Author Archive: Jim Lane

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The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to SAF FOAK Sequencing

The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to SAF FOAK Sequencing

June 8, 2026 |

Approximately two dozen first-of-a-kind (FOAK) sustainable aviation fuel plants are targeting commissioning by 2029. However, lacking a centralized queue, these projects independently compete for finite EPC slots, licensor bandwidth, and regional feedstock pools. Currently, the queue is sequenced by project finance lenders prioritizing individual bankability rather than sector-wide learning. Without coordinated queue management—such as staggered […]

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When the Music Stops: An inquiry into thrive traits, survival markers, failure modes in the bioeconomy

When the Music Stops: An inquiry into thrive traits, survival markers, failure modes in the bioeconomy

June 8, 2026 |

Everybody thinks musical chairs is a game of speed. It isn’t. The winner is not the fastest runner. The winner is the person who can still find a chair when the music stops. Right now, the music is playing loudly in renewable natural gas and biogas. Vanguard Renewables recently broke ground on a major anaerobic […]

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The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Asset-Class Graduation

The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Asset-Class Graduation

June 4, 2026 |

Graduating bioeconomy assets from grants and venture equity to senior commercial debt requires crossing the maturation threshold. This transition relies on three crucial preconditions: a repeatable Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) template, multi-deal lender education across a cohort of projects, and a durable policy-backed revenue anchor like a tariff regime. A single landmark deal is insufficient; […]

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The Green Meth, Brown Field, Purple Stain & Amber Slash Bioeconomy Revival: What The Compass shows us

The Green Meth, Brown Field, Purple Stain & Amber Slash Bioeconomy Revival: What The Compass shows us

June 4, 2026 |

  At some point, the question changes. Not: “Is success still possible?” The evidence has already answered that. Not: “Are there opportunities?” The evidence has already answered that too. The question becomes: What do these successes have in common? That question led to The Compass. Not a report. Not a forecast. Not a collection of […]

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The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Feedstock Security

The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Feedstock Security

June 3, 2026 |

As bioeconomy projects scale, bankability has migrated upstream, making long-term, contracted feedstock supply a mandatory infrastructure requirement. Lenders now strictly require feedstock supply contract tenors to match or exceed the duration of project debt. With feedstock pools consolidating into oligopolies, spot-market procurement introduces un-bankable structural risk. Developers must mitigate concentration risks through vertical integration, joint […]

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When the bioeconomy slows, why do we always convict technology?

When the bioeconomy slows, why do we always convict technology?

June 2, 2026 |

The jury had been deliberating for hours. The case seemed straightforward enough. A commercial bioeconomy project lay dead. Not every project, certainly. Some had survived and even thrived. But enough had stalled, disappeared, or failed to reach operation that a consensus had emerged regarding the culprit. Technology. The foreman looked around the room. “All those […]

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The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Infrastructure Capital Entry

The Digest’s 2026 Multi-Slide Guide to Infrastructure Capital Entry

June 1, 2026 |

Infrastructure capital is replacing venture funding in the bioeconomy, but only for assets demonstrating operational maturity. This transition requires one to two years of steady-state operations, repeatable asset templates, and investment-grade counterparties. Crucially, merchant exposure completely disqualifies projects; infrastructure funds demand long-term take-or-pay or availability contracts. By structuring entry as a refinancing event and designing […]

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How renewable fuel producers can unlock lower emissions and stronger economics

How renewable fuel producers can unlock lower emissions and stronger economics

June 1, 2026 |

Topsoe’s integrated hydroprocessing and hydrogen technologies HydroFlex® and H2bridge™ offer fuel producers a pathway to lower emissions, reduced costs and greater feedstock flexibility By Milica Folić, Director for Clean Fuels and Chemicals, Topsoe Special to the Digest Securing bankability and strong economics in renewable fuel production projects are of primary importance. Producers must manage production […]

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Saff the Mighty Hoop Jumper: What SkyNRG Teaches Us About Getting Steel in the Ground

Saff the Mighty Hoop Jumper: What SkyNRG Teaches Us About Getting Steel in the Ground

June 1, 2026 |

Once upon a time there was a daring and skillful hoop-jumper named Saff. No one could jump hoops like he. He could somersault through flaming hoops, sustainability hoops, carbon-intensity hoops. Children cheered him. Elders admired him.  One day the King announced a grand hoop-jumping contest to be held in the Palace Gardens. The villagers were […]

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The Digest’s 2026 Multi Slide Guide to Sovereign-Backed Concessional Finance for Bioeconomy

The Digest’s 2026 Multi Slide Guide to Sovereign-Backed Concessional Finance for Bioeconomy

May 28, 2026 |

Commercialization has recurring topology. Across thousands of deployment stories, the same financing architectures, sequencing patterns, fragility signatures, and lender behaviors appear again and again. The Digest’s new next-generation Multi-Slide Guides are designed to map those hidden structures — not just markets, but the industrial laws governing survivability and scale. Our inaugural edition explores the Mubadala/Acelen […]

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