Lignin

• "New Energy Chemicals opens multiple pathways to our exponential growth in biobased fuels and chemicals," says Albury Fleitas, President of New Energy Blue.
• New Energy Chemicals gives us 360-degree downstream options for achieving liftoff of an American bioenergy revolution.
• New Energy Chemicals is expected to pre-qualify for maximum decarbonizing credits, giving it an advantage in a competitive capital marketplace.
• "It starts with a biomass refinery in Mason City, Iowa and New Energy Chemicals conversion operations in Port Lavaca, Texas.

• If so, how do scientists search for and identify it?
• Finding life beyond Earth is extremely difficult, partly because other planets are so far away and partly because we are not sure what to look for.

Contained within northern Idaho’s Clarkia Middle Miocene Fossil Site are sediments that preserve some of Earth’s most diverse biological marker molecules, or biomarkers. These are remains of past life that offer glimpses into Earth’s history.

An ancient lake

• About 16 million years ago, a lava flow in what would one day become Clarkia, Idaho, dammed a local drainage system and created a deep lake in a narrow, steep-sided valley.
• Although the lake has since dried up, weathering, erosion and human activity have exposed sediments of the former lake bed.

Today, ancient lake beds on Earth are becoming important settings for learning about habitable environments on other planets.

Biological marker molecules

• These compounds, or classes of compounds, can reveal how organisms and their environments functioned in the past.
• Since the discovery of the Clarkia fossil site in 1972, multiple research teams have used various cutting-edge technologies to analyze different biomarkers.

Studying life signatures on Mars

• In 2021, the Mars Perseverance Rover landed on top of lake deposits in Mars’ Jezero Crater.
• Microbial life may have lived in Jezero’s crater lake, and their biomarkers might be found in lake bed sediments today.

• The samples Perseverance is collecting contain the geologic and climate history of the Jezero Crater landing site and may even contain preserved biomarkers of ancient life.
• That means we are developing ways to figure out whether ancient biomarkers from Earth, and hopefully Mars, are true echoes of life – rather than recent contamination or molecules from nonliving sources.
• To do so, we are studying biomarkers from Clarkia’s fossil leaves and sediments and developing laboratory experiments using Martian simulants.

Robert Patalano receives funding from the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant Program.

• VIRGINIA CITY, Nev., Dec. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Comstock Inc. (NYSE: LODE) (“Comstock” and the “Company”) today announced execution of agreements with RenFuel K2B AB (“RenFuel”) to advance Comstock’s first commercial biorefinery, including an option to acquire a subsidiary of RenFuel (“JV”).
• The existing engineering work for the JV biorefinery involves integration of the RenFuel process into a pulp and paper mill in Sweden.
• Comstock and RenFuel are currently evaluating the requirements for inclusion of an additional 25,000 TPY of biorefining capacity based on Comstock’s commercially available Cellulosic Ethanol and Bioleum derived fuels technologies.
• Sven Löchen, RenFuel’s chief executive officer, added that “we are thrilled with our rapidly expanding strategic partnership with Comstock.

• Global Bio-India 2023 would be the largest congregation of biotech startups.
• The central theme of Global Bio-India 2023 is Biotech Innovation and Bio-manufacturing.
• Global Bio-India 2023 is not just an event; it's an opportunity to shape the future of biotechnology on a global scale  ( Source ).
• The participation of US biotech leaders in India underscores the strategic importance of the collaboration between two global biotechnology giants.