I think I’m slowly becoming a dad who’s way too into lawncare… not sure how I feel about it.

The Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) industry is facing headwinds. I’m hopeful it can overcome them, but I wonder when carbon removal (e.g. biomass burial) might become more attractive (1/2). finance.yahoo.com/news/airline...

Busy day in the BUS Lab as we prepare bioreactors for anaerobic digestion experiments.

“Globally, sustainable aviation fuel is expected to increase to 0.7% from 0.3% of aviation fuel this year. But the International Air Transport Assn. expects air travel to climb 6%, causing another jump in emissions.” www.latimes.com/environment/...

Y Combinator, one of the most influential startup accelerators in the world, is going all-in on AI agents, making up nearly 50% of their latest cohort of startups. How do people think AI agents will disrupt academia? pitchbook.com/news/article...

Can a bioeconomy take root in Europe? A flurry of projects is underway, but history suggests success won’t be easy cen.acs.org/environment/...

Very excited to share new research out of the Biocarbon Utilization & Sequestration (BUS) Lab: "Techno-Economic Assessment of Atmospheric Carbon Removal via Industrial Composting of Biomass Waste with CO2 Capture" published in ACS Omega. 🧵1/4 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

🌲 Did you know over 13 million metric tons of biogenic CO₂ are mineralized into carbonates each year in U.S. pulp mills — but then released back into the atmosphere? Our new study shows how we can capture that CO₂ instead — at low cost. 🧵 1/5

Let’s build this little guy a planet that lasts. Climate tech isn’t just innovation — it’s love in action.

Slate Auto, a firm backed in part by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is unveiling a low-cost electric truck that can also change into an SUV. Its starting price point: $20,000 after federal EV incentives. www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

Computer models have been accurately predicting climate change for 50 years.

🧵Graphite is a strategic and critical material for electric vehicles, as it forms nearly 100% of the anode in lithium-ion batteries. 1/n www.axios.com/2025/04/15/c...

The pulp and paper industry continues to make its case for atmospheric carbon removal, as I explain in the article published by Trellis Group today. trellis.net/article/micr...

It's April

🌍 Excited to share our new research on carbon-negative bioplastics—now published in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews! We assessed the techno-economic potential for atmospheric CO2 removal via industrial-scale fermentation of lignocellulose into bioplastics 🌱 🧪 . 1/n

🚨 April 15 Deadline! 🚨 Got a game-changing idea in bioprocessing? Enter the ASABE Bioprocess Startup Student Competition! Link here for details: asabe.org/bioprocess

Feeling incredibly proud of the amazing work the BUS lab has done over the past few years. This group has put in a lot of effort and supported one another — it’s been a pleasure to work alongside them. Here’s to continuing the momentum in the year ahead! 💪📚🔬

🔋 🔬 🌿 🧪 I'm proud to share our latest work from the BUS Lab. Led by PhD student Lillian Lower, our team published an innovative process to convert biorefinery residues into sustainable graphite for lithium-ion batteries and jet fuel. 1/n doi.org/10.1002/cssc...

Avoid accumulating plastic in your brain by using all natural bioproducts (e.g. cotton) where possible. Article: Bioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Writing a review paper for publication was once an intimidating task, but AI has transformed the process entirely.

Dear US Bioeconomy, hang in there 🙏

@joesagues.bsky.social is hiring a grad student on this super cool project w/ real-world impact. Cannot promise free designer handbags w/ this research position. Direct all swag questions to Joe. I'm just the messenger.

Excited to share a new article from the BUS Lab. Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr. Yaojing Qiu, led the study titled "Impacts of Municipal and Industrial Organic Waste Components on the Kinetics and Potentials of Biomethane Production via Anaerobic Digestion". link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A Montana refinery for sustainable aviation fuel will now get $1.44 billion in financing that had been previously approved by the Loan Programs Office under Biden. www.canarymedia.com/articles/air...

😔

A constant reminder that even if CO₂ emissions decreased annually as much as they did during the pandemic lockdown from now to 2030, we still wouldn't meet our emission target to keep global warming below 1.5°C.

AI tools like chat gpt are very helpful for back-of-the-envelope techno-economic and life cycle assessments. Material costs, global and regional capacities, process efficiencies, emissions factors, & unit conversions are a few things that can be obtained much more quickly via AI.

Leaf pick up in front of my house. Great opportunity for biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS).

🤔"Whatever happened to cellulosic ethanol? Regulatory uncertainty, overoptimistic investors, technological immaturity, and falling oil prices are blamed for the failure of a promising biofuel technology to perform as hoped." pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...

Have you ever wanted to systematically compare the performance of engineered carbon removal technologies? Excited to have a new, open-access paper doing just that.

It is both the case that the 2% of the planet that is it United States is remarkably frigid at the moment, and that the world as a whole is at record-warm levels for this day of the year:

Some (small) positive news this week: President Biden's 2025 Economic Report of the President contains an exciting chapter on "Achieving a Net Zero Carbon Dioxide Emissions Economy in the United States" 👓 🧵

Appreciation post to the authors of the Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Primer, a free online textbook introducing the most important elements of CDR. I am using the textbook for a course at NC State, which has 37 students enrolled! cdrprimer.org

Happy New Year! In 2025, I’m excited to continue advancing the bioeconomy via innovation in climate and energy solutions. Specifically, I’m excited to apply lessons learned over the past decade to optimize my performance and impact while maintaining work-life balance.

I'm so curious to see the impacts of AI assisted writing in research over the coming years. Will researchers who learned how to write the hard way be advantaged? My guess is that old school researchers will have more intuition and a better ability to connect dots. Time will tell.

Today is a glorious day. The Biological & Agricultrual Engineering Department at NC State finally has compost service!

💡 📚 🔬 🎓 The NC State Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering is seeking a new department head! As a faculty member in the department, I can assure you it's an incredible place to work! Link to the position: jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/210...

Ok I’m here to remove carbon from the blue sky