Note to readers: Today, Algal Biomass Organization executive director Mary Rosenthal commences a monthly column in Biofuels Digest is which she will relate challenges and opportunities for the algal biomass and biofuels industry. We are delighted to have Mary join our new roster of monthly columnists – for some time, when ABO has spoken out […]
Yesterday, the news began tweeting around the internet that LS9 had raised $30 million in series D financing, and that the BlackRock investment group had led the investment round. LS9, which was earlier this month ranked #4 in the 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy, up from #25 in 2008 and #8 last year, confirmed the […]
From every corner of the biofuels universe, the Digesterati are giving mixed signals. There’s a financing crisis for US-based commercial-scale bioenergy, on an epic scale. There’s an ongoing debate about whether microcrops and unicellular organisms such as algae will provide parity-priced fuels in three years, or ten, or ever. Sections of the country are tiring […]
In California, the Boston Consulting Group released its report, titled What’s Next for Alternative Energy?. The report examined seven of the most significant alternative-energy technologies, asking three key questions; 1) Can it achieve cost competitiveness with conventional energy by 2020 and be economically viable without subsidies? 2) Can it overcome barriers to rapid adoption once […]
In yesterday’s Digest, we published some of our own, on the spot conclusions about the impact of this week’s historic US elections on the future of clean energy. Today, we turn it over to you, and reflect what you thought about the message from the voters, and the impact of the change in power and […]
In Washington, the Digest spent time this week with Congressman Brian Bilbray of California, recently tapped as one of the Digest’s “10 who walk the walk” in DC on biofuels-related issues. Bilbray, a San Diego Republican, has been out in front for some time on algal biofuels. Tthere has been increasing speculation about a change […]
By John Hamer, PhD, Managing Director, Burrill & Company It’s interesting that JMP Healthcare Research’s Lazy Man Morning Notes carried the news of the Amyris IPO. Biotech investors will probably look seriously at this area, as much of the underlying technology (genomics, synthetic biology etc.) is shared with biotech and the first two companies’ out […]
The US election season is upon us, and it is a hostile takeover environment if ever there was one. Rollbacks and repeals are at the top of the Republican agenda on many fronts. Yet biofuels has enjoyed bipartisan support – with Senators like Chuck Grassley of Iowa and John Thune of South Dakota among the […]
In Washington, here’s a look at some of the more interesting biofuel-related patent applications logged at the US Patent and Trademark Office in recent weeks. The USPTO’s archive is not for the faint of heart, or those with a love of simple, plain language, but certainly provides copious evidence that biofuels inventiveness is all around […]
Perhaps the only thing under heaven that moves slower and more unpredictably than evolution is the evolution of carbon policy. Biofuels investors have long since written off carbon as a factor, saying that the uncertainty of policy has led them to fund only those projects that can survive without a price on carbon. But with […]
