It’s 6 o’clock on the Digest editorial desk, and screens have given method to sunscreen. We’re scanning the day’s headlines from the shade, a glass of one thing red-amber in hand — the Diablito, a Florida Keys invention of rum, blood orange, lime, and a touch of bother. Within the late mild, it appears to be like suspiciously like jet gasoline, which might be why our ideas drifted, as they typically do, to Sustainable Aviation Gas (SAF) and the regular drumbeat of progress popping out of the commercial tropics.
Brazil, specifically, is beginning to really feel much less like a geography and extra like comfortable hour for the vitality transition—plentiful feedstocks, relentless solar, and engineers determining the right way to make the economics work in the actual world.
That’s the backdrop to this month’s information from Radix and Cemvita, who’re advancing front-end engineering for a Brazilian facility designed to transform crude glycerin into ultra-low carbon depth (CI) bio-oil. It’s a precursor that may be upgraded into drop-in refinery feedstocks or HEFA-based SAF. The science issues. However the larger story is engineering self-discipline, capital effectivity, and what the groups name “tropicalization.”
The Information: Engineering, Not Simply Biology
For years, local weather biotech has been haunted by the “valley of loss of life”—the hole between lab success and metal within the floor. Radix’s function on this alliance is to not admire the biology; it’s to make it survive pumps, valves, uptime targets, utilities, logistics, and capital budgets.
By redesigning a U.S.-style idea for Brazilian industrial realities—adapting gear sourcing, format, and integration with native biodiesel infrastructure—the companions report near a 40% discount in value per ton of bio-oil produced. In SAF economics, that’s not a rounding error. That’s the distinction between an attention-grabbing expertise and a bankable venture.
Two numbers now outline this chapter of Cemvita’s journey:
SIDEBAR: In the meantime, on the Marina…
Whereas Cemvita is mixing glycerin within the tropics, XFuel simply secured a $20 million Sequence A to scrub up the docks. On January 27, 2026, the Mallorca-based agency introduced backing from maritime titans NYK Lineand Stolt Ventures.
Their “Chemical Liquid Refining” (CLR) expertise is the final word dockside mixologist: it takes MARPOL Annex I sludge—the literal “well-drink” waste from ship tanks—and converts it into ultra-clean, drop-in Marine Gasoline Oil. With a $9 million EIC grant additionally within the bag, XFuel is proving that the round financial system isn’t nearly crops; it’s about ensuring the “trash” by no means leaves the social gathering.
From Visionary Biology to Industrial Self-discipline
To understand the burden of this second, rewind to 2017. Cemvita, based by Moji and Tara Karimi, entered the scene with a radical premise: nature already runs essentially the most environment friendly carbon financial system on Earth. Why not recruit microbes to do industrial decarbonization as a substitute of forcing molecules along with warmth and stress?
Their platform leans on three refined pillars:
Artificial Biology for Carbon Utilization: Engineering microbes to transform or into particular chemical backbones.
Bio-Impressed Pathways: Drawing from extremophiles tailored to harsh environments (suppose deep-sea vents or oil reservoirs) to outlive industrial reactors.
Electrobiochemical Integration: Coupling renewable electrical energy with biology (Energy-to-X) to retailer vitality in chemical kind.
Early explorations ranged from terrestrial decarbonization to ideas that sounded nearer to science fiction—even Martian utilization. However Cemvita’s evolution mirrors the sector’s: visionary slides giving method to the grit of commercial actuality.
The Increasing Portfolio: From Oil Fields to Flight Paths
Cemvita’s versatility has allowed it to play on a number of levels without delay:
Gold Hydrogen: Maybe their most disruptive idea. By injecting engineered microbes into depleted oil wells, residual hydrocarbons are metabolized into hydrogen. This “subsurface refinery” strategy leverages present infrastructure and has attracted heavyweights like Occidental Petroleum (Oxy).
Sustainable Aviation Gas: Lengthy earlier than the Radix deal, Cemvita was tuning its microbes for flight. The Brazil venture accelerates this by utilizing crude glycerin—the “properly drink” of the biodiesel world—as an inexpensive, plentiful shortcut to business scale.
Biogenic Mining: Leveraging extremophiles for “bioleaching” to extract important minerals from low-grade ores, providing a lower-footprint various to conventional smelting.
Conclusion: The Bioeconomy Grows Up
The sign from Brazil (and Mallorca) is obvious. The bioeconomy isn’t simply inventing molecules—it’s studying the right way to construct below actual constraints, with actual capital, in actual markets. By bringing engineering rigor to artificial biology, Radix and Cemvita present what sector maturity appears to be like like.
The microbes are prepared. The engineers are on website. The Diablito is completed. Now, it’s time to pour the concrete.
And because you didn’t ask…
The Diablito
2 oz Darkish Rum
¾ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Blood Orange
¼ oz Grenadine
¼ oz Allspice Dram
2 dashes Bitters
¼ oz Everclear
Shake laborious. Large ice. Be careful. May match as a SAF mix.
