Category: Top Stories

Top Tweets debuts on BIofuels Digest as twitter volume approaches "information overload"

Top Tweets debuts on BIofuels Digest as twitter volume approaches "information overload"

[ 0 ] September 6, 2010 |

Biofuels Digest is inaugurating a new section today: Top Tweets. If you haven’t been following the growth of Twitter, its a short messaging service limited to 140-character “tweets”, which will amuse, inform, and in some cases drive you completely crazy. But Twitter has become big. Last month, according to Royal Pingdom, Twitter processed 2.64 billion […]

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Mascoma: Inside the SunOpta acquisition

Mascoma: Inside the SunOpta acquisition

September 2, 2010 |

In New Hampshire, Mascoma reported yesterday that it had acquired SunOpta BioProcess, a division of SunOpta Inc. (STKL)  This combination brings together the fiber preparation and pretreatment technologies of SBI and the consolidated bioprocessing technology of Mascoma, to create a company with comprehensive capabilities for converting non-food cellulose (wood chips, energy crops and organic solid […]

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The lowdown on Enerkem's landmark Edmonton advanced biofuels project

The lowdown on Enerkem's landmark Edmonton advanced biofuels project

[ 0 ] September 1, 2010 |

In Canada, Enerkem broke ground on its 9.5 Mgy (36 million liter), $75M municipal waste-to-biofuels facility with its partners, the City of Edmonton and the Government of Alberta. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel and Enerkem Chief Executive Officer Vincent Chornet participated in the event. Enerkem’s advanced biofuels plant, which will be located […]

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The Missionary Position: The export of carbon guilt to the developing world

The Missionary Position: The export of carbon guilt to the developing world

[ 0 ] August 31, 2010 |

The advocates of renewable energy have long chanted a mantra of “green jobs, energy security and lower emissions”, but in country after country we continue to see a fork in the road emerging whereby individual nations are forced to make choices between lowering (global) emissions or developing (local) green jobs. In Indonesia, the crisis has […]

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$75M secured for KiOR; Is Mississippi the new leader in state-level biofuels development?

$75M secured for KiOR; Is Mississippi the new leader in state-level biofuels development?

[ 2 ] August 30, 2010 |

In Mississippi, the state legislature approved Governor Haley Barbour’s special session request for a $75 million loan to KiOR for a proposed development of five biofuel plants in Mississippi by the Houston-based pyrolysis group. The state approved $51 million in new bonds to support a total of $81 million in incentives supporting the project, even […]

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Why don't oil majors invest in biofuels at scale?

Why don't oil majors invest in biofuels at scale?

[ 0 ] August 27, 2010 |

In recent weeks we have tracked the significant number of migrations among early stage biofuels producers from a “fuel centric” strategy to an emphasis of renewable chemicals, organic acids, food oils, and nutraceuticals. We sometimes think this publication ought to be renamed “Bio-High-Value-Co-Products-or-anything-please-God-that-makes-money-quickly Digest”. Case in point: Didn’t there used to be a Blue Marble […]

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Bunge invests in Solazyme: ties between Brazilian sugarcane, US advanced biofuels deepen

Bunge invests in Solazyme: ties between Brazilian sugarcane, US advanced biofuels deepen

[ 0 ] August 26, 2010 |

In California, Solazyme announced that Bunge has joined its Series D round as a strategic investor. The announcement comes on the heels of Solazyme’s Navy jet fuel delivery announcement and the recent announcement of $52 million in new capital from the Series D round, which included the announcement of strategic investors Chevron, and San-Ei Gen. […]

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Water: Is there enough for biofuels at scale?

Water: Is there enough for biofuels at scale?

[ 0 ] August 25, 2010 |

Researchers publishing last year in AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment proposed that energy production systems be measured not only in terms of energy return on energy investment (EROEI), but energy return on water invested (EROWI). The researchers noted in “Burning Water”: “Water withdrawals are ubiquitous in most energy production technologies…several assessments suggest that […]

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The Culturing Revolution: LanzaTech extends to chemicals as Year of SynthBio gains pace

The Culturing Revolution: LanzaTech extends to chemicals as Year of SynthBio gains pace

[ 0 ] August 24, 2010 |

In New Zealand, LanzaTech announced that it has produced 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD), a key building block used to make polymers, plastics and hydrocarbon fuels, using the company’s gas fermentation technology. Digest readers will recall that LanzaTech, voted the #41 Hottest Company in Bioenergy last year by Digest readers and expected to make a strong run in […]

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Joule Unlimited: 'Fuel from thin air' comes closer, clearer

Joule Unlimited: 'Fuel from thin air' comes closer, clearer

[ 0 ] August 23, 2010 |

In Massachusetts, the secretive Joule Unlimited (then known as Joule Biotechnologies) emerged late last year from “stealth mode” with the startling announcement that their technology could produce up to 15,000 gallons per acre (per year) of drop-in hydrocarbon fuels, using only sunlight, CO2 and (fresh, brackish or saline) water as inputs. The Solar Converter – […]

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