Category: Top Stories

Heard it Through the Grapevine: Useful facts and scuttlebutt from the Algae Biomass Summit

Heard it Through the Grapevine: Useful facts and scuttlebutt from the Algae Biomass Summit

September 27, 2012 |

Jobs, global expansion, proteins vs fuels, new R&D funding – all the big issues are under debate both on and off the floor at the Algae Biomass Summit. In Colorado, the Algae Biomass Summit, which attracted 800 people this year, four days of presentations, including multi-tracked sessions, provides a huge data stream for attendees. Plus, […]

Read More

Ebony and ivory: The BioProcess Algae Story

Ebony and ivory: The BioProcess Algae Story

September 26, 2012 |

In Shenandoah, white biotechnology meets black carbon remediation, and algae production comes to the Corn Belt, as BioProcess Algae and Green Plains Renewable Energy aim for a “lowest-cost winner” in algae biofuels. In Europe they call “white biotechnology” what is elsewhere known as “industrial biotechnology”, or around the Corn belt as “the technology behind corn […]

Read More

Take it to the Limit: Algenol and rising yields in advanced biofuels

Take it to the Limit: Algenol and rising yields in advanced biofuels

September 25, 2012 |

Algenol hits 7000 gallon per acre mark in field operations. What’s the impact for Algenol, for energy independence, for the cost of transport fuel? Today in the Digest, we put you on the highway, and show you the signs – as producers take it to the limit, one more time. Yesterday, in the opening plenary […]

Read More

Gevo to switch back to ethanol production, from biobutanol, at Minnesota integrated biorefinery

Gevo to switch back to ethanol production, from biobutanol, at Minnesota integrated biorefinery

September 25, 2012 |

Reoptimizing its technology, now expects return to reach target isobutanol production rates in 2013. In Colorado, Gevo announced that, while making significant progress towards economic production levels, the company does not now expect to achieve its desired year-end run rate – instead it has delayed hitting that target into 2013. “While we have made significant […]

Read More

The Age of Upstream

The Age of Upstream

September 24, 2012 |

What is the ideal relationship between feedstock producers and refiners? Has the balance tipped too far towards the upstream? As the Algae Biomass Summit opens, we look at a global trend in transferring “All power to the Feedstocks!” – the advantages, options, and the potential for consequences. You see it everywhere. Oil producers are happy, […]

Read More

Eni to convert Italian oil refinery to renewable diesel production

Eni to convert Italian oil refinery to renewable diesel production

September 24, 2012 |

In Italy, Eni announced a $125 million project to convert its Venice Refinery into a “bio-refinery”, producing renewable diesel using the Ecofining technology developed and patented by Eni. The Green Refinery process will start with an initial conversion of existing facilities which will be launched in the second quarter of 2013 and completed by the […]

Read More

The Big A: Little algae go Big, Industrial and Global, and just as eco-friendly as ever

The Big A: Little algae go Big, Industrial and Global, and just as eco-friendly as ever

September 21, 2012 |

Big Auto, Bio Oil, Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Food – touching them all, now and increasingly, is Big A, as algae technologies gain in scale, scope and world-wide reach. This Monday in Denver, the algae industry stages its biggest annual get-together when the Algae Biomass Organization’s four-day Algae Biomass Summit kicks off. The annual […]

Read More

Ocean Renewable Energy: the next frontier?

Ocean Renewable Energy: the next frontier?

September 21, 2012 |

Christopher D. Barry and Paul Kamen of the Ocean Renewable Energy Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers have scribed a fascinating, 26-page “Overview of Ocean Renewable Energy,” which includes a look at the potential for marine biofuels. The authors write, ” One of the more exotic possibilities for ocean based energy is marine biofuels. […]

Read More

50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy, 30 Hottest Companies in Renewable Chemicals and Biobased Materials; voting opens

50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy, 30 Hottest Companies in Renewable Chemicals and Biobased Materials; voting opens

September 20, 2012 |

The annual rankings competition opens up for the hottest companies in the sector; who will be #1 – who will get your vote? New annual Biofuels Databook published for selectors; voting by Twitter introduced this year. In Florida, Biofuels Digest announced the official opening of voting for the 2012-13 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy for […]

Read More

EPA OK’s 30% increase in US biomass-based diesel mandate as domestic production capacity expands.

EPA OK’s 30% increase in US biomass-based diesel mandate as domestic production capacity expands.

September 19, 2012 |

What will bigger targets mean for producers, livestock, obligated refiners, and the diesel-using public? In Washington, the EPA issued its final rule for 2013 establishing 1.28 billion gallons as next year’s biomass-based diesel volume requirement under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), up from 1.0 billion gallons in 2012. “This 1.28 billion gallon level is in-line […]

Read More