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A busy Friday, with a look at a big boost for SAF, why you should get an Omicron booster, and a lot more news. (756 words, 3 minutes, 46 seconds) |
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SAF could soon be the same price as fossil-based fuel |
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From Bill Gates to “Big Oil,” everyone’s talking about biofuel and its role in addressing the global energy crisis. The news: Breakthrough Energy, the sustainable energy accelerator founded by Bill Gates, awarded BIO member LanzaJet $50 million to develop a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in Soperton, Georgia. The plant’s expected to be operational in 2023.
The impact: The plant will be “capable of turning out for the first time a lower-emission fuel at the same price as fossil fuel-based options,” explains Bloomberg and Fortune.
Why it matters: “Aviation accounts for approximately 2-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually, and as a ‘drop-in’ fuel, sustainable aviation fuels offer an important way to quickly decarbonize aviation with existing aircraft currently in use around the world,” says LanzaJet. “Produced from a variety of low-carbon, sustainable feedstocks such as agricultural waste, municipal solid waste, energy crops, or carbon captured from industrial processes or ambient air, SAF is a like-kind replacement for traditional jet fuel and is compatible with existing aircraft and infrastructure.”
It’s a trend: So far, global airlines including British Airways, Delta, and United have made “forward-purchasing agreements for sustainable aviation fuel” worth $17 billion.
Big Oil’s getting in on the action, too: The “renewable pivot” is “no longer focused on renewable electricity,” said Citigroup’s Alastair Syme, per Bloomberg, with biofuels getting more attention. Example: BP will acquire a Houston company that “captures waste emissions from landfills and farms, and turns them into a biogas,” Bloomberg reported.
The context: Winter’s coming—and much of the world (including the U.S.) is still facing high energy prices “driven up by Putin’s war in Ukraine,” the White House said this week. Fuels that are lower in cost AND carbon are exciting—and much needed. |
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More Agriculture and Environment News: Reuters: Ukraine to overhaul legislation on genetically modified crops
“Ukraine, which prohibits the cultivation of genetically-modified crops, plans to revamp its legislation in response to a growing illicit market for the crops, but hasn’t decided whether to tighten or relax the ban, the agriculture ministry said.” |
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Booster today, protection tomorrow |
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If you haven’t gotten your updated COVID booster shot yet, here's another reason to run to the pharmacy: current boosters could help your immune system “fight variants that don’t exist yet,” reports Nature.
The first study: Washington University Medical School found the immune systems of people who received a Moderna primary series and Omicron booster recognized both strains and “had a few new types of Omicron-specific B cell,” explains Nature.
The second study: Six months after a breakthrough Omicron infection, participants “produced antibodies that bound Omicron BA.1 better than the original strain—showing that the immune system continued to adapt long after the infection had passed,” explains Nature of the Scripps Research Institute of La Jolla study.
What it all means: “Designing boosters that target circulating strains might be worthwhile, even if the virus evolves to avoid them. That’s because any strain that arises will be genetically closer to the one just before it than to the original strain and the vaccines against it,” computational virologist Jesse Bloom told Nature.
The challenge: As of last week, only about 5% of eligible Americans had received an updated booster—and just over half of teens, and 1 in 3 younger kids, have received their primary COVID vaccines, we reported.
A potential solution: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just authorized the Novavax vaccine for emergency use as a booster dose, whether they received Novavax, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, OR Johnson & Johnson for their primary series.
What they’re saying: “According to CDC data, almost 50 percent of adults who received their primary series have yet to receive their first booster dose. Offering another vaccine choice may help increase COVID-19 booster vaccination rates for these adults,” said Novavax President and CEO Stanley C. Erck. |
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More Health Care News: Axios: Xi pushes to accelerate China’s scientific ‘self-reliance’
“China should be ‘guided by the national strategic needs, gather strength to carry out original and leading scientific and technological breakthroughs, and resolutely win the battle of key and core technologies,’ he said.” Bloomberg: Novartis allows generic leukemia drug production in seven nations
“Novartis AG agreed to allow generic drugmakers in seven middle-income nations to produce a leukemia treatment, the first time a voluntary license has been granted for a patented cancer drug as part of a public health initiative.” |
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President Biden’s Friday: Delivering remarks on the budget deficit at 11 AM ET, then on student debt relief at 3:15 PM ET. He’ll spend the weekend in Delaware. What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: Recess. The midterms are about two-and-a-half weeks away. |
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