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Truly Sustainable Renewable Future
March 17, 2009 – 10:42 am | One Comment

Advanced Biofuels are high-energy liquid transportation fuels derived from: low nutrient input/high per acre yield crops; agricultural or forestry waste; or other sustainable biomass feedstocks including algae.  The key word is “sustainable.”
A technical definition that …

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Neighborhoods Fighting Plans for Biofuel Plant West of Delray Beach
September 3, 2010 – 1:47 pm | No Comment

by Andy Reid (Sun Sentinel)  A biofuel plant offering renewable energy could become a never-ending headache for neighborhoods west of Delray Beach, worried residents argued Thursday.
Pressure from residents helped persuade the county Zoning Commission Thursday to …

They’re Baaack: Speculators Return to Grain Markets En Masse
September 3, 2010 – 12:10 pm | No Comment

by Geoff Cooper (Renewable Fuels Association)  You may not have noticed, but hedge and index fund investors have quietly returned to the agricultural commodities market in droves over the past few weeks. With the stock …

Algae Bioenergy Solutions Plans Scale-Up in Georgia
September 3, 2010 – 10:07 am | No Comment

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Algae Bioenergy Solutions (ABS), of Augusta, Georgia, has announced preliminary plans to develop a three to five million gallons per year algae oil plant, expandable to forty million gallons a year, to produce …

Florida Feedstocks for Florida Biofuels Workshop
September 2, 2010 – 7:19 pm | No Comment

by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel)  …The potential for energy crops in the state was one of the topics at the recent Florida Farm to Fuel Summit. One of the presenters was Bill Vasden Jr., Chairman of …

News: Fiberight Making Ethanol from Paper Mill Waste; Household Garbage May Be Next
September 2, 2010 – 6:59 pm | No Comment

by Dean Close (Vinton Today)  …In layman’s terms, what Fiberight does is take waste from a paper mill in Cedar Rapids, and uses rare bacteria – Stewart Paul refers to that bacteria as “the bugs” …

USDA Advances on Bond Mechanism: New $$ Source for Biofuels Expansion?
September 2, 2010 – 6:46 pm | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the USDA adopted a bond mechanism into its Business & Industry Loan Guarantee Program to mirror what the DOE already had done in each of its Section 1703 and …

Boardroom Mayhem at D1 Oils as CEO Steps Down
September 2, 2010 – 6:37 pm | No Comment

by Joelle Dent (Biofuels Digest)  …“If  there were a medal for valor in biofuels it would certainly go to the board of D1 Oils, which has now had to repel its third take-over attempt by …

Mascoma: Inside the SunOpta Acquisition
September 2, 2010 – 5:25 pm | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In New Hampshire, Mascoma reported yesterday that it had acquired SunOpta BioProcess, a division of SunOpta Inc. (STKL)  This combination brings together the fiber preparation and pretreatment technologies of SBI …

Big Oil, Other Industries Work to Delay E15
September 1, 2010 – 11:15 am | No Comment

Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …The push against approving E15 has heated up in recent weeks. The U.S. EPA delayed the E15 decision until sometime this fall and industry groups on both sides of the …

Mumias Sugar of Kenya Gets $20 Million Loan for Power Plant, Nation Says
September 1, 2010 – 9:51 am | No Comment

by Eric Ombok (Bloomberg)  Mumias Sugar Co., Kenya’s largest producer of the sweetener, secured a 1.6 billion-shilling ($20 million) loan for its ethanol plant to be commissioned next year, the Daily Nation reported.   A group …

Rush Township Landfill Project Changes Course
September 1, 2010 – 9:35 am | No Comment

by Anne Danahy  (CenterDaily.com)  Dumpsite scaled back as developer focuses on ethanol

The developer who had proposed building a landfill in Rush Township said the project has changed direction and the company is now working on …

BIO’s Carr Discusses Impact of Oil Spill on Industry
August 31, 2010 – 5:39 pm | No Comment

(E&ETV) As the biofuels industry awaits a decision by U.S. EPA on ethanol blend walls, how has the Obama Administration handled biofuels development and funding? During today’s OnPoint, Matt Carr, managing director of policy at …

The Third Challenge: Creating a Coastal States Energy Sector
August 31, 2010 – 3:57 pm | No Comment

by George Sterzinger (Renewable Energy Policy Project/Dissent Magazine)  …Advanced biofuels in particular have the potential to change the coastal economies for the better. In 2005 and in 2007 Congress committed to providing 20 percent of transportation …

Enerkem Announces Construction Start of World’s First Municipal Waste-to-Biofuels Facility in Edmonton, Alberta
August 31, 2010 – 2:49 pm | No Comment

(NewsWire)  Enerkem Inc., a leading waste-to-biofuels company, today held a groundbreaking ceremony to signify the start of construction of its municipal waste-to-biofuels facility with its partners, the City of Edmonton and the Government of Alberta. …

Fall River Officials to Sit in on Taunton City Council Meeting, Show their Support for Trash Disposal Plan
August 31, 2010 – 9:08 am | No Comment

by Charles Winokoor  (Tauton Daily Gazette)  …Taunton Mayor Charles Crowley has said that EOEA officials consider the process by which such a facility operates in violation of DEP’s 20-year-old moratorium on new facilities that incinerate …

Georgia’s First Wood-to-Ethanol Plant Opens
August 31, 2010 – 8:58 am | No Comment

by Dave Williams (Atlanta Business Chronicle)  The nation’s first commercial plant producing ethanol from wood wastes is open for business in the timber country of southeastern Georgia.

More than a year and a half behind its original …

The Missionary Position: The Export of Carbon Guilt to the Developing World
August 31, 2010 – 7:40 am | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)   …We see the battle over rural development flashing at other points around the globe, but nowhere so starkly do we have a choice between the War on Poverty and the War …

New Holden to Run on Bio-Ethanol
August 31, 2010 – 7:35 am | No Comment

By Tim Dornin (AAP/AuNews)  Carmaker Holden has unveiled its latest Commodore range, the car that could eventually be powered by household waste.
Both V6 and V8 models in the VE Series II Commodore line-up have been designed …

Zero Discharge Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Process Development
August 31, 2010 – 7:30 am | No Comment

(PRNewsWire)  AdvanceBio LLC, a Cincinnati-based advanced biofuel technology company, today announced the development of its next generation, sugar-based fuel ethanol process.
The process is capable of utilizing sugars derived from sugar cane, sweet sorghum, sugar beet and …

Indianapolis-Based Xylogenics Licenses Yeast Strain to Ethanol Producer
August 30, 2010 – 2:36 pm | No Comment

(Indianapolis Business Journal)  Indianapolis-based bioengineering firm Xylogenics Inc. has licensed its proprietary yeast strain to a Milwaukee firm that is a supplier to the fuel-ethanol industry. It is the first such licensing agreement for Xylogenics.
Lallemand …

Local Racing-Fuel Supplier Expands Territory to 26 States
August 30, 2010 – 2:31 pm | No Comment

(Indianapolis Business Journal)  A subsidiary of Carmel-based Telamon Corp. that supplies racing teams with ethanol-based fuel made from Indiana corn has signed contracts giving it a distribution channel in 26 states.
National Biofuels Distribution LLC began …

New Fuel Economy Window Stickers Chock Full ‘O Numbers
August 30, 2010 – 2:08 pm | No Comment

(Jalopnik)  One of the draft window stickers released today will give buyers of 2012 models efficiency data for gas and electric vehicles. U.S. regulators want you to decide: How do you like letter grades? UPDATE: …

Africa: Up for Grabs
August 30, 2010 – 1:28 pm | No Comment

(Friends of the Earth International)   The African continent is increasingly being seen as a source of agricultural land and natural resources for the rest of the world. National governments and private companies are obtaining access …

Pond Scum Seen Lucrative in Argentine Biofuels Push
August 30, 2010 – 1:03 pm | No Comment

by Luis Andres Henao (Reuters)   An Argentine company opened Friday the country’s first factory to make biodiesel from algae, hoping to use pond scum as a replacement for soy in making biodiesel as part of a …

The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels Moves Forward on Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reduction Requirements
August 30, 2010 – 11:00 am | No Comment

(Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels)  Adopts ambitious target of 50% improvement for biofuel blends over fossil fuels
The RSB is pleased to announce the approval of the RSB greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting methodology and establishment of a GHG …

Algae.Tec Off and Running
August 27, 2010 – 8:50 am | No Comment

by Greg Peel  (ninemsn)  …Algae.Tec is also in the process of an IPO. However at A$7.5m, Algae.Tec’s issue is hardly one that can be described as exploitative or prematurely opportunistic, and the company’s legally protected …

Barbour: Biofuel Project Tops Mississippi Session Agenda
August 27, 2010 – 8:31 am | No Comment

by Emily Wagster Pettus  (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)  Mississippi lawmakers on Friday (August 27, 2010) will consider $50 million in state incentives for research and production of renewable fuel made from timber, one of the state’s most …

Biofuel Company to Locate in Columbus
August 27, 2010 – 8:24 am | No Comment

(The Dispatch)   …KiOR of Houston, Texas, plans to locate three facilities in Mississippi, the first of which will be in Columbus on the southern fifth of The Island, at the Columbus-Lowndes Port’s east bank. …Additional …

First Biodiesel Power Plant Launched in Slovenia
August 27, 2010 – 8:15 am | No Comment

(Balkans.com)  Slovenia’s first biodiesel power plant, generating nearly one megawatt of electricity and worth EUR 1.3m, was inaugurated in Benedikt (NE) on Thursday. The plant was set up by Panonica Energetika, which is a part …

Why Don’t Oil Majors Invest in Biofuels at Scale?
August 27, 2010 – 8:04 am | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Blue Marble’s effervescent CEO Kelly Ogilvie, well known on the renewables circuit for his high-energy presentations over the years, took us through the math.
“Over the past 18 months,” he said, …

ABO in Final Preparation of “Minimum Descriptive Language” Document
August 27, 2010 – 6:39 am | No Comment

(Algal Industry Magazine)  The Technical Standards Committee of the Algal Biomass Organization (ABO) is currently in late stage review of its Algal Industry Minimum Descriptive Language Document, recommended for characterizing the economic and environmental inputs and …

Chromosome Designer Moves Into Biofuels
August 26, 2010 – 1:00 pm | No Comment

by Michael Kanellos (GreenTechMedia)  Chromatin says sorghum is the ideal crop.
The company, which designs chromosomes and tools for genetically modifying agricultural crops, has launched an effort to get into biofuels on its own. It has come …

Case Study: Mascoma: Seeking a Market Toehold
August 26, 2010 – 12:38 pm | No Comment

by Nidhi Subbaraman  (MIT Technology Review)  …The company announced plans to build one of the first commercial-scale cellulosic-ethanol plants, in Kinross, MI; it would be able to produce 80 million gallons per year.
But as of the …

New NRDC Fact Sheet Shows How Moving beyond Corn Ethanol Means More Investment and More Jobs in More States
August 26, 2010 – 10:36 am | No Comment

by Sasha Lyutse  (Natural Resources Defense Council)   …
As a result, the VEETC has not only concentrated the ethanol industry in just a handful of states, but siphoned scarce resources away from more competitive biofuel technologies …

Bunge Invests in Solazyme: Ties between Brazilian Sugarcane, US Advanced Biofuels Deepen
August 26, 2010 – 10:21 am | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …“The simplicity is astounding. Here’s the big idea.  Take an existing, stranded ethanol factory or conglomerate. Buy it for a substantial discount. Start with cheap sugar. Drop in a new …

Thai Ethanol Plant Set for October Start-Up
August 26, 2010 – 10:20 am | No Comment

(Argus Media)  Thailand’s Double A Ethanol expects to start production at its 250,000 t/yr cassava-based ethanol plant in Prachinburi in October.  Construction of the plant is entering its final stages. When operational it will produce mainly 99.5pc …

Shell’s Biofuel Deal in Brazil: Has the Big Time Finally Come for Startups?
August 25, 2010 – 5:43 pm | No Comment

by Michael Kanellos (GreenTechMedia)   VCs and startups have complained that the biofuels industry has been stranded by indifference from the majors.That has changed.
Shell and Cosan SA Industrio and Comercio, the world’s largest sugar producer, finalized a …

Variable Subsidy for Ethanol Better for Producers and Government
August 25, 2010 – 5:15 pm | No Comment

by Gary Truitt (Hoosier Ag Today)  A variable subsidy for ethanol producers could cost the government less and provide more security for producers than current fixed rates, according to a Purdue University study. A variable …

