By Dustin Mulvaney, Assistant Professor of Sustainable Energy Resources, Department of Environmental Studies, San Jose State University — Principal, EcoShift Consulting Measuring the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of biofuels has become increasingly important in recent years. Studies have shown a significant amount of variation in biofuels made from different feedstocks. In some cases, biofuels are only marginally better […]
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, exotic materials are brought from outer space, but in the Digest Cinematic Universe, the most transformative materials are all around you. Possibly in your trash. If there is a lesson we can draw from the fracking and the biobased revolutions, it is that the most important work we can do […]
As stranded natural gas is poured into the atmosphere by the millions of tons each year — biologists are coming to the rescue with a new class of technologies. They’re designed to convert more “old methane” to higher value fuels and chemicals, and make more “new methane” via high-tech digesters that turn waste into liquid […]
Obama, in trouble on healthcare, sounds the retreat on renewable fuels; industry groups aghast as EPA targets next-generation, non-food biofuels for biggest cuts; slashes corn ethanol also. Major push-back expected following “complete capitulation to Big Oil”. What are the political, economic drivers? What’s the impact, and how will industry respond? In Washington, the EPA released […]
Primus Green Energy recently completed a landmark technology demonstration — and heads off to scale with a catalytic technology for making $2.00 gasoline. But, in shifting to natural gas as a feedstock for the first commercial, are they still in the renewable fuels space at all? Out there in the land of technologies, there are […]
With a $8 million award from the French government, Deinove heads for the next level in developing deinococcus as a biofuels and chemicals platform. What’s next for consolidated bioprocessing via the roughest, toughest bacteria genus that Mother Nature has yet devised? At some point in your reading, you may have run across the assertion that, should […]
Slow pace, low yields have depressed KiOR’s share prices, but tripled production and revenue has recently delighted the markets. What’s up with the cellulosic biofuels leader? Good news, bad news? If you have ever spent any time reading up on ion thrusters — a next-gen engine technology that NASA recently employed on the Dawn spacecraft […]
By Mary Rosenthal Executive Director, Algae Biomass Organization I had the privilege of sitting in the Science, Space, & Technology Committee Room of the Rayburn House Office Building last month for the launch of the new Congressional Algae Caucus with its bi-partisan chairmen, Republican Matt Salmon of Arizona and Democrat Scott Peters of California. They, […]
Goodbye, wild plant, full of promise. Hello, domesticated and optimized plant-soldier in the struggle to make rubber for a planet with limited acreage and rapidly-expanding demand. In biofuels and related industries, there may be a hundred feedstocks or so. Some developed, some merely domesticated, some hardly improved over the wild types in the field. 100 […]
In Iowa, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association responded to an Associated Press ethanol story that’s set to be published in news outlets around the country tomorrow. The IRFA was able to view an early version of the story, and speak with Wayne County residents who felt they were misrepresented by the AP in the story. […]
