Articles in Field Crops
(UPI.com) Agave, cultivated for alcoholic beverages and for fiber, could be used as a sustainable biofuel feedstock, U.S. researchers say.
Scientists at the University of Illinois have found the yields of two Agave species greatly exceeded …
(Novozymes/Bradenton.com) The road to commercialization of cellulosic biofuels may be bumpy and less traveled, but it’s actually an easier road than many might think. This week at the DC Auto Show, Novozymes and POET will celebrate being one …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …And, today, the story of advanced biofuels in Brazil amped up considerably yesterday with the announcement that TAM Airlines in conjunction with Airbus, jatropha biofuel producer Brasil Ecodiesel, and AirBP …
(Louisiana State University) The LSU AgCenter has received a five-year extension from the Louisiana Board of Regents to continue with the establishment of the Louisiana Institute for Biofuels and Bioprocessing.
“We appreciate the vote of confidence,” …
(CBC News) Diversified Metal Engineering in Charlottetown has been awarded the contract to design and build a pilot-scale ethanol plant, but it’s not on P.E.I.
It will be located in Edmundston at the New Brunswick Community College …
(POET) First farmers completed BCAP applications Monday
Farmers are now delivering biomass bales to POET’s 22-acre storage site in Emmetsburg, Iowa, the future home of the 25 million-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant dubbed “Project LIBERTY.”
Area farmers harvested 56,000 …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In New York, the Wall Street Journal launched a bitter counterattack this week on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, after Gingrich remarked, at a meeting of the Iowa Renewable Fuels …
by Ben Geman (The Hill/E2Wire) The ethanol industry is quickly attacking a draft EPA study that details a slew of ecological harms that could accompany increased biofuels production.
“EPA’s failure to provide this report in any context …
by Todd Taylor with Christina Connelly, Ralph Groschen, Mark Lindquist, Gregg Mast, Tim Welle and Doug Cameron (Biofuels Digest/Minnesota) …Venture capitalists in California support and encourage these and many other companies and deserve ample credit for …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Last week [after previously exiting their investment in Choren, a Fischer-Tropsch technology based in Germany] Shell announced that it will will exit its shareholding in Cellana, a joint venture between …
(PR Log) According to Industrial Biotechnologies China News,unlike most producers of cellulosic-based ethanol adopting straw as raw material, the joint venture will choose kenaf as raw material with several obvious strengths.
On January 6, 2011, Bio-Dynamic …
by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com) …The company will deploy multiple feedstock technology as rising costs of feedstocks are a common source of financial hardship for biofuel plants. It has recently been reported that rising corn prices are …
by P Sivaramakrishnan (BBC News) A pilot project to see if cash crops can be grown in the salty ground of India’s coastal areas has been launched. The area in Tamil Nadu …
(Bangkok Post) The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) and Bangchak Petroleum Plc have teamed up to grow oil palm for a biodiesel project.
The state bank will allow the oil company to lease 1,200 …
(Commodity Online) The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) ended the year 2010 with strong growth in both the production and use of RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil.
Compared to 2009, numbers doubled, in many cases even …
by Philip Brasher (Des Moines Register) …The potential for some green jobs, especially in biofuels, is dependent on technologies and processes that haven’t proved economical. Ethanol giant Poet LLC wants to produce fuel from corncobs, …
by Joelle Brink (Biofuels Digest-Asia) India’s recent flip-flops on sugar supply and exports have angered many in the sensitive global commodities markets and even been ascribed to a sort of national dementia. But as is …
(WATTagnet.com) Scientists in Canada are evaluating Jerusalem artichoke production as a feedstock for biofuels production. The versatile crop has many industrial applications and could displace some corn which is currently diverted to ethanol.
It is anticipated …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …We hereby sentence the authors to a one-year subscription to Biofuels Digest.
We continue to sound the alarm on “studies” that are, in essence, reviews of peer-reviewed literature reviews and interviews …
(Algal Biomass Organization) Today, the RAND Corporation published a study and accompanying press release calling into question the effectiveness of renewable fuels for military use.
The report can be found here:http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2011/RAND_MG969.pdf
A copy of the press release …
(RAND Corporation) If the U.S. military increases its use of alternative fuels, there will be no direct benefit to the nation’s armed forces, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Any benefits from investment in alternative fuels …
by Kelsey McNeeley and Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA/Lancaster Farming) In 2002, Penn State University began using 20 percent (B20) biodiesel fuel on campus in the division of farm operations. Because of their expertise in biodiesel, Penn …
by Vinod Khosla (Green Tech Media) Part 1: Production technologies: where are we? The financial crisis of 2008 set back a number of projects and slowed actual construction of pilot and demo plants like it …
by Richard Ecke (Great Falls Tribune) …A proposed Great Falls ethanol plant would be the country’s first to use wheat and barley to create ethanol, according to developer Gary Hebener of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Project officials …
by Dan Piller (Des Moines Register) The surge in corn prices since mid-2010 has bolstered the profits of corn farmers but has eaten away at the profitability of ethanol producers.
…Ethanol producers meanwhile saw a dramatic