Author Archive: Jim Lane

The Digest’s 2026 Multi Slide Guide to First of a Kind project failure and the FOAK Fragility Index

April 20, 2026 | Jim Lane

This presentation from Digest editor Jim Lane introduced the FOAK Fragility Index (FFI), a structural stress meter for First-Of-A-Kind (FOAK) biorefineries. Newsworthy highlights include the application of the “GTESI” and “Twist” frameworks to measure a project’s “Persistence”—its ability to survive shocks and export entropy to capital markets. The analysis sharply critiques centralized “Redwood” facility architectures […]

Banking the Future: Why Energy Systems Win by Playing Monopoly

April 20, 2026 | Jim Lane

We were sitting on St. Charles Place, holding a pair of railroads and a promising twosome of Ventnor and Marvin Gardens, which felt like progress—right up until the board turned. Cash was tight. Houses were in reach, but not yet. The real game, at that moment, wasn’t rent. It was survival. One more pass around […]

The Cargo Not Taken: How Licella and Shell are unlocking stranded feedstocks

April 16, 2026 | Jim Lane

The Royal Saxon came into Sydney Harbour in mid-1860 riding low and wrong. The Tasman had taken its toll—rigging frayed, hull complaining, a list that no amount of ballast could quite disguise. Captain Collier stood on the quarterdeck and watched the shoreline rise, already calculating what it would cost to make her whole again. Timber […]

The Digest’s 2026 Multi Slide Guide to Spero Renewables

April 16, 2026 | Jim Lane

Spero Renewables, led by a team with deep-tech scale-up expertise, introduced its proprietary SPERLU™ technology. The most newsworthy aspect of their presentation is their strategy for breaking the industry’s “Lignin Ceiling”. Traditionally, during cellulosic biomass pretreatment and fermentation for bioethanol, lignin is relegated to a low-value byproduct burned for process heat. Spero is targeting this […]

The Digest’s 2026 Multi Slide Guide to SunGas Renewables

April 15, 2026 | Jim Lane

SunGas Renewables detailed the massive scale of their Beaver Lake Biofuels project, which utilizes the replicable SunGas S1000 system to convert green wood into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). The most newsworthy aspect is the project’s unmatched scale: processing 2 million metric tons of green wood annually to produce 11.1 billion standard cubic feet of RNG. […]

The BioEconomy Symposium at EarthX – full details

April 15, 2026 | Jim Lane

“The BioEconomy Symposium” at EarthX on April 21st is going to be a full day of bold, grounded, real solutions across food systems, workforce development, clean energy, and the circular economy. Come ready to learn. Come ready to be challenged. You will leave with a completely different picture of what’s possible. Join us and learn […]

The Digest’s 2026 Multi Slide Guide to Successful Biobased Products

April 14, 2026 | Jim Lane

Jaffe Policy Consulting presented strategies to support the conversion of agricultural feedstocks into successful biobased products, aiming to enhance U.S. agricultural sustainability. The most newsworthy updates revolve around regulatory advancements, specifically changes to the USDA 9003 Guaranteed loan program which supports biomanufacturing infrastructure. Furthermore, Jaffe highlighted the establishment of a federal SAF Strategy and the […]

The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Tracking Marine Biofuel

April 13, 2026 | Jim Lane

PNNL highlights that while marine biofuels are widely available, they lack systematic tracking. A critical “data gap” exists between reported bunker sales and IMO fuel consumption reports, with discrepancies reaching hundreds of kilo-tonnes. While LNG bunkering shows explosive growth—notably a 227.3% CAGR in Singapore —biofuel adoption is obscured by non-standard naming conventions, with 140 unique […]

The Digest’s 2026 Multi Slide Guide to the Future of Biomanufacturing

April 9, 2026 | Jim Lane

Representing the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, Sarah Glaven presented a forward-looking vision for the future of biomanufacturing. The most newsworthy concept is the transition to localized, sustainable production of everyday molecules and materials, completely decoupling manufacturing from belowground fossil resources. Glaven highlighted that cutting-edge electrified processing techniques, powered by […]

The Hounding of Baskerville Biofuels