The hallways at ABLC Next ring like a refinery at shift change — loud, hot, and running on caffeine. Policy hawks, tech dreamers, financiers, and feedstock wranglers crowd the lobby, swapping figures and phone numbers. Everyone agrees on one thing: time’s running out. The bioeconomy has grown, but the world hasn’t. We’re short on energy, […]
Today, the Digest is announcing that after 12 months of development, DigestAI has arrived and was demonstrated live on stage at ABLC Next in San Francisco. It’s a place where a researcher or investor can start with a rough question — “What are the latest advances in pyrolysis?” — and, through dialogue, refine it into […]
If you work in the advanced bioeconomy, you know the feeling: the alarm clock rings, Sonny and Cher start singing “I Got You Babe,” there seem to be “a thousand people freezing their butts off to worship a rat,” and there we are again — scarce feedstocks, expensive capital, Trump-policy angst, scale-up blues. It’s Groundhog […]
From hydro to hydrogen, the Columbia River keeps teaching America how to move. Editor’s Note: In 1941, Woody Guthrie wrote twenty-six songs about the Columbia River and its dams, capturing the spirit of American ingenuity at a time of transformation. Today, as the energy transition builds its next generation of projects along that same river, […]
Australia’s great unspoken contract has always been simple: the country does its bit for the city, and the city returns the favor. It’s the rhythm of the fair go — a handshake across the wheatbelt and the wharf, a sense that when the work’s shared, the reward should be too. Lately, that balance’s been […]
“Thar’ she blows!” The cry cracked across the waves like musket fire. The decks of the Elizabeth Starbuck were slick with oil and brine, the air heavy with salt and smoke. In the dawn light off the whale-rich grounds of New Zealand, 4000 leagues sou’west of Nantucket, three boats dropped from the davits and pulled […]
Inside the race between LNG, methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen — where data meets daylight and every molecule gets a second chance. Episode 1 – Four Fuels and a Vegan Burger They say the studio was once a broom closet. Now it’s home to The Upcycle Diaries, a semi-official, occasionally award-winning podcast about finding value in […]
From Pearl Harbor’s smoke to the IMO’s clock, the maritime world faces its most decisive refueling mission since 1942. “The next Guadalcanal of this campaign won’t be a battle at sea — it will be a price curve, a port standard, a policy vote.” It began in smoke. Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941. The harbor […]
If a Martian ever lands on Earth, I hope the landing finds the beaches of southern Brazil. So much would feel familiar to our Mars-based friends: the red-oxide terra roxa soil, a culture that reveres nature and reuses waste for energy — just as fossil-free Mars must do to survive. And what a shock to […]
Gevo, Praj in focus as India tips a blending strategy to complement biodiesel, renewable diesel When a problem comes along, you must whip it. That was Devo’s advice in 1980 — and, four decades later, it’s exactly what India’s energy strategists are doing with a stubborn technical groove called diesel blending. Ethanol, the star of India’s […]
