By Lorenz Bauer, Ph. D., Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc. Special to The Digest Currently over 866 million tons per year of CO2, or 2.4% of the world’s total, come from maritime sources. A report to the European Parliament predicts that maritime emission will account for up to 17% of total global greenhouse gas produced by […]
Our story so far In 2011, KiOR raised $150 million in its June IPO, claiming that it was generating yields of 67 gallons per ton in its Demo unit operations. But it was miles short of that. In our previous installments, we have charted how KiOR moved from a promising early-stage technology to a public […]
By Dr. Terry Mazanec, Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest Landfills contain a toxic stew of biomass materials from old tires to food wastes to animal manure. It is literally the bottom of the rubbish barrel. The US EPA estimates that 250 million tons of municipal solid wastes are sent to landfills each year. […]
Our story so far KiOR was hanging by a thread as the summer of 2010 commenced. In a few days, the first recorded visitors to Pasadena demo unit, representatives of the Mississippi Development Authority, were expecting to see the demonstration unit in action. The company was beginning to hurtle towards an IPO. But the fuel […]
By Irshad Ahmed, Consultant with Lee Enterprises Consulting and Member of MITSBAA Entrepreneurs Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Special to The Digest The story of cellulosic ethanol in the United States has had more plot twists than The Crying Game, the acclaimed Hollywood brain twister—except that this story promises to end with a predictable happy […]
In Missouri, Ocean Park Advisors has been retained by Abengoa Bioenergy to find a strategic partner or to complete a sale of Abengoa cellulosic ethanol plant, electricity cogeneration plant and related assets in Hugoton, Kansas. Additionally, there is an opportunity for interested parties to acquire the cellulosic technology and other intellectual property assets that are owned […]
Sweeteners, acrylic, and nutraceuticals led the news at the end of this week, with key announcements out of Evolva, Wageningen and Algae.Tec. Over at Evolva: major patent win on sweeteners In Switzerland, the European Patent Office granted Evolva a patent that the company deemed “pivotal to the commercial expansion of and broader access to the […]
Note. This is Part 2 of our series on the inside true story of KiOR. In part 1 of our series, here, we explored: the formation of BIOeCON and KiOR, the problem of too much oxygen and coke, the entry of Khosla Ventures, and the loss of a CEO. Also, “a recipe for technical failure”, disastrous pilot […]
Not long ago, KiOR quietly re-named itself Inaeris Technologies and launched a modest website which discussed the technology and management in little detail, but focused to an extraordinary extent on a declaration of values. Empowerment, honesty, fairness, “lessons learned from our collective experience” and so on. Warm, kindly Hallmark Card sentiments, universally popular, admired and […]
Out of the unlikely bioeconomy hub of West Palm Beach, Florida, Alliance BioEnergy Plus has revealed what it describes as the “successful completion of its yearlong efforts to optimize its patented CTS technology to extract 100% of the sugar from virtually any cellulosic feed-stock after having it completed and proven by major industry ethanol producers.” […]
