In an article from last September, we introduced Texas attorney Jon Jaworski to Digest readers, via a hilarious profile that appeared on Minyanville.com. Jaworski is known as “the Grease Lawyer,” specializing in advising on cases involving grease theft. “I had a guy who was paid with a bottle of vodka and a couple cartons of […]
DARPA is funding this one: A military vehicle that forages for fuel. According to its creators, the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) will travel 100 miles per 68 pounds of vegetation — 17 percent more than a modern car generating 25 miles per gallon on E85 ethanol (with an ethanol conversion rate of 100 gallons […]
Many are the uses of algae, but none perhaps so beneficial in terms of greenhouse gas reduction than a strain developed in Australia, which showed a 40 percent reduction in cattle belching when used as a feed. Bizarre, but not at all crazy. That reduction would translate to the equivalent reduction of 13.2 million tons […]
6. Right up there with “bunnies from biofuels” in the ewe factor, was this R&D advance reported by Applied Clean Tech and Qteros, which reported the development of high yield ethanol opportunities with liquid solid waste. The companies said they are the first to demonstrate commercial success in creating ethanol from the cellulose in municipal […]
In this story from January, “Turn and Face the Strange,” we looked at WWII canvas rotting fungi as a biomass conversion technology, a fungus that produces diesel, a fungus that synthesizes ethanol, one that produces cellulase, and a symbiotic garden of fungi managed by leafcutter ants to assist in their leaf-converting activities. But the topper […]
In this story from August, we tracked a 43-acre biomass trial in California that features hemp as a feedstock. The notoriety of hemp’s cousin, marijuana, has created both passionate supporters and opponents of the feedstock, which for centuries provided useful by-products such as rope, but acquired a massive brand identity problem after reefer acquired wide […]
In Florida, Biofuels Digest celebrates its third birthday today, and while a look back at the 10 Most Overlooked Stories of the Year is one of our annual offerings for “birthday week”, we are also reporting on a series of breakthroughs. In finance, upstream sustainable feedstock development, midstream next-generation bioprocessing, and downstream market development – […]
Bioenergy financing stories, unless they featured large capital raises or other “good news,” were generally “dead on arrival” with Digest readers. Until last fall, that is. Last September, the five-part series “Benjamins for Biofuels” gave an overview of the difficulties facing companies seeking bioenergy financing, but was more notable for the response (in parts 2-4) […]
When biobutanol technologies first began announcing progress in developing pilot scale-plants, the reaction of most readers was “Huh?”. Though the international selector panel was voting companies like Gevo and Cobalt Technologies to exalted levels in the 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy, paltry reader support kept both companies out of the Top 10 in both 2008-09 […]
In January, many readers overlooked this story about the Sustainable Bioenergy Research project in the UAE, between Boeing, Honeywell’s UOP, Masdar Institute and Etihad Airways. But after articles like “Salt Water: The Tangy Taste of Energy Freedom” made clear the importance of salt-tolerant feedstocks in the development of biofuels in a water-hungry world, readers eventually […]
