By Mark Warner, P.E, Founder, Warner Advisors Special to The Digest In part one of the three-part series of Top Ten Lessons Learned, we reviewed process development topics. In this second segment, we will explore process design and deployment. PART 2 – PROCESS DESIGN AND DEPLOYMENT Facility Design – Understanding fit for purpose Without a doubt, […]
By Mark Warner, P.E, Founder, Warner Advisors Special to The Digest Spending half a billion dollars placing steel in the ground to commercialize advanced biotechnologies for fuels, chemicals and food applications, is the easy part. Doing it successfully is the hard part – but I have been fortunate to lead many successful projects over the last […]
By Sam Nejame & James Evangelow, special to The Digest Sad to say Cobalt Technologies is dead – no really they’re dead – it’s not just double secret probation anymore. Although you’d almost not even know it given how quiet the company’s been over the last few years. And after the venture guys cleared out […]
The Digest speaks with Sebastian Soederberg, Novozymes’ VP for Biomass Conversion, on how the emotional issue of city smog is creating an opening for cellulosic ethanol, even with currently low oil prices. Q: Sebastian, how do you see political pressures shifting, and why is it important? S: There are an impressive number of developments happening this […]
By Cynthia Thyfault, CEO, Westar Trade Resources, special to The Digest The biobased products and fuels industry has been anxiously waiting for the new USDA Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program. Authorized in the 2014 Farm Bill and with the addition of new categories for renewable chemicals and biobased products, there are […]
What can renewable fuels learn from Amazon.com? Turns out, a lot. By Bill Levy, CEO, Pacific Ag, special to The Digest In a few days the US Department of Energy will convene the best and brightest in the biomass industry to Washington, D.C. to continue work on an update to its “Billion Ton Biomass” study […]
By David Gogerty and Ronan Rocle, Global Bioenergies, special to The Digest In March, when the inaugural ‘AgSummit’ was held in Des Moines, it was more than just tires that were spinning their wheels in the mud of the spring thaws. The ethanol industry, after a period of government inaction and perceived blend wall issues, didn’t […]
By Bill Brandon and Richard Ezike, PhD, special to The Digest The debate touting butanol over ethanol as a ‘better’ fuel component has gone on for quite some time in biofuel circles. Those who support butanol point to three key factors: • Butanol has a higher fuel density; • Butanol can be blended at a 1.6:1 […]
When it comes to its progress in achieving zero waste to landfills, the United States is on a par with Slovenia and the Czech Republic. By James L. Stewart. This article originally appeared in MSW Management and is republished by permission. On average, the top eight countries in Europe for landfill diversion (Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, […]
By Mike Knauf, CEO, Rivertop Renewables, special to The Digest If you’re like me, you know that your ability to compete in the bio-based economy is driven by two factors – capital and people. And while we’ve all been stressed a bit by access to capital in the past few years, I think it’s safe […]
