In which Sherlock Holmes investigates a $20 million mystery, a ten-million-gallon greyhound, and the curious difference between running fast and running forever. It’s a foggy night in the Upper Coastal Plain near Soperton, Georgia, the air hangs low over forested wetlands, dark-water creeks and river swamps. Tiger Creek and Cypress Creek wander through the country […]
The Story: Brazil’s sugarcane cluster is the world’s most mature bioeconomy ecosystem, built on proven sugar-ethanol-power triple-product economics. As the industry enters the new deployment era, next-decade growth depends on scaling cellulosic and alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuels, expanding bio-based chemicals, and integrating deeper with global export markets. While domestic RenovaBio policy provides strong baseline support, […]
The Story:Texas hosts a major regional hydrogen hub alongside substantial Gulf Coast refining capacity and expanding biogenic carbon dioxide resources. The most strategic bioeconomy opportunity lies at this direct intersection: leveraging green hydrogen to produce power-to-liquid sustainable aviation fuel. However, current coordination across hydrogen hubs, refineries, and carbon capture projects remains uneven. If Texas coordinates […]
Christmas comes early to farm country, as Washington rediscovers the ancient art of the political Christmas stocking. There’s a little candy, a little hope, and perhaps something substantial beneath the wrapping paper. Dear Mr. Lane, Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. They say Washington has forgotten the Heartland, that nobody listens […]
The Story:California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard has built the densest bioeconomy ecosystem in the United States, attracting over fifteen billion dollars in capital investment since 2011. While the cluster dynamics are now fully mature, the next decade presents fundamentally different strategic questions. Stakeholders must now navigate upcoming policy amendments, accelerate in-state feedstock supply growth, and […]
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series where the top international industry leaders in the bioeconomy outline the key issues, opportunities in, and perspectives for, the bioeconomy during 2026-2027. By Donnell Rehagen, CEO, Clean Fuels Alliance Americas Special to The Digest U.S. diesel prices broke records in September, raising concerns for consumers across the […]
By Dominique Kuehner, Industry Director of Biomass, Waste & Industrial, ANDRITZ Feed & Biofuel Special to The Digest For decades, the relationship between heavy industry and waste was straightforward: waste was a cost to be managed, a liability to be disposed of as cheaply as possible. That thinking is shifting fast. The EU’s incoming ban […]
The Story: The Gulf Coast biorefining cluster anchors American renewable fuel production by leveraging fifty-four percent of national refining capacity and ninety percent of hydrogen pipelines. New projects achieve major cost savings by bolting onto existing hydrotreaters, utilities, and tankage rather than building greenfield facilities. However, Diamond Green Diesel controls sixty-eight percent of regional renewable […]
The Story: Scaling regional bioeconomy hubs depends on occupational density rather than national workforce availability. Gulf Coast process metros concentrate chemical plant operators at over forty times the national average, commanding significant wage premiums. While this density enables cost-effective multi-employer college training programs, simultaneous megaprojects create severe labor congestion. When overlapping project peaks exceed the […]
Twenty questions, five rounds, one simulated 1844 world Enough machinery. Here is what happened when we actually tried it. We gave Claude the South Devon atmospheric railway proposition as Brunel might have faced it in 1844: a short atmospheric railway had worked; the propulsion principle was demonstrated; a roughly fifty-two-mile railway was proposed; and substantial […]
