By Mike McAdams, president, Advanced Biofuels Association Special to The Digest In December of 2007, President Bush—with overwhelming bipartisan support—signed the RFS2 into law. Since that time, it has become clear the law has worked for first-generation corn ethanol and biodiesel. While the first generation fuels now represent over eighteen billion gallons of fuel production, […]
By Dr. Bernard Cooker, Chemical Processing Solutions, Consultant with Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest Biomass-based green polymer and monomer projects, as reported in Chemical and Engineering News and Chemical Engineering Progress in Q1, Q2 2017 are surveyed. The focus here is on combinations of low raw material cost, commercial scale operation and high […]
By Charles G. Loos, P.E., Special to The Digest By the time a developer seeks non-recourse financing for a biomass project, the contracts for construction and major equipment procurement have usually been pre-negotiated and are on hold awaiting notice to proceed. Prospective lenders then scour these contracts for defects, paying particular attention to inconsistencies between […]
By Gerald Kutney, Special to The Digest The 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation arrived on July 1st of this year — it is a time to reflect upon the country’s achievements; this article covers the evolution of the Canadian biofuel industry – including gaseous, liquid and solid biofuels, and biomass power – from 1867 to 2017. The […]
The sixth season of the reality show Kendra on Top commenced on the WE Network this past week, a spin-off from the Playboy Playmate reality show Girls Next Door, which ran from 2005 to 2010. With Girls Next Door, I never quite figured out if the show’s title referred to the guest house at the Playboy […]
Rudolf Diesel in 1892 received a patent for a compression ignition reciprocating engine. However, his original design, which used coal dust as fuel, did not work as planned. To put things in context – thirty-three years prior, in 1859, crude oil was discovered in Pennsylvania. The first product refined from crude was lamp oil […]
By Gerard J. Ostheimer & Douglas L. Faulkner Special to The Digest The world really, really wants to have a thriving Global Bioeconomy. It just doesn’t know it, yet. Two years ago, essentially all the governments of the world agreed that they wanted a sustainable, low carbon future. These ideas were encapsulated in two landmark […]
By Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech As our planet approaches a 1.5C temperature raise, decarbonizing our economy has become a central topic of discussion from governments to board rooms to the popular press. To successfully decarbonize, we must change the way we use carbon and focus on preserving every bit of our carbon budget for essential uses. […]
By Lorenz Bauer, Ph.D., Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc. Special to The Digest After many years of development biomass pyrolysis is finally maturing as a commercial technology. Pyrolysis is not incineration. The goal is to use heat in the absence of oxygen to convert the biomass to a more useful form while preserving as much of […]
By Mark Warner, PE, Warner Advisors LLC Special to The Digest Advanced biotechnology has historically focused on fermentation as the key technology for development, with synthetic biology and proprietary organisms the key intellectual property. As any biotechnology moves toward commercialization, recovery and purification of the product requires a change of focus, which is often more costly […]
