Category: Top Stories

Biotechnology, Design and Story, and the persistence of the plastics problem

Biotechnology, Design and Story, and the persistence of the plastics problem

June 23, 2024 |

The BioDesign Challenge has come and gone for another year, and we are left to consider what it tells us about the intersection of biotechnology, design, and story. You can learn all about the Challenge, the worthy staff that runs it, the students from high school to graduate school who compete, right here.  Five projects […]

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Five Unforgettable Projects from the BioDesign Challenge

Five Unforgettable Projects from the BioDesign Challenge

June 23, 2024 |

The BioDesign Challenge has come and gone for another year, and we are left to consider what it tells us about the intersection of biotechnology, design, and story. A more in-depth profile of the event, the winning entry and the  context which makes BDC important, is here. Yet, a review of the event would not […]

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Bioeconomy Expert Witnesses: The Person You Hope to Never Need

Bioeconomy Expert Witnesses: The Person You Hope to Never Need

June 20, 2024 |

By Wayne Lee and Dr. Doug Rivers, LEC Partners (formerly Lee Enterprises Consulting) Special to The Digest In bioeconomy-related projects, two distinct scenarios emerge concerning the expert. On one hand, there’s a company’s proactive decision to seek the expertise of an expert to guide them through the complexities and help them complete a project while […]

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Federal Funding for Your Commercial Scale Bioeconomy Project

Federal Funding for Your Commercial Scale Bioeconomy Project

June 16, 2024 |

By Bill Hagy, Project Director, LEC Partners (formerly Lee Enterprises Consulting) Special to The Digest There are numerous federal funding resources available to support commercial-scale bioeconomy projects. The following items should be considered when identifying federal funding resource(s) available for potential project funding: Some programs are restricted to small businesses. Some programs are restricted to […]

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Advanced biofuels will continue to play a key role in reducing transport emissions

Advanced biofuels will continue to play a key role in reducing transport emissions

June 11, 2024 |

Christian Librera, who was appointed Senior Vice President of UPM Biofuels in 2023, discusses the company’s role and the future of advanced biofuels in global decarbonising efforts. After several years’ experience in the field of biofuels, he states it is now more important than ever to acknowledge advanced biofuels as part of the solution in […]

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The ABCDE chain: Acetogens, the Baltic forests, Clean fuels, Dorpat, the Enlightenment

The ABCDE chain: Acetogens, the Baltic forests, Clean fuels, Dorpat, the Enlightenment

June 9, 2024 |

Recently, we reported that researchers at the University of Tartu are undertaking a project to engineer gas-fermenting acetogens to more efficiently  fuels and chemicals, and create nearly 750 modified bacterial strains and consolidate the collected data as well as existing similar information about acetogens in a public knowledgebase. If you have gleaned from earlier editions […]

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Sherbacow sentenced to three years in prison for wire fraud

Sherbacow sentenced to three years in prison for wire fraud

June 5, 2024 |

In Washington DC, Alder Fuels founder and former CEO Bryan Sherbacow was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison in connection with a scheme to embezzle at least $5.9 million and to defraud several investors out of approximately $15 million. According to court documents, between 2021 and 2022, Bryan Sherbacow, 55, of Charleston, South Carolina, […]

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BioBTX lands €80M+ for commercial-scale renewable aromatics plant

BioBTX lands €80M+ for commercial-scale renewable aromatics plant

June 3, 2024 |

From the Netherlands comes exciting news: BioBTX, a pioneering developer of renewable aromatics technology, has secured over €80 million to launch its first commercial-scale plant. This investment will fund the world’s first renewable chemicals plant utilizing BioBTX’s innovative ICCP Technology to produce sustainable aromatics — benzene, toluene and xylene — from plastic waste and biomass. […]

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The Brazilian Behemoth: The Biggest, Baddest Cellulosic Biorefinery of them All, open for business

The Brazilian Behemoth: The Biggest, Baddest Cellulosic Biorefinery of them All, open for business

May 31, 2024 |

News arrives from Brazil that has been eagerly awaited by all. Raízen has inaugurated its new, $228 million, second-generation ethanol plant, at the Bonfim Bioenergy Complex, in Guariba, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The plant is the largest in the world and has 80% of its 82 million liters annual production capacity (21.6M […]

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PX Marks the Spot: Reflections on the Anellotech story

PX Marks the Spot: Reflections on the Anellotech story

May 28, 2024 |

I first visited Pearl River, New York during the July 4th celebrations of 1986, when the Statue of Liberty turned 100, and amidst tremendous traffic jams owing to the holiday, I discovered a path to Tuxedo Park that did not require chancing the crowds near Paramus Mall, and I have returned many times to Rockland […]

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