Here are some notes on the selections for the Hottest 50 Companies in Bioenergy.
The qualifying criteria was making at least one appearance in the Digest over the past 12 months, or a nomination from the readership. About 500 companies qualified via the first route, from the 3,000 stories published this year, and about 20 additional [...]
Researchers at Ames Lab are reporting that they have developed metallic alloy-based mesoporous nanospheres, akin to microscopic sponge balls with thousands of channels running though them, to increase the surface area of syngas catalysts by 100 times. The research team had previously found that ethanol yields from syngas can be increased if the surface area [...]
There has been some understandable grumbling about the decision to publish a story about a World Bank “secret study,” obtained by the Guardian in the UK, and according to the Guardian story killed by senior management at the Bank to avoid embarrassing US President George W. Bush. The story had a bullet: a finding by [...]
Sen. McCain has proposed a $300 million prize for a breakthrough in automotive electric battery technology. Here are some other disruptive technologies that could move the needle in terms of a national energy solution:
1. A diesel electric hybrid engine.
2. A spark ignition engine that takes full advantage of ethanol’s higher octane rating.
3. A breakhthrough in [...]
“‘Change, change, change!”‘ Fidel Castro wrote, regarding the US Presidential campaign, in a column published this morning in Havana. “I agree, ‘change!’ but in the United States,” he continued. “I enjoyed seeing the embarrassing position of all the U.S. presidential candidates.”
However, change appears to be coming more quickly for Cuba’s biofuels policy than for Castro’s [...]
