Doing my best to connect energy researchers with opportunities today. I cannot promise super fast responses but feel free to fill this out: (usually I send this to PhD students and postdocs, but opening it up more broadly given the circumstances).

Greetings from the Midwest

Join millions who have switched to Grok.

Going all in on the @jbei colors today

Another @jbei publication hot off the presses! 7 herbaceous, 9 woody, 4 food processing residues, and 2 blends all decontructed using butylamine. We can hit $1.3 to 6.1/kg sugar now, process intensification needed to hit $0.45–0.79/kg.

So what does this mean? Well, you can engineer plants to increase the glucan to xylan ratio. You can select feedstocks with a more favorable ratio. And/or you can focus on hosts and other bioprocessing strategies to enable full consumption of both sugars in less time.

How much xylan vs. glucan is in your original feedstock REALLY matters. Capital-constrained biorefineries operating with shorter residence times can justify paying up to 1.5X to 2X the price for feedstocks with very high glucan to xylan ratios.

My fabulous postdoc, Jaya, led a new analysis in which we used empirical data to figure out how the glucose-to-xylose ratio in 🌱 feedstocks impacts likely residence times and costs. We looked at ethanol (anaerobically produced) and bisabolene (aerobically produced).

Using lignocellulosic biomass for biomanufacturing has long been the dream. Low-input grasses, ag residues, you name it. One challenge remains: microbes consume xylose more slowly than glucose. Our @jbei team digs into what this means in our new paper

RT @Jeffinerca: If you're submitting an #AGU2025 abstract on #enhancedrockweathering biogeochemistry, microbiology, hydrology, modeling, MR….

Mike has been a really wonderful leader. Supportive, curious, and a true believer in the important mission of the national labs. I feel so lucky to have spent so much of my career at LBNL with him at the helm.

In light of news that they might get their budget cut, I just want to share how absolutely amazing the CSB’s investigations and videos for the public are. I used them for teaching. It always made me proud that our government supports stuff like this:

The potential for cost-competitive lithium extraction from clay relative to brines and hard rock ores:

U.S. battery material supply chains and recycling costs:

Gallium production costs & recovery/recycling potential in North America:

We have a team of rising stars at @BerkeleyLab @BerkeleyLabETA who are doing incredible work in critical materials & supply chain research. Keep an eye out for more from this team. Here are just a few recent papers (including preprints):.

This panel discussion on the bioeconomy was really fun. I never miss a chance for @jbei @CABBIbio get-together 😁 Thanks for inviting me!

RT @BerkeleyLab: 🎉 Congratulations to our Lab's Jay Keasling, @ENERGY's @OTCatDOE and @AcadofInventors Innovator of the Year! Details ⬇️. h….

Major thanks to the whole team, including Tao Dai for his leadership and to @Jeffinerca for fearless leadership of the original report.

We constrained DACS build-out based on geologic storage. West Texas and upper Rocky Mountain regions have great potential. 7 million ha have the potential for co-located new electricity generation and perennial grasses that are good for the soil and provide BiCRS feedstocks.

We analyzed the land resources for large-scale engineered CDR in the US, accounting for demand from future electricity generation needs and demands on ag lands. Short answer: there is enough! New in One Earth from the crew 😁.

I am taking a red-eye after which I will go straight to do some public speaking at a rather large conference. AMA. specifically ask me wtf I was thinking.