As bio, solar and computing inaugurate a spectacular Age of Convergence — the long-term opportunities in energy may well lie at sea. One of the perplexities of our time: why solar systems are so photon-efficient and so troubled in energy storage; conversely, how biomass systems are so photon-inefficient yet have magnificently dense energy storage options […]
In California, Algenetix, an industrial biotech company incubated from the pipeline of Kapyon Ventures has closed $2.0M in Series A-1 funding to further commercialize its PhotoSeed platform. The groundbreaking technology vastly improves oil productivity in microbes by accelerating oil accumulation and subsequently preventing its degradation in the cell. The company’s funding is led by Two […]
HydroMan may do his hydrogen-shift thing via water, at will – but outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we have some hydrogen issues. Psst! Like cutting out a fossil hydrogen dependency for many biofuels. But, new pathways ensure that the status hydroquo may not last for long. A numbers of readers responding to “Biofuels from […]
Crop yield and oil content increases of up to 50% and 34% seen from ZeaKal’s HME technology. Though in early days — what’s going on? Last week, ZeaKal announced that it had raised $3.8 million in its Series A financing. A successful Series A is always a good indication that, while it is early days […]
Determined to make up for a crop that was adversely affected by historic drought last year, U.S. farmers intend to plant a record-high combined 174.4 million acres of corn and soybeans in 2013, according to the Prospective Plantings report released today by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. If realized, corn will represent the highest planted […]
Researchers unleash the prospect of fuels from the raging fireball known as Pyrococcus furiosus. Imagine a world where instead of creating CO2 as an emission from burning fuels, you could make fuels from the emissions, the CO2. And could do so in a way that bypasses the production of biomass and the extraction of fermentable […]
Could new advances based around the old Prisoner’s Dilemma make algae biofuels cost-competitive, sooner? Appears so, according to new research. In the days before the internet, librarians knew that no two books were more dog-eared and caused more disappointment to callow youth that John von Neumann’s The Theory of Games and John Maynard Smith’s The […]
ARPA-E aims to drive liquid fuel production from abundant, affordable methane — and sees biobased technology as the path forward. In Washington, ARPA-E released its long-awaited funding opportunity announcement for Project REMOTE – Reducing Emissions using Methantrophic Organisms for Transport Energy. If that seems like a mouthful – think “bioconversion of natural gas to liquid […]
In Part I of our special two-part series, we looked at changing financial structures. Today in part II, we look at a new set of technologies coming along that are redefining our ideas about scale and cost. As seen in part I of Biorefinery 2015: the first wave of cellulosic biofuels projects are now reaching […]
In New Hampshire, Mascoma Corporation applied to the SEC for the withdrawal of its S-1 Registration Statement, thereby abandoning its contemplated IPO. “The Company has determined at this time not to proceed with the offering due to market conditions,” the SEC notice said, and noted that “The Company may undertake a subsequent private offering. In […]
