By Dr. Bernard Cooker, Chemical Processing Solutions, Consultant with Lee Enterprises Consulting Inc. Special to The Digest This is a review of the biomass-fed chemical process projects producing renewable chemical products which were published in Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP) and Chemical and Engineering News (CEN) from 1/1/17 to 12/18/17. It includes activity in biochemicals, biopolymers […]
Improving hydrogen utilization and carbon recovery, as a pathway to higher efficiency bio-oil production using thermochemical process? That’s the focus for a project from RTI International that picked up significant DOE support in the search for #3 per gallon hydrocarbon biofuels. The researchers aim to increase hydrogen utilization from hydrodeoxygenation during in-situ catalytic pyrolysis, to […]
Enerkem bolted into the #2 position and Braskem reached the top 5 in the 50 Hottest Companies in the Advanced Bioeconomy ballot, as subscriber balloting began to near the February 2nd conclusion for the 2018 poll. Overall, LanzaTech remains in the lead, followed by Enerkem, Amyris, Novozymes, Braskem, BASF, DSM, Genomatica, Renewable Energy Group and Poet-DSM. The […]
Can you build a catalytic process to produce alpha, omega diols from lignocellulosic biomass? Such a process, using inorganic catalysts for conversion of biomass into 1.5 pentanediol (PDO) and 1,6 hexanediols could reduce the cost of cellulosic biofuels. In this DOE-supported project, a team led by George Huber at the University of Wisconsin is developing […]
We reported last week on the Silva Green Fuels JV between Sweden’s Södra and Norway’s Statkraft, using Steeper Energy technology to produce drop-in advanced biofuels in Norway. And we reported the stunning news this week that Enerkem signed an agreement with Sinobioway Group worth over C$125 million in the form of equity investment in Enerkem Inc., […]
The Brazil Bilateral is a co-operative R&D effort between Brazil’s Petrobras and the US National renewable Energy Laboratory. It aims to demonstrate technical and economic feasibility of co-processing raw fast pyrolysis oil in Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) operation, establish collaborations with credible commercial partners, generate co-processing yield data at steady-state from FCC unit at Petrobras […]
It’s been a big week in plastics and nylons, all right — not only for those who value sustainability attributes, but for fans of lower costs and higher performance, too. Let’s look at 4 Biggies makin’ a stir. Wisconsin researchers report bioplastic precursor breakthrough In Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering […]
Not long ago, DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Archer Daniels Midland announced a new breakthrough process in producing FDME from fructose, with “the potential to expand the materials landscape in the 21st century with exciting and truly novel, high-performance renewable materials”, the companies said in a joint release. FDME is furan dicarboxylic methyl ester. The technology has […]
By Alec A.K. Nielsen Originally published at asimov.io, republished with permission If you’re reading this, you’re probably biological. As you sit quietly, trillions of cells in your body are performing a frenetic dance of biochemical computation that makes your existence possible. Consider this: You were once a single cell – a fertilized egg. This single cell […]
Think of it. There’s the brain — with its trillion synapses, sensing, diagnosing, prescribing, responding, targeting. What if a human cell could be programmed to detect a disease, manufacture a drug and deliver it? As in no doctor, no skyrocketing drug cost, no delay, no hassle, no kidding. It would revolutionize medicine. But also, agriculture […]
