount […]

Read More

Cob chic: as cellulosic biofuels arrive, the humble corn cob reigneth anew

Cob chic: as cellulosic biofuels arrive, the humble corn cob reigneth anew

September 23, 2013 |

After achieving celebrity via Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Huck Finn and Frosty the Snowman, the corn cob has been languishing of late.  No more, as cobs appear poised to emerge as a biofuels feedstock rockstar. In days gone by, no one living on the land wasted anything if they could find a use for it. That’s […]

Read More

Show me the gallons: KiOR’s progress towards steady-state operations

Show me the gallons: KiOR’s progress towards steady-state operations

September 23, 2013 |

Landmark cellulosic drop-in biofuels producer releases update on early-stage production: is the increasing gallonage enough to silence the critics? Today, we head to the Chapel of Hard Data, and get closer to the music. Nobody walks slower, in public, than at a wedding or a funeral. In the case of KiOR, the critics and supporters […]

Read More

It’s official: algae biofuels cut emissions by 50-70 percent, approaching oil energy economics, says report

It’s official: algae biofuels cut emissions by 50-70 percent, approaching oil energy economics, says report

September 23, 2013 |

Attention, fall fashioneers. Save up to 70% on carbon when you go with trendy, affordable algae biofuels. In Minnesota, the Algae Biomass Organization announced that a peer-reviewed paper, published in Bioresource Technology, has shown that algae-derived biofuel can reduce life cycle CO2 emissions by 50 to 70 percent compared to petroleum fuels, and is approaching […]

Read More

BASF to acquire Verenium for $51M

BASF to acquire Verenium for $51M

September 20, 2013 |

In California, Verenium announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with BASF Corporation, a leading chemicals company, under which BASF will commence a cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Verenium’s common stock. This agreement has been unanimously approved by both Verenium’s and BASF’s Boards of Directors. Under the terms […]

Read More

ARPA-E awards $34M in R&D for advanced liquid fuels from methane

ARPA-E awards $34M in R&D for advanced liquid fuels from methane

September 19, 2013 |

ARPA-E boosts its original projected awards by 70% as it burrows deep into the problem of how to make something insanely great out of stranded methane. Here are the winners, the background and the stakes. In Washington, the US Department of Energy announced that 15 breakthrough energy projects will receive approximately $34 million from the […]

Read More

Inspector-General says DOE behind on integrated Biorefinery goals; projects funded were not ready for prime-time

Inspector-General says DOE behind on integrated Biorefinery goals; projects funded were not ready for prime-time

September 18, 2013 |

The Inspector-General says money was properly spent, but not always well-spent, as the DOE allocated $600 million to biofuels commercialization over 7 years yet fell short of RFS targets? Long audit reports leave you with watering eyes? Try our 3-Minute Guide. In Washington, the DOE’s Inspector General published a 24-page Follow-up Audit of the Department […]

Read More