First things first, this is a story of syngas fermentation, not the definitive story, though it’s pretty definitive on the Jupeng Bio story. For the definitive story of the entire landscape of syngas fermentation, it would have been required to bring back the late Richard Forster of LanzaTech, the late Jim Gaddy of BRI, into […]
In Albania, See News reported that Albania’s energy ministry said it has launched a public consultation for a new EU-aligned regulation aiming to boost the share of biofuels and other renewable fuels in the country’s transportation sector to 1% by 2025 and to 7% by 2030. The report noted that the new regulation proposes setting […]
Why should DOE work on plastics circularity? For one, ~2-3% of total energy consumption in the US is used to manufacture plastics, resins, and synthetic rubber. Also, plastic production generates ~3.8% of global GHGs. Finally, plastic production uses ~6% of global oil production, representing a large opportunity for further energy and process efficiency improvements. These […]
By Bob Starkey, LEC Partners (formerly Lee Enterprises Consulting) Special to The Digest In October 2023 the Biden Administration announced a USD $7B investment in clean hydrogen production. This historic program, known as the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs), selected 7 locations across the U.S. to develop clean hydrogen infrastructure. The H2Hub concept is important […]
What are the best pathways to generating and upgrading biochemical intermediates. For example, wet waste to mixed volatile fatty acids in arrested methanogenesis. Or, sugars to butyric acid, or 2,3 butanediol. Tasks include mitigation of scalability roadblocks, measurement of finished fuel properties and quantification of blend limitations, demonstration of life-cycle GHG emissions, and more. What’s […]
In this project, researchers aim to engineer Polyketide synthase for production of commodity and specialty chemicals. PKSs provide the potential to access a massive chemical space of useful small molecules, and produce these from renewable carbon sources. This project is making an array of valuable products including several novel plastic (nylon) monomers with potentially better […]
HARNESS strives to develop a proof-of-concept pilot system designed to break down polyether-polyurethane (PE-PU) foams with engineered enzymes, then convert breakdown intermediates to high-value polyols (POs) and diamines. The primary objective of this project is to develop an innovative platform for waste plastics upcycling to PO and diamines, demonstrated and validated for PE-PU foams, which […]
From Colorado comes news that Gevo inked a purchase agreement for its low-carbon intensity fuel blendstock with Shell Global Solutions Deutschland for use in motorsports. Yep., Gevo’s insanely low-carbon fleul blendstock now heads for the racing circuit and the grueling world of motorspots. Sustaninable? Check. Affordable? Check. Fast? Check, check, check. Or should we put […]
In the UK, local startup DRIFT Energy has announced the close of its seed funding round. Led by Octopus Ventures and with support from Blue Action Accelerator, the company has secured a total of $6 million, enabling it to scale and realize its ambition to start vessel production next year. DRIFT Energy said it is […]
Researchers launched a ChemCatBio project to Develop new upgrading technologies enabling cost-competitive conversion of C2 oxygenated intermediates to distillate fuels and valuable co-products. One outcome, the team discovered a catalytic pathway for direct ethanol to butene-rich olefin intermediates, providing control over jet blendstock and co-products, with the potential to obtain a distillate fuel MFSP of […]
