Here’s to the alternatives. To the people who stand on a shore, look across the water—and see a way forward that isn’t there yet. To the dreamers who hollowed out the first log. The builders who raised the first sail. The navigators who ventured beyond the horizon. To the experimenters who discover that the old […]
Act I — The Magnificent Bioeconomy Clap-Trap If you could gather the bioeconomy’s most devoted critics, professional skeptics, and occasional internet trolls in a room and ask them to draw a picture of the industry, the result might look suspiciously like a Rube Goldberg machine. And what a magnificent contraption they would draw! Food versus […]
The atmosphere at ABLC was electric as industry leaders, technology innovators, and project developers gathered to navigate the rapidly shifting landscape of renewable fuels, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and bio-based products. From major corporate pivots and breakthrough project milestones to realistic takes on FOAK (first-of-a-kind) risk and market dynamics, here are the 10 most compelling […]
An ABLC Next Preview: How the bioeconomy can escape the cost of being different, the cost of being uncertain, and the temptation to build the hard way. It was nine o’clock on a perfectly ordinary morning when BioMan—our caped crusader of the bioeconomy—arrived at the refinery gates, clutching a briefcase bursting with renewable miracles. “Good […]
George C. Parker made a fortune selling the Brooklyn Bridge to tourists who didn’t know any better. Industrial biotechnology has spent two decades trying to sell investors on fermentation plants that physics hasn’t built yet. Now Cemvita and Roebling have an intriguing proposition: find out what the bridge must carry before designing it—and which bridges […]
In which Sherlock Holmes investigates a $20 million mystery, a ten-million-gallon greyhound, and the curious difference between running fast and running forever. It’s a foggy night in the Upper Coastal Plain near Soperton, Georgia, the air hangs low over forested wetlands, dark-water creeks and river swamps. Tiger Creek and Cypress Creek wander through the country […]
Christmas comes early to farm country, as Washington rediscovers the ancient art of the political Christmas stocking. There’s a little candy, a little hope, and perhaps something substantial beneath the wrapping paper. Dear Mr. Lane, Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. They say Washington has forgotten the Heartland, that nobody listens […]
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series where the top international industry leaders in the bioeconomy outline the key issues, opportunities in, and perspectives for, the bioeconomy during 2026-2027. By Donnell Rehagen, CEO, Clean Fuels Alliance Americas Special to The Digest U.S. diesel prices broke records in September, raising concerns for consumers across the […]
Twenty questions, five rounds, one simulated 1844 world Enough machinery. Here is what happened when we actually tried it. We gave Claude the South Devon atmospheric railway proposition as Brunel might have faced it in 1844: a short atmospheric railway had worked; the propulsion principle was demonstrated; a roughly fifty-two-mile railway was proposed; and substantial […]
The minimum machinery of Persistence, LDBT, simulation and adversarial search Having survived the ten nasty objections, we can now say what the Persistence Challenge actually is. It is not an ontology disguised as a fermentation protocol, twenty extra wet-lab experiments, an LLM pretending to be a kinetic model, or a replacement for Design of Experiments, […]
