Category: Top Stories

Higher COVID-19 fatality rates among urban minorities come down to air pollution

Higher COVID-19 fatality rates among urban minorities come down to air pollution

May 24, 2020 |

A startling reality has surfaced from the coronavirus health crisis: Pollution has been significantly reduced in recent weeks during the shutdown. Whether in New Delhi, Kansas City, New York, or Beijing, less driving has resulted in cleaner air. Vistas that previously were only foggy images have burst through as crystal clear pictures of what clean […]

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Nest egg + Renewables help protect Neste in 2020 – Even with COVID-19 uncertainty, Neste hits renewables production record

Nest egg + Renewables help protect Neste in 2020 – Even with COVID-19 uncertainty, Neste hits renewables production record

May 24, 2020 |

Especially during difficult times, it’s important to have a nest egg and companies that had cash and smart plans in place are definitely having an easier time with the latest challenges. Last week in Finland, Neste reported their Q1 financials and Neste President and CEO Peter Vanacker answered questions about the company’s first quarter 2020 […]

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BD Zones and BDO Zones: Weaponizing Biomass to support a Bio-Fueled Economic Recovery

BD Zones and BDO Zones: Weaponizing Biomass to support a Bio-Fueled Economic Recovery

May 20, 2020 |

By Jordan Solomon, President, Ecostrat Inc. Special to The Digest The US has over a billion tons of biomass which can be used as a key lever to drive economic recovery. USDA estimates that 3.4 million jobs and nearly $660 billion of economic benefits would be created by using biomass to manufacture alternative fuels, renewable […]

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Scrap to Wrap, a new app? NOVA, Enerkem set sights on garbage-to-ethylene, and how, and why

Scrap to Wrap, a new app? NOVA, Enerkem set sights on garbage-to-ethylene, and how, and why

May 20, 2020 |

From Canada comes news that NOVA Chemicals and Enerkem entered into a joint development agreement to explore turning non-recyclable and non-compostable municipal waste into ethylene, a basic building block of plastics. NOVA Chemicals has committed to enabling 100 percent of plastics packaging is recyclable or recoverable by 2030; and 100 percent of plastics packaging is […]

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New Lords of Circular Carbon: ArcelorMittal, EU complete financing of Steelanol project

New Lords of Circular Carbon: ArcelorMittal, EU complete financing of Steelanol project

May 18, 2020 |

In Brussels, the European Investment Bank, with the support of the European Commission, has granted a EUR 75 million (nearly $82 million USD) loan to ArcelorMittal for Steelanol, the EUR 165 million ($180 million USD) industrial-scale demonstration plant based on LanzaTech’s process, capturing waste gases from the blast furnace and biologically convert them into recycled-carbon […]

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What’s next for biofuels? 8 Scenarios for a Post COVID-19 World

What’s next for biofuels? 8 Scenarios for a Post COVID-19 World

May 18, 2020 |

By Steve Hartig, Senior Consultant at ReCon Associates Special to The Digest  This has been a dramatic time in gasoline and ethanol with demand dropping quickly due to COVID 19 and the related shutdown. It is impossible to know what is going to happen ahead but what we can do is to create some scenarios. […]

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Millions in Australian government funding for renewable methane, hydrogen, solar hydropower projects

Millions in Australian government funding for renewable methane, hydrogen, solar hydropower projects

May 17, 2020 |

From the land down under arrives news of millions pouring in for renewable energy – $1.1 million (about $700K USD) funding pouring into renewable methane, $3 million (nearly $2 million USD) for building a world-first solar hydropower plant, and $1.7 million (a little over $1 million USD) to look at scaling up renewable hydrogen for […]

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Joni of Ernst leads the defense of the RFS

Joni of Ernst leads the defense of the RFS

May 14, 2020 |

In Washington, the Renewable Fuel Standard is being besieged again, and while it is starting to feel like a Siege They Never Stop Trying and Never Works out of a Monty Python episode, industry trade associations say it is time once again to man the ramparts and pour burning oil, throw stones and otherwise defend […]

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Running for Office on Climate Change?

Running for Office on Climate Change?

May 13, 2020 |

By Peter Brown, Founder and Principal of Euro Marketing Tools Special to The Digest This election cycle has confirmed that the United States’ political hopefuls have abdicated any participation, influence and presence in the climate change debate as it is being set out in the various ecosystems around the world. This is happening in the […]

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Zounds, 100% more algae! Leading paradoxically to the Big Feedstock Problem

Zounds, 100% more algae! Leading paradoxically to the Big Feedstock Problem

May 12, 2020 |

A new technology that produces a doubling  of overall biomass in algae and 40 percent in camelina has appeared on the horizon, and I’d like to draw your attention to this work in The Plant Journal and this one in Nature Research. If you’ve been a fan of the New Mexico Consortium, Dick Sayre’s algae […]

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