Article Archive for April 2011
(US Department of Education) The U.S. Department of Education announced today the creation of the Green Ribbon Schools program to recognize schools that are creating healthy and sustainable learning environments and teaching environmental literacy. The …
The Brazilian Bio-Jetfuel Platform and the Industrial Crops Technology Company, QUINVITA announces today they entered into a strategic alliance on Research and Development of Jatropha production and processing. Under the signed agreement, QUINVITA joins the …
(AllAfrica.com) The Italian company “BioEnergy” is to invest 20 million dollars to grow the shrub Jatropha in Sabie, in the southern Mozambican district of Moamba.
The jatropha seeds will be exported to Italy to be processed …
(Solix BioSystems) Solix BioSystems today announced the first sale and delivery of its Lumian AGS4000 high productivity, fully integrated algae cultivation system to New Mexico State University (NMSU), Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Lumian AGS4000 is …
(Amyris) Amyris, Inc., announced the completion of the first industrial-scale facility for the production of Biofene™, Amyris’s renewable farnesene. The production facility is located in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil at a facility owned by Biomin do …
(AllAfrica.com) Jatropha should not replace any crops in arable farms and instead should be cultivated by smallholder farmers as hedges for farms, an expert has warned.
Pamoja Inc Co-Director Jonathan Otto said in Dar es Salaam …
by David Hendee (Reuters) Rises in fuel prices have led to an increase in the number of used fryer grease rustlers roaming restaurant alleys in the United States.
Grease thefts have spiked whenever fuel prices climbed …
(PRLog) To kick off the algae collecting season, the Saint Louis Science Center and the Center for Advanced Biofuel Systems at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center are hosting the 2nd annual Algaepalooza.
Algae have significant …
(Gevo) Gevo, Inc., a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company, today announced it has signed an engineering and consulting agreement with Mustang Engineering, LP (Mustang) to convert Gevo’s renewable isobutanol to bio-jet fuel. This effort …
by Philip Brasher (Des Moines Register) Newt Gingrich, who raised eyebrows this winter with his spirited defense of U.S. ethanol policy, received more than $300,000 in consulting fees from an industry trade group in 2009, according …
(EurekAlert!) David Grewell flipped on the augers that carry corn from a truck to a biorefinery.
Then, with a few more clicks of his computer mouse, he turned on the pumps that send grain all the …
(OpenPR/Mettler Toledo) As food and alternative fuel demands continue to grow, increasing pressure is being placed on sugar and bioethanol producers to improve efficiency and process safety in order to maximize productivity. Process analytics can …
(India.gov.in) The Department of Biotechnology has launched a mission programme on biofuel from biomass. The thrust is on developing ethanol using Lignocellulosic waste as a raw material, identifying recombinant microbial strains for enhanced ethanol recovery, …
by Tonette Orejas (Business.Inquirer.net) Test farming of sweet sorghum in the last six years showed crop production in the Philippines to be 50 percent higher than in India, increasing the crop’s potential as a source …
(Pakistan Today) Brazil and Pakistan produce huge amount of sugarcane and Brazil will soon establish its industry to help Pakistan in ethanol extraction or production from sugarcane which would bring about stability in petroleum prices …
by Joelle Brink (Biofuels Digest Asia) It was quite a shock to return from the exciting and very sustainability-oriented Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference in Washington, DC to headlines like “Are our biofuel mandates fueling Islamic …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Biofuels investing is not for the faint of heart – even high-flyers like Gevo, up more than 33 percent since its debut earlier this year, have been volatile – and …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In California, Jim Stewart, Chairman of the Board, BioEnergy Producers Association reports: “Democrats on California’s environmental committees, for more than six years, have blocked corrective legislation that would enable the state to …
(ManufacturingChemist.com) Researchers at Glyndwr University looking at the commercial potential of high-sugar perennial rye-grass as feedstock for the production of bio-ethanol and other chemicals will also consider the fibre’s potential for pharmaceutical applications.
High-sugar perennial …
(JapanCorp.net) Project to Make Efficient Use of Soft Cellulose
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has successfully established technology to produce ethanol for automobile fuel, satisfying the standards of the Japanese Automotive Standards Organization (JASO), from lignocellulose …
by Tom Lutey (Billings Gazette) Camelina, the biofuel that five years ago Gov. Brian Schweitzer called his new girlfriend, now struggles for a planting date with Montana farmers.
“The biggest challenge of all is the price of wheat,” …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Piper Jaffray’s Mike Cox and Mike Ritzenthaler, and Raymond James’ Pavel Molchanov, publish notes on the progress of advanced biofuels following their meetings and presentations at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership …
(EurekAlert!) An alliance of top researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has formed the UC Berkeley Synthetic Biology Institute (SBI), advancing efforts to engineer cells and biological systems in ways that promise to transform …
by Steven Medina (Biofuels Digest) “He intensively grows corn for ethanol in clay soil that once grew corn for bootleg liquor and a variety of other crops to varying degrees of success, allowing my mother’s …
(Lignol) Lignol Energy Corporation, a leading technology company in the advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals sector today announced it has completed an engineering design package for a commercial-scale biorefinery that would produce up to 80 …
by Amiram Barkat and Yael Gruntman (Globes Israel’s Business Arena) Primus Green Energy has an agreement with Lockheed Martin to develop bio-jet fuel for the US Defense Department.
Primus Green Energy Ltd., a US subsidiary of Israel …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) A new generation of technologists aim high in value, low in cost, as the race for sugars to process into biofuels amps up a notch or three
“You know, we hear …
by Bright Owusu (Ghana mma) The time has never been riper for the people of Ghana to speak out about the terrible negligence of consecutive governments who have allowed horrendous land grabs by foreign nationals …
by William McLennan (The Ecologist) Campaigners are outraged over airline Lufthansa and German government funding for jatropha biofuels trial
The German government is financing a leading European airline’s biofuel trials despite claims from environmental groups it …
by J. Sadhik Basha and R. B. Anand (Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy) Biodiesel emulsions are considered as the propitious alternative fuels for diesel engines. The need of biodiesel emulsion fuels for the diesel engines …
(The Star Malaysia) Experts predict the majority of the world’s oil fields will reach maximum petroleum extraction capacity in 2020, a state otherwise known as “peak oil”. After this point, a reduction in pressure causes …
by Rebecca Baillie (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) With the price of fuel hitting $1.50 a litre, there’s a growing push to develop renewable alternatives. Scientists in Australia are part of the global race to develop new …
(Biocommodity.com) Bhavnagar based research institute Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute(CSMCRI), is likely to initiate talks with oil companies for manufacturing jatropha-based biofuel on a commercial scale.
“We have recently been granted the US patent …
by Joelle Brink (Biofuels Digest Asia) …Malaysian scientist Jagjit Kaurah works at the Universiti Putra Malaysia research station in Port Dickson, and he was walking on the beach one day when it occurred to him …
by Darren Goode (Politico) House Speaker John Boehner says he’s open to calls from the White House to curb some of the $4 billion in oil and gas subsidies and tax incentives, as Washington continues …
by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com) Arizona State University through a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is studying the factors involved in algal crop failure known as culture “crashes.” Grazing zooplankton are …
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) Protec Fuel is celebrating the opening of two new E85 stations in South Florida this week, one in Delray Beach and one in Cooper City.
…“The owners of both stations are true …
by David Bennett (Western Farm Press) As food prices rise, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is not fond of claims that ethanol production is a major cause. He also says an uptick in grain prices will …
by Adam Pinsker (MidlandsConnect.com) A South Carolina State University professor is leading a team of engineers and economists on a three-year study into how to make biofuel cheaper.
Professor Jae-Dong Hong says one of the biggest …
by Andrew Duffy ( The Victoria Times Colonist) …Victoria’s Novaera Fuels has managed to concoct a fuel with most of its components derived from renewable resources and the company has completed its initial testing on …
by Heather Thorstensen (AgriNews.com) Four Minnesota farmers were part of a group that traveled to Brazil in March to learn more about indirect land use change, a divisive issue surrounding biofuels.
The Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and …
by Tom Vilsack (The White House Blog) …Today there are millions of so-called ‘flex fuel vehicles’ on the road that can use fuel containing up to 85 percent ethanol (E-85). But too few filling stations …
by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine) AE Advanced Fuels Keyes Inc. is aiming for the future. At the same time the company is working to restart a 55 MMgy ethanol plant located in Keyes, Calif., …
by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com) The U.S. Department of Energy has released a national ranking of Clean Cities programs that have had the most impact in the reduction of gasoline use. At the top of the …
by Melissa Domsic (LSJ.com) Michigan State University has received $2.9 million in federal grants for bio-based energy research.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded five-year grants for three projects focusing on various aspects of producing biofuels, …
by Josh Loftin (Bloomberg/BusinessWeek) …One of the largest potential sources for biofuels is algae, which needs a lot of carbon dioxide and nitrogen to grow, said Kevin Shurtleff, director of the Utah State University Energy …
(Industrial Fuels and Power) A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that the widespread deployment of biofuels can play an important role in reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector and enhancing …
by Bruce A. Babcock, Jacinto F. Fabiosa (Iowa State University) The rapid rise in corn prices that began in the fall of 2006 coincided with exponential growth in U.S. corn ethanol production. At about the …
by Ben Lefebvre (Dow Jones Newswires/Denver Post) The U.S. Department of Agriculture is embarking on a revised biorefinery-finance program that it hopes will boost the amount of cellulosic-bio fuel production in the country.
The USDA seeks …
by Abby Schultz (CNBC.com) …“There’s a significant amount of capital required for algal oil producers to scale up to commercial meaningful quantities,” says Jim Rekoske, general manager at Honeywell’s UOP division, which provides technologies to the …
by Jay Marks (NewsOK.com) Q: RS Fuel recently opened a convenience store at 3330 W Memorial Road offering compressed natural gas and E85 ethanol. Why did you think it was important to offer those …
by Heather Thorstensen (AgriNews.com) The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working to create more supply and demand for renewable fuels nationwide, said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
…During a media briefing, he discussed how the …
(AlbertLeaTribune.com) Get ethanol at the pumps.
That’s what the farmer owners of the Poet Glenville ethanol plant told Sen. Al Franken they would like to see. The comments came during a meeting Wednesday at the plant.
“We …
by Kelly Brunkhorst (Journal Star /Nebraska Corn Board) J. Patrick Boyle’s column, “Corn ethanol: Burning up food budgets,” (LJS, April 21) may make a couple of valid points, but he omits many facts that need to …
by Morgan Gallagher (Ethanol Producer Magazine) …Rather than look at only the total mass yield of either the corn grain or the crop residue, we took a different approach. We measured the mass yield of …
by Robert Vierhout (Ethanol Producer Magazine/ePURE) …In early 2009, France was the first to introduce E10 fuel, once it was allowed in the EU. All BP filling stations offered the new fuel almost overnight. …
by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Although natural gas is king of power generation at ethanol plants, there’s increasing interest in renewable energy technologies that could help ethanol plants someday produce a domestically grown …
(ScienceNewsLine/Carnegie Institution) …Now scientists from the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology have found that sugarcane has a double benefit. Expansion of the crop in areas previously occupied by other Brazilian crops cools the local …
(PRLog/Avjet Biotech) Avjet Biotech, Inc. (ABI), a leading developer of small distributive refining systems in the 10 to 15 million gallon per year range and parent company of Red Wolf Refining, has announced that …
by Bao Chang (China Daily) New process uses bio-waste instead of grains to make gasoline additive
China should boost its fuel ethanol industry as part of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions and oil dependency, said …
by Kathleen Ryan (Public News Service) The search for ethanol is devastating one of America’s vanishing ecosystems. That’s the claim in a new lawsuit filed by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). It accuses the U.S. Environmental …
by Ryan Tracy (Dow Jones NewsWires/NASDAQ.com) Shell Oil Co. President Marvin Odum gave a bullish outlook for biofuels Tuesday, saying that during the next 20 years, biofuels will likely be “the most practical solution” for …
by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com) The synergies between the biodiesel, ethanol and advanced biofuels industries are growing. One of the things that’s been happening over the past few years is the ethanol industry creating a new …
by Taryn Morgan (Renewable Fuels Association) Today, ethanol makes up for 10% of our gasoline supply and can be found at nearly every station across the nation. This domestic, home-grown fuel is being utilized in …
by Zachary A. Goldfarb (The Washington Post) President Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to take “immediate action” to end tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, as he attempts to limit the political fallout of surging …
As a result of the growing impact of renewable resources, this conference aims at bringing together academic researchers, industrial experts, policymakers and venture capital providers to discuss the challenges emerging from the transition towards a …
by Stephen Bedford Clark (Algae Industry Magazine) My introduction to algaculture began as a young Mining Engineer in Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom. It was fueled by my hobby and passion for raising aquarium …
by Steven Mufson (The Washington Post) …The paper industry — which in 2009 raked in billions of dollars in federal subsidiesoriginally intended to promote alternative highway fuels — is now using a different biofuel tax credit …
(US Department of Energy) ARPA-E’s 4th round of funding focuses on rare earth alternatives and breakthroughs in biofuels, thermal storage, grid controls, and solar power electronics
U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that …
by Andrew Schotz (Hagerstown Herald-Mail) A “Go Green Expo” sponsored by U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett drew about 200 people Tuesday to Hagerstown Community College.
“On a rainy day, that’s great,” Bartlett said.
The expo, held for the …
by Kirsten Korosec (BNET) …How can maintaining subsidies for the fossil fuels industry, while cutting incentives and funding for cleaner sources, be called anything but corporate welfare?
Ironically, one of the stated primary goals of the …
by David Di Martino (The Hill) As far as winning messages go, the national Republicans had one in 2010: It’s jobs, stupid.
Well, it wasn’t that specifically, but they did hammer the president and the Democrats …
(Shell/PRNewsWire) Quebec’s Universite Laval Defends Title Winning Shell Eco-marathon Americas for Third Consecutive Year
Going the farthest distance might sound like a foot race. But this past weekend, it meant stretching the boundaries of fuel efficiencyas …
(Wisconsin Ag Connection) A team of high school students from Durand placed third overall at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition in Houston, Texas last week, where they drove 572 miles per gallon with 100-percent ethanol …
by Sam Fleming (The Telegraph) The World Bank has called for the relaxation of laws requiring crops to be blended into petrol, saying that they are contributing to the global food price crisis.
Robert Zoellick, the …
by Robert Sanders (UC Berkeley) A new magazine, Bioenergy Connection, debuts this month to inform the public and stimulate discussion about the future of renewable transportation fuels around the world.
Published by the Energy Biosciences Institute …
(MarketWire/Sirona) On Earth Day, Bay Area Fuel Producer Begins Selling Eco-Friendly Biodiesel to the Public, Below Market Prices
Sirona Fuels, owner of the only commercial-scale biodiesel production facility in the Bay Area, announced today that beginning …
(SustainableBusiness.com) Biobutanol company Cobalt Technologies and American Process Inc. (API), a developer of lignocellulosic sugar production technologies, announced an agreement to build the world’s first industrial-scale cellulosic biorefinery to produce biobutanol.
Additionally, the companies agreed to …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Paul Bryan, program manager of the DOE’s Office of Biomass, said at the Advanced Biofuesl Leadership Conference that the DOE is shifting gears from focusing solely on replacing the gasoline …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Washington, the Renewable Fuels Association, the Advanced Biofuels Association, the Algal Biomass Organization, the Advanced Ethanol Council, and BIO pledged to work cooperatively to preserve the status quo on …
(US Army Corps of Engineers) Today, (April 19, 2011) the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released, for the first time, its fiscal year 2010 scorecard on sustainability and energy performance. Using this scorecard as a …
The biobased chemicals sector continues to gain recognition from large corporations, government officials, and consumers as a viable source of increased production of renewable chemicals, future job growth, small business development and stronger environmental awareness.
Join …
by Marjon Rostami (The Virginia Pilot/iStockAnalyst.com) Recycled French fry oil could soon be part of what fuels local government vehicles after the city’s Planning Commission approved a conditional-use permit for a biodiesel plant in an industrial …
by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine) A new program in New York aims to promote the use of biodiesel-blended fuel in diesel generators. The BioGenset Project is administrated by Biodiesel Industries through a grant awarded by …
Developing Best Strategies for Biomass Sourcing, Trading & Procurement across the Globe
ACI’s Bioenergy Commodity Trading 2011 will take place on 19 – 20 October 2011 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event is the ideal location to …
by Philip Brasher (Des Moines Register) …“The single most important thing that Congress can do for advanced biofuels is to provide a stable policy environment,” Jan Koninckx, DuPont’s global biofuels business director, told the Senate …
by Jon Birger (Bloomberg) …Other than water and sunlight, there’s nothing more important to growing corn — the most-valuable U.S. crop, worth $66.7 billion in 2010 — than nitrogen. Generous applications of nitrogen fertilizer are …
by Jean Caspers-Simmet (AgriNews.com) Dave Sovereign tries to help people see the benefits ethanol brings to the economy.
…It frustrates Sovereign when people bash ethanol.
“After 9/11 the president and Congress asked all Americans to do what they …
by Erin Voegele (Biorefining Magazine) Viaspace reports independent test results of Giant King Grass evaluation.
Data gathered during independent evaluations of Viaspace Inc.’s Giant King Grass demonstrate the crop has essentially the same properties as corn …
by Aaron T. Evans (Gant Daily) A spin-off industry from Bionol Clearfield’s ethanol plant is under development in Clearfield Borough.
On Thursday night a representative from Air Liquide and a representative from Gannett Fleming Inc. gave …
(AP/Google) … On Sunday, the Empire State became the sixth state to top $4 for the average price of a gallon of gas, joining Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii and Illinois, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel …
by Andy Eubank (USDA/Hoosier Ag Today) Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently testified before a Senate committee on the effect and influence of biofuels. Testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Vilsack responded to …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Propel Fuels’ CEO Matt Horton explained to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources how the federal government must participate in establishing the alternative fuel infrastructure of the future.
“With …
(TVNZ) …ONE News has discovered the programme to subsidise the fledgling biofuels industry isn’t delivering, even though at least one oil company is trying to make it work.
The news comes on the day Gull launched …
(UPI.com) …”We look forward to meeting with potential customers from Brazil and all over Latin America to discuss how we can meet their near-term and future defense and security requirements,” said Joe McAndrew, Boeing vice …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …How’s an investor to parse out all these technologies. For many, it’s a case of “you’re making what, from what, using what?”
…Here at the Digest, we think of it as …
by Don Davis (Grand Forks Herald) Gov. Mark Dayton likely will sign an agriculture funding bill despite earlier demands that the Republican-controlled Legislature agree on all of its spending plans before he approves any individual …
By Robert Kozak (Atlantic Biomass Conversions, Inc.) Worldwide Importance of Protein Animal Feed
When I began working with sugar beet processors on our beet pulp biofuel sugar process, one of their first questions was, “Will there …
by Dan Froomkin (Huffington Post) A freshman Republican congressman from Wisconsin has broken rank with his GOP colleagues by calling on lawmakers to re-evaulate the multi-billion-dollar subsidies the federal government doles out to already highly-profitable …
by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Food and environmental lobby groups took their anti-ethanol message to the Capitol Visitors Center April 14, staging a “Corn Ethanol Policy Forum” that included planned remarks from several legislators …
