By Charles Loos, PE Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc. Special to The Digest From an operations standpoint, a wood-fired power plant can be described as a fuel handling system first, and a power plant second. The biggest challenges stem from the fuel itself – procurement, supply, handling and combustion. By contrast, the steam turbine and power cycle […]
By John Diecker, Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc. Special to The Digest World rice production for the 2016/2017 crop year is estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture to total 481.5 million tons. The vast majority of this will come from Asia where, in addition to being a major food crop, its cultivation has strong […]
by Bruce Comer, Ocean Park Advisors Special to The Digest The North American biofuels industry continues trend of increased mergers and acquisitions activity. For the second straight year, the North American biofuels industry experienced year-over-year growth in merger and acquisition transactions. In 2016, we saw 12 M&A transactions, the most in 5 years. In total, […]
By Dr. Markus Rarbach, Head of Biofuels & Derivatives, Clariant Special to The Digest Cellulosic ethanol is no longer a topic solely discussed in scientific papers or conferences, or by the academic world. It has made its way through the stages of technology development, from lab scale to pilot, to demo and now to commercial-scale plants. […]
By Mark Warner, PE, Founder, Warner Advisors LLC Special to The Digest As companies consider options to commercialize their advanced biotechnologies, they are faced with the decision to either build their own demonstration scale facility or utilize existing contract manufacturing operations (CMOs). There are benefits and pitfalls to both approaches, with the correct decision founded in […]
By Dr. Bernard Cooker, Chemical Processing Solutions, Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest The use of catalysts, both living entities, such as microorganisms, and otherwise inert synthetic and biologically-derived materials, such as supported transition metals and enzymes, are frequently key to the development of technically efficient and low cost commercial processes to biochemicals and […]
By Gerald Kutney, Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest A myriad of biofuel technologies exist, but which ones are truly industrial processes? The question is not always easy to answer. And one must define what is meant by an industrial process. To facilitate this task, three classifications of industrial status are utilized: Established – […]
By Andrew Grant, Biomass Power Projects, LLC, Lee Enterprises Consulting Special to The Digest Canada, New England, and California all have Carbon Credit programs to achieve GHG reduction goals. Several forms of biomass diversion from landfills, farms, and other biomass – dependent GHG sources are already in operation to support significant GHG reductions. Examples of […]
By John D. Forcier, P.E., Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc. Special to The Digest Most trash and recycled waste materials are being processed on a regional basis to maximize the economy of scale. There have been various attempts to gather and process organic waste materials utilizing similar methods, but the challenges are far from resolved. As […]
By Gerald Kutney Special to The Digest Breaking News: a Canadian venture has just moved up into the #1 spot of the “Top 50 Hottest Companies in the Advanced Bioeconomy,” according to the annual survey by Biofuels Digest – Advent Bioenergy (season2bjolly.ca), founded by the reclusive entrepreneur, S. Claus. Lee Enterprises Consulting is proud to […]
