In New York, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s 2017 New Energy Pioneers were announced — game-changing innovators that are revolutionizing the energy sector — at the 10th BNEP Future of Energy Summit, in New York City. Among the winners, Envirofit, which has developed a line of smart, clean cook stoves that reduce fuel use, smoke and […]
From Wisconsin we have huge news from Virent, which has appointed one of Shell New Energies’ gurus, Stacey Orlandi, as Virent CEO, succeeding Lee Edwards who is headed into retirement after a distinguished 8-year run. Most recently, Orlandi was Shell’s VP, Technology for Novel Processes and New Energies. Orlandi’s mission? To commercialize Virent’s technology for the large scale […]
By Daniel A. Lane and Joel A. Stone, Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest The US commercial petroleum industry started with the drilling by retired railroad conductor Edwin Drake of a well near Titusville, PA in 1859. Drake’s well sparked an oil boom and over the next couple of years, and US petroleum production […]
Over at our sister publication Nuu, we reported this week that TerraVia got a “generally recognized as safe” OK from the FDA for its long-awaited algae butter. It’s a palm-free, non-hydrogenated, vegan solution for bakery, spreads and confectionery applications. Algae Butter will be produced by the TerraVia and Bunge joint venture, SB Oils, and marketed […]
From California arrives the very interesting news that Amyris has entered into an agreement with Blue California whereby its affiliates will provide access to its fermentation manufacturing in China and provide the necessary capital to produce No Compromise ingredients for Amyris. Turns out that China sales have been doubling. Blue California might seem an unlikely […]
In Florida, Biofuels Digest reports that the industrial biotechnology sector raised $1.128B in new capital in the first quarter of 2017, excluding debt and sovereign investments as well as M&A activity (but including expansion investment). Our complete recap by company is here. It’s the first quarter the Digest has reported with more than $1B in […]
Several weeks ago, Digest readers around the world selected the hottest topics on the sector’s agenda — we organized speakers to those selected topics under the March Madness webinar brand, and we are now halfway through that series. In all, we have assembled more than 300 slides and 10 hours of commentary and insight from […]
In Germany UFOP reports that 2017/18 oilseed output in the EU-28 could clearly exceed last year’s production, an EU Commission report indicates. Especially rapeseed and sunflower crops are estimated larger. The European oilseed associations Copa and Cogeca disagree with the Commission’s forecast. The EU Commission pegged the 2017 EU-28 oilseed harvest at around 34.2 million […]
In Washington, according to EIA data, as analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association, US ethanol production averaged 986,000 barrels per day (b/d)—or 41.4 million gallons daily. That is down 32,000 b/d and the first time in 24 weeks that production dipped below 1 million b/d. As a result, the four-week average for ethanol production dropped […]
In California, Full Harvest closed a $2 million seed round of financing led by Wireframe Ventures. BBG Ventures, EarlyImpact Ventures, Impact Engine, Radicle and a collection of high-profile angel investors including Astia and Joanne Wilson also joined the round. Offering the first business-to-business marketplace for the purchase and sale of surplus and imperfectly shaped produce, Full Harvest will […]
