Author Archive: Jim Lane

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Biofuels vs EVs: The Union of Concerned Scientists responds

Biofuels vs EVs: The Union of Concerned Scientists responds

October 8, 2017 |

by Jeremy Martin, Senior Scientist and Fuels Lead, Clean Vehicles Program Union of Concerned Scientists Special to The Digest Cutting oil use and transportation emissions is a big job, that will require both electric vehicles and biofuels A few days ago, Biofuels Digest ran a piece claiming that biofuels beat electric vehicles on cost and […]

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Financing Bioeconomy Ventures, Pt. 10 – Regulatory and Community Concerns in Plant Site Selection

Financing Bioeconomy Ventures, Pt. 10 – Regulatory and Community Concerns in Plant Site Selection

October 7, 2017 |

By Daniel Lane and Mindy Collier, Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest When it comes to plant site selection, there is a lot of talk about raw materials sourcing, Alfred Weber’s location triangle, and lowest-cost shipping and logistics. However, while business matters are important when determining a location to build and operate a production […]

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Conventional and cutting edge biofuels: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to Aemetis

Conventional and cutting edge biofuels: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to Aemetis

October 7, 2017 |

Aemetis owns and operates 110 million gallons per year of ethanol and biodiesel facilities in the US and India, and is upgrading the plants using patented technology to produce lower carbon, higher value advanced biofuels and chemicals using lower cost, non-food energy sources and feedstocks. Here’s a recent look at their expansion into advanced technologies, […]

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Where are the algae fuel gallons? Bioreactors on a chip touted as a way forward

Where are the algae fuel gallons? Bioreactors on a chip touted as a way forward

October 5, 2017 |

One of the themes that has been racing around the industry in the past week has been the suggestion that bioreactors on a chip are renewing promises for algal biofuels. A development of interest in algae strain screening tech That hopes have been revived along those lines is not entirely surprising, given that Cornell University […]

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The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to High Productivity, Flexible Microalgae

The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to High Productivity, Flexible Microalgae

October 5, 2017 |

This week we’ve been looking at major advances in crops and feedstocks and algae is very much in the mix in that respect – the sustainable production of microalgae with high productivity and flexible composition is of special interest and today’s slide deck in The Digest looks at that area. This illuminating presentation comes from […]

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Financing Bioeconomy Ventures, Pt. 9: Site Selection – Landscape Risk Analysis for Biomass Acquisition

Financing Bioeconomy Ventures, Pt. 9: Site Selection – Landscape Risk Analysis for Biomass Acquisition

October 5, 2017 |

By Thomas W. Robb, Daniel Lane and John Diecker, Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest In the cascade of the decision-making process for site selection of a biomass project, the first two things that must be determined are the availability of infrastructure to support the project AND the availability of feedstock to feed the […]

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8 fast flyers chosen for Top Cat: the big attack on biomass catalysis begins

8 fast flyers chosen for Top Cat: the big attack on biomass catalysis begins

October 4, 2017 |

Somewhere in the files of the Department of Energy it is called the Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy Consortium. Inside the halls of National Labs, they call it ChemCatBio. But it’s Top Cat — the gunslingers and mavericks of biomass catalysis. They’re on a mission to bring forward commercial bioenergy applications two times faster and at […]

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Top Cat: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to ChemCatBio’s progress and projects

Top Cat: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to ChemCatBio’s progress and projects

October 4, 2017 |

ChemCatBio is a research and development consortium dedicated to identifying and overcoming catalysis challenges for biomass conversion processes. Led by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, we work with industry to rapidly transition R&D discoveries into commercial processes and grow the bioeconomy in the United States. Current research encompasses the following five themes: Upgrading […]

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Financing Bioeconomy Ventures, Pt. 8: Planning for Plant Startup and Operations

Financing Bioeconomy Ventures, Pt. 8: Planning for Plant Startup and Operations

October 4, 2017 |

By Charles Loos, Bernard Cooker, and Mindy Collier, Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest To get a new plant started, management must provide the operating staff with training and a full complement of written procedures covering safety, operations, emergencies and environmental compliance. Though the process of defining and creating the necessary training and procedures […]

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A Blustery Day in the Bioeconomy’s Billion Acre Wood: The Latest from EPA, POET, Fuels America, Calyxt, Eligo Bioscience, Queensland, Gevo, Virgin, and Unilever

A Blustery Day in the Bioeconomy’s Billion Acre Wood: The Latest from EPA, POET, Fuels America, Calyxt, Eligo Bioscience, Queensland, Gevo, Virgin, and Unilever

October 3, 2017 |

British author AA Milne is in the news this week with the impending release of “Goodbye Christopher Robin,” which brings to mind “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day”. It’s been bluster and bother and in the bioeconomy this week, all right, and significant players are feeling downright Eeyoreish and we’ll get to that. But some […]

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