Biocatalysis Having an Impact on Green Chemistry

November 23, 2010

Chemical manufacturing has seen large advances in green chemistry in recent years. The term “green chemistry” has come to embrace some well-defined concepts in chemical manufacturing. As enunciated by Paul Anastas, considered by many to be the “father of green chemistry,” a chemical process is greener when it meets certain well-defined criteria.

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Election Analysis: Impact on Biofuels

November 3, 2010

Brilliant analysis by Jim Lane on the impact the election will have on biofuels. Worth reading no matter your positions just to understand what is likely to happen over the next few years. One key prediction: Cap and trade being dead on arrival, which will mute the enthusiasm for carbon capture.

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Biofuels Initiative Is Problematic

October 22, 2010

The President’s latest initiative to support biofuels will pay farmers to plant non-food crops. But discouraging the planting of food crops will lead to higher food prices. If the goal is to encourage the production of more biofuels, why not raise the price of fuel rather than the price of food?

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Carbon Capture Question: What Can We Do With All That CO2?

October 20, 2010

Carbon capture and storage technology is the trapping of carbon dioxide from the exhaust of power plants that burn fossil fuels, followed by its sequestration underground in such a way that it cannot reenter the atmosphere. The amounts of CO2 proposed to be captured are simply enormous. So, what can we do with all that captured carbon? According to a study from Durham University in the United Kingdom, one of the best uses for all that captured CO2 is using it to recover more oil.

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Coal: A Sustainable Energy Source?

October 19, 2010

It is if you are the CEO of a large coal company! It is if you are the CEO of a large coal company!

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Guess Which State Is Getting Into Alternative Energy

October 15, 2010

Alaska, the largest producer of oil in the USA, is getting into alternative energy. Not biofuels, which would be impractical. Not solar, since the weather is often cloudy and the state is largely dark in the winter. But wind energy is perfect.

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A Question For Carbon Capture: Where Can We Put All That Carbon?

October 9, 2010

Carbon capture and storage has been heralded as the only path to achieve “clean coal”–well, cleaner coal, anyway. Funding has been flowing into R & D projects with the goal of demonstrating the commercial feasibility of trapping CO2 from power plant smokestacks at cost that won’t wreck the economy.

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Carbon Capture: The Projects Keep Coming But Questions Still Persist

October 7, 2010

Funding continues to flow toward carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, with new announcements of projects occurring almost daily. Cost is still a concern, of course, but the technology is advancing rapidly. A more practical question is only starting to be answered: where would we store all that carbon dioxide?

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Amyris Goes Public

September 28, 2010

Amyris Biotechnologies, the California-based developer of biofuels using pathway engineering technology, has successfully completed its IPO, raising $84.8 million. Based on its $16 per share price, the company is valued at $680 million.

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Biofuels Companies Target Chemical Products

September 23, 2010

Increasingly, those companies that branded themselves as biofuels companies are looking for opportunities to produce chemical products. Why? Because the same basic technology is used

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