By integrating on-site CCS, climate-smart agriculture, and renewable power, ethanol producers can engineer deep-negative carbon intensities (CI) of -20 to -50. However, the federal 45Z credit floors crop-based feedstocks at zero, meaning this deep-negative achievement earns no extra federal premium. The financial value of negative CI relies entirely on state LCFS programs. Because California is […]
Biogenic CO2 capture allows bioeconomy operators to monetize the $85-per-ton 45Q tax credit. However, 45Q and 45Z are mutually exclusive per facility-year and cannot be additively stacked on the same carbon ton. Each captured ton legally requires a single “home,” preventing double claims across tax, fuel CI, or voluntary CDR markets. Because recapture liability follows […]
The thermometer on the machine shed reads 37 degrees. Yesterday it touched seventy. Overnight, a cold front swept down from the Dakotas, leaving a skim of ice in the puddles and a hard northwest wind cutting across Tom Jensen’s fields outside York, Nebraska. The planter sits ready. The seed corn has already been delivered. Diesel […]
Divergent boundaries across EU ETS, FuelEU Maritime, and IMO regimes create lucrative but temporary fuel-choice and routing arbitrage opportunities. Because these regulatory seams have a half-life, operators cannot assume the spread is permanent. To survive regime tightening, sophisticated operators must build multi-regime accounting systems and underwrite their base case for a closed-loophole state. Capturing today’s […]
There was a time when those of us who knew Jim Woolsey—and had long marveled at a life carved so deeply into the granite of public service—half-believed the man might simply outlast mortality itself. Yet as we mark his passing this week at the age of eighty-four, we are brought face-to-face with a truth far […]
Fermentation off-gas from existing ethanol plants offers the cheapest, highest-purity biogenic CO2 for e-SAF production, yet it is widely treated as waste. Securing this vital feedstock requires resolving carbon title and strictly assigning each ton to a single claim—such as 45Q, fuel CI, or durable removal—to prevent fatal double-counting. Because 45Q sets an $85-per-ton value […]
By Dr. Rajesh Gattupalli, President, Honeywell Technologies UOP Special to The Digest As demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) grows globally, many projects are held back by limited raw materials and a limited number of production methods that are ready for commercial use today. Expanding the range of approved pathways is becoming even more important […]
By Buddy Klovstad, Grand Natural Inc. Special to The Digest The renewable diesel and SAF boom has an appetite problem. Refiners are racing to lock up low-carbon-intensity feedstock, and used cooking oil (UCO) — with a carbon intensity a fraction of virgin soybean oil — sits near the top of everyone’s list. Billions in capacity […]
Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) sustainable aviation fuel can achieve cost parity with HEFA, but only through a specific stacking architecture, not as a general pathway property. To cross the cost threshold, developers must rigorously stack certified low-carbon intensity (CI) ethanol with 45Z-eligible on-site carbon capture. Crucially, 45Z and 45Q credits are mutually exclusive year-by-year toggles at the […]
Rochester, New York. Winter, 1942. Harry Coover rubbed his thumb against his forefinger again. Still sticky. He frowned. The beaker refused to let go of the bench. The pipette clung stubbornly to the flask. A glass stirring rod seemed determined to remain permanently attached to whatever it had touched only moments before. Every experiment ended […]
