Category: Top Stories

The 200 Top Moments in Aviation Biofuels, 2006-2013: A timeline

The 200 Top Moments in Aviation Biofuels, 2006-2013: A timeline

June 21, 2013 |

Here are the 200 Top Moments in Aviation Biofuels, 2006-2013, organized in a timeline, as reported through the years by Biofuels Digest.   1 Civil Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative formed 12/1/06 2 TEST FLIGHT: Virgin Atlantic 2/24/08 3 Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group formed 9/15/08 4 TEST FLIGHT: Air New Zealand 12/30/08 5 TEST FLIGHT: […]

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Freedom of choice: E20 ethanol blends take the value crown from gasoline, E10

Freedom of choice: E20 ethanol blends take the value crown from gasoline, E10

June 20, 2013 |

Freedom of choice, it turns out, drives better value for drivers. The Digest goes in-depth to look at real-world data — and the power of free markets in fossil and alternative fuels. One of the assumptions in the world of typical comparisons between ethanol and gasoline is that differentials in price and performance work in […]

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Transform methane into low-cost plastics, chemicals, fuels? Yep, there’s an app for that too.

Transform methane into low-cost plastics, chemicals, fuels? Yep, there’s an app for that too.

June 19, 2013 |

Two of the pioneers of the biobased economy – former Codexis CEO Alan Shaw and NatureWorks — strike a landmark deal based on methane – most affordably sourced from natural gas. Renegades? Revolutionaries? Practical business in commodity-driven industries? The Digest takes you inside the deal — and the technology. In Canada, Calysta Energy and NatureWorks […]

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5 Top trends, 6 hot quotes: “Heard on the floor” at the BIO World Congress

5 Top trends, 6 hot quotes: “Heard on the floor” at the BIO World Congress

June 19, 2013 |

We heard five trends during the first two days of the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology this year. 1. Methane. 2. Low-cost sugars. 3. Chemicals. 4. Opportunities in the C4 platform – anything from isobutanol to BDO and butadiene. 5. Financing challenges, especially for first commercial plants Our 6 favorite quotes? 1. “The trends […]

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Gevo restarts isobutanol production at Luverne: what’s happening now, what happened?

Gevo restarts isobutanol production at Luverne: what’s happening now, what happened?

June 18, 2013 |

As Gevo recommences the switchover to bio-based isobutanol at its first commercial plant, we look in-depth at 2012’s contamination issues — and the prospects and path forward. In Colorado, Gevo announced that it has resumed commercial production of isobutanol at its Luverne, Minn. plant in single train mode, successfully utilizing its proprietary Gevo Integrated Fermentation […]

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Caldicellulosiruptor bescii – That lignin-loving, pretreatment-be-darned mighty biofuels microbe

Caldicellulosiruptor bescii – That lignin-loving, pretreatment-be-darned mighty biofuels microbe

June 18, 2013 |

In Georgia, a group of researchers led by the University of Georgia’s Mike Adams have found another thermophilic bacterium with amazing properties — this time, finding a bacterium that can, without pretreatment, break down biomass, including lignin, and release sugars for biofuels and chemicals production. The group writes in Energy & Environmental Science, “the majority […]

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Biofuels and Renewable Chemicals’s Hottest Partners for 2013-14

Biofuels and Renewable Chemicals’s Hottest Partners for 2013-14

June 17, 2013 |

You chose — here are the winners in this year’s poll. In Florida, Biofuels Digest announced that POET and DSM were among the biggest winners in the annual Hot Partners poll. Voting was open to Digest subscribers at more than 25,000 organization in every country around the globe, and recognizes the hottest supply chain partners […]

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Beautifying Renewable Fuel Markets with Creative Hedges

Beautifying Renewable Fuel Markets with Creative Hedges

June 14, 2013 |

Obligated parties are having trouble finding low-cost supplies of renewable fuel credits. Advanced biofuels companies are having trouble finding low-cost supplies of investment capital for their first commercial plants. Why not put those two problems together into one solution like SuperRINs? Of all the nightmare scenarios peddled around in the renewable energy business, nothing is […]

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Fracking, innovation, ethanol and Silly Putty

Fracking, innovation, ethanol and Silly Putty

June 13, 2013 |

New technology from Novozymes has implications for prices, profits, markets and also Moms, Dads, kids and cows We have a pretty important innovation to relate to you today — based on a product release from Novozymes, which is currently running away from the competition in the 2013 biofuel’s Hot Partners poll in the category of […]

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California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard “driving innovation,” big increase in advanced biofuels seen: report

California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard “driving innovation,” big increase in advanced biofuels seen: report

June 13, 2013 |

In California, a new landmark report just issued this morning on California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard found that “The alternative fuels market is evolving rapidly and in unforeseen ways, and the LCFS is driving investment in low carbon ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, and biogas.” This report represents the first phase of a two-phase, year-long project […]

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