Adapted from remarks by Digest editor Jim Lane at the 2016 International Bioenergy Conference. Knock Knock Who’s there? Noah. Noah who? Noah good low carbon technology? Well, yes, you do. Lucky you. With all the uncertainty about the future of the world in the face of trade issues, immigration woes, energy and national security concerns, […]
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 […]
Sometimes, the set-up of the transition from fossil fuels is as pretty and impractical as Dr. Doolittle’s Pushmi-Pullyu. The Digest investigates. As you may have noticed in the stories around the launch of the Great Green Fleet, it is a complex maze of relationships when it comes to a technology benefitting from mandates like the […]
Sapphire’s Jamie Levine, Matrix Genetics’ Margaret McCormick, Algal Scientific’s Geoff Horst, Heliae’s Len Smith and USCD’s Steve Mayfield reflect on the commercial progress of algae. There is the dream of algae. All that photosynthetic productivity, all those products that algae can make, all those crushing needs that our society has for more, more, more — […]
Plastics — we love the price, performance and versatility. But why not renewable and sustainable, too? We want it all! And you can have it, with 10 technologies that are changing the landscape. Let’s dive into the who and why. 10. Using plastic to make fuels One way to get plastics out of the landfill, where […]
Portrait of a strategic partner: Vijay Goradia and his Vinmar Group, expanding in renewable chemicals with a series of major offtake and strategic deals, open up about targets and goals in renewables. Last July, BioAmber announced a stunning 210,000 ton per year take-or-pay contract for bio-based succinic acid with Vinmar International. For a renewable chemicals […]
Ceres develops & markets low-carbon, non-food grasses for advanced biofuels and biopower. It’s energy crops “can provide more fuel or electricity, new opportunities for growers and a cleaner environment for us all.” Using advanced plant breeding and biotechnology, Ceres is developing dedicated energy crops as raw materials for renewable transportation fuels, electricity and bio-based products. […]
By Vonnie Estes, special to the Digest Having spent more than twenty years commercializing technology in the agricultural sector, I’m excited by the growing interest and investment in Agricultural Technology. AgTech did not receive much attention from venture capital prior to 2012. Investment in 2012 was around $150M – and then it exploded to $1.8 […]
By Gregory T. Benz, President, Benz Technology International, Inc. Conventional biofuels, whether from starch, sugar or lignocellulosic materials, tend to be low energy density products such as ethanol or butanol. These are made using catabolic (anaerobic), thermodynamically “downhill” processes. Such processes have been proven feasible in rather large fermenter volumes, in excess of 1 million […]
There are times for TED Talks about wondrous advances in technology and the future that awaits us. Then, there are times for Teddy Talks: of practical progress, problem solving, and turning wondrous advances into actual, scaled-up, sustainable, job-creating engines of the economy. While the United States political establishment rocks and roils on the topic of immigration, […]