Ferris: Ethanol from Corn is Net Gain on Energy
August 25, 2010 – 4:53 pm | No Comment

(Lansing State Journal)  …A quick response from Tom’s major concern is that, yes, there is a major energy gain in producing corn-grain based ethanol, even though the energy content (BTUs) in pure ethanol (E-100) is only …

Woodford Equipment Brings Biomass Business To Emmetsburg
August 25, 2010 – 4:26 pm | No Comment

by Jane Whitmore (Emmetsburg Reporter Democrat)  …The fact that the business is not officially open hasn’t stopped customers from dropping in. Eric is already working with farmers interested in cob harvesting.
“We have been following biomass …

Beet Ethanol Plant Survives Legal Challenge in Rapho Township
August 25, 2010 – 1:08 pm | No Comment

by Cindy Stauffer (Lancaster Online) Plans for a beet ethanol plant in Rapho Township have survived a court challenge. 
A Lancaster County Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit by four businesses who own land near the site.

Maibach …

Level the Playing Field and Ethanol Will Compete On Its Own
August 25, 2010 – 9:15 am | No Comment

by Stephanie Dreyer  (Growth Energy/RenewableEnergyWorld.com)  Ethanol has been the Oil Industry’s favorite target for years. Big Oil has argued that the ethanol industry can’t compete with gasoline without taxpayer support. Ironically, a recent study by …

Water: Is There Enough for Biofuels at Scale?
August 25, 2010 – 8:54 am | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In a note at CO2science.org, a trio of authors contend: “There simply is not enough freshwater on the face of the earth to make the production of biofuels a viable …

Gasoline Prices Hit Eight-Month Low
August 24, 2010 – 11:21 am | No Comment

by Steven Mufson (Washington Post)  …But long-term trends — such as improvements in the fuel efficiency of American autos — played a part too, other analysts said. A steady increase in the biofuels component of …

Local View: Consider Complete Costs of Waging War for Imported Oil
August 24, 2010 – 11:18 am | No Comment

by Chuck Woodside (Journal Star)  In a recent speech about energy, President Barack Obama said: “If we refuse to take into account the full costs of our fossil fuel addiction — if we don’t factor in …

Wide Use of Corn-Based Ethanol Fuel Not Choice for China: Experts
August 24, 2010 – 11:06 am | No Comment

(People’s Daily Online)  Agricultural experts said Saturday it was too early for China to adopt corn-based ethanol fuel to feed automobiles, given the expensive production costs and the country’s large population.
Li Xinhua, a professor at …

African Case Study: Palm Oil and Economic Development in Nigeria and Ghana; Recommendations for the World Bank’s 2010 Palm Oil Strategy
August 24, 2010 – 10:49 am | No Comment

by Thompson Ayodele (Initiative for Public Policy Analysis)  Forward by  Dr. Matthew O. Eshalomi:  Growth and prosperity of an economy are central to the longterm reduction in poverty for both economic and environmental sustainability. Palm oil …

Atlanta Firm Launches Cellulosic Ethanol Project in Michigan
August 24, 2010 – 9:29 am | No Comment

by James Cartledge (BrighterEnergy.org)  Atlanta company American Process Incorporated has started work on a waste-to-ethanol biorefinery at Alpena, Michigan.  The company held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site last week, attended by Michigan Governor Jennifer M …

Petrobras America and KL Energy Sign Joint Development Agreement to Optimize Technology for Cellulosic Ethanol Production From Sugarcane Bagasse
August 24, 2010 – 9:05 am | No Comment

(Biofuels Journal)  KL Energy Corporation is pleased to announce that Petrobras, through Petrobras America, has entered into a Joint Development Agreement with KL Energy Corporation (“KLE”), to jointly optimize KLE’s proprietary cellulosic ethanol process technology for …

The Culturing Revolution: LanzaTech Extends to Chemicals as Year of SynthBio Gains Pace
August 24, 2010 – 8:47 am | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  LanzaTech announced that it has produced 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD), a key building block used to make polymers, plastics and hydrocarbon fuels, using the company’s waste steel gas fermentation technology.
LanzaTech is a …