By Jan Koninckx, Global business director for advanced biofuels, DuPont. Special to The Digest February 2016 was the warmest February on record—perhaps of all time. Not by tenths of degrees, as records are often broken by, but by a staggering 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than average. The body of evidence for global warming continues to […]
By Brent Erickson, Executive Vice-President, Biotechnology Innovation Organization Over the past decade, federal policies such as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the USDA Biobased Markets Program, the Navy’s Green Fleet initiative, the Second Generation Biofuel Tax Credit, and others have created momentum for industrial biotech innovations, including biofuels, renewable chemicals and synthetic biology. While policy […]
By Douglas L. Faulkner, “The Cleantech Conservative” With baseball’s spring training once again underway, it seemed appropriate to channel one of that sport’s legendary players into an article on biofuels. The late, great New York Yankee catcher and all-round American folk commentator, Yogi Berra, coined many timeless observations. “The future ain’t what it used to […]
By Sam A. Rushing, president, Advanced Cryogenics, Ltd. BACKGROUND The long term sustainability of first generation ethanol facilities, through advanced biofuels plants, is realized by making money from all the by-products; and of course, CO2 is one of the leading components of this by-product list. There are many variables associated the feasibility of adding a […]
By Brent Erickson, Executive Vice President, Biotechnology Industry Organization USDA’s Section 9003 Program created by the comprehensive Farm Bill has successfully helped fund construction of biofuel biorefineries over the past six years and it is now expanding to launch renewable chemical facilities as well. Like other USDA programs, this loan guarantee enables manufacturers to access […]
By Corinne Young and Michele Jalbert, re:chem Alliance For all of 2015’s turbulence in the renewable chemical sector, in one area – US government policy – the industry saw marked progress. For the last two years, the Renewable Chemical & Advanced Materials Alliance (re:chem), in concert with other stakeholders, has relentlessly advocated for several policy […]
By Steve Hentges, special to The Digest In a recent column, GFBiochemicals Chief Commercial Officer Marcel van Berkel wrote about the potential of levulinic acid as a biobased platform chemical. As an example, he mentioned that health concerns have been raised about bisphenol A (BPA, a widely used synthetic chemical) and that diphenolic acid (DPA, derived […]
By Mark Warner, PE, Founder, Warner Advisors LLC, Special to The Digest What does a relationship book from the 1990’s have to do with successfully scaling up biotechnology? More than you would expect. In this case, we are substituting engineers and business developers, then focusing on the differences in how they view biotechnology commercialization and the […]
By James L. Stewart, special to The Digest At this month’s COP21 Conference in Paris, California’s two most recent Governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, heralded the legislative and regulatory initiatives of the past decade that have placed California in the forefront of environmental and climate change policy. These programs most certainly provided inspiration for […]
By Sam Nejame, Special to the Digest Early last month I travelled to San Francisco for a conference. Over the weekend I and some old college friends cycled through Marin. In rain and fog we spun up long steady climbs then bombed hairy twisting descents through the famed redwoods. When my borrowed bicycle needed a […]
