Author Archive: Jim Lane

New fuels, vehicles, both, together: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to the Co-Optima Market Transformation project

August 17, 2017 | Jim Lane

The US Department of Energy initiated a project to identify and mitigate the challenges of moving new fuels and vehicles into markets. Specifically, engaging with all critical stakeholders (OEM’s, fuel producers, distribution networks, gas station owners, UL, regulators, consumers, etc.), to understand and address impacts, concerns, opportunities, and barriers. The goal is to facilitate new […]

MetGen, Sweetwater unlocking lignin – the roughest, toughest, ornieri’st material that ever bushwhack’d a pioneer in the Valley of Death

August 16, 2017 | Jim Lane

MetGen, Sweetwater Energy say “there’s gold in them thar side-streams” For all of your questions about the advanced bioeconomy there’s just the one answer and that is “lignin”. Why don’t we see more biobased chemical plants built these days? Lignin. Why do people shy away from hardwoods as a raw material even though it’s sustainable, […]

3D printable resin: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to melt-stable engineered lignin thermoplastic

August 16, 2017 | Jim Lane

The DOE is supporting an Oak Ridge-led project to produce and commercialize lignin-derived, industrial-grade composites with properties including 3D printability, rivaling current petroleum-derived alternatives. The project outcomes? A novel family of commercial-ready, lignin-based 3D-printable composites. Also, suitable for high-volume applications. With recyclable compositions retain their unprecedented mechanical properties. Also, utilizing unmodified lignin at ≥50 (%) […]

The Valley of Fog: As Sundrop moves on from Louisiana, what’s up and what’s wrong with Loan Guarantee programs?

August 15, 2017 | Jim Lane

In Louisiana, reports surfaced in Alexandria’s TownTalk online paper that Sundrop Fuels has struck an agreement to sell the 1200-acre site where it once planned to build its $450 million, 50 million gallon capacity first commercial plant to produce green gasoline from woody biomass. The company selected the site, the former location of the Cowboy […]

Partner Power in Process Piloting: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit

August 15, 2017 | Jim Lane

What is the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit, where is it, who does it serve and how? Located at Berkeley Lab, the ABPDU aims to “support the commercialization of industry-, academic-and DOE-driven biofuels and bio-products by providing a key technical resource and an agile, flexible team for process development and demonstration. The project aims to have […]

Earnings season: An advanced bioecononomy’s health and wellness check-up

August 14, 2017 | Jim Lane

In today’s Digest, let’s look at trends driving the industry’s results at scale — and while money is not the measure of all progress, it is the ultimate yardstick and especially for companies that have reached industrial scale. So, let’s look at Q2 earnings statements now just coming out from four of the sector’s signature […]

You Just Can’t Have Enough Hydrogen: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to renewable hydrogen via biomass pyrolysis aqueous phase

August 14, 2017 | Jim Lane

Hydrogen, hydrogen, hydrogen — the most abundant element in the universe, but the advanced bioeconomy can never seem to get enough of it, and finding ways to produce renewable, affordable hydrogen — well, that’s real gold. A team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Abhijeet Borole and including a number of ORNL colleagues and also […]

Hot path for waste to fuels: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to Hydrothermal Liquefaction

August 13, 2017 | Jim Lane

Hydrothermal liquefaction has a huge fan base in the biorefinery R&D sector. There’s lots to like. It’s robust tech and can be applied to attractive, low-cost wet feedstocks (ag resid, sludge, manure) that exploit HTL attributes and minimize deployment challenges associated with pumping. It’s conceptually simple (feed preparation, pump, heated pipe, gravity separate biocrude). HTL […]

Make Energy Great Again, via BIOmass: The DOE’s MEGA-BIO project expands

August 10, 2017 | Jim Lane

This week, the U.S. Department of Energy revealed that it will award a fourth project—up to $1.8 million—under the MEGA-BIO: Bioproducts to Enable Biofuels Funding Opportunity. That is, they call it MEGA-BIO, like a vitamin. We call it Make Energy Great Again, via BIOmass. The Side by Side theory In it’s essence, it’s the Side-by-Side Theory. Long […]

The electrochemical approach: The Digest’s 2017 Multi-Slide Guide to Upgrading Biorefinery Waste to Industrial Chemicals and Hydrogen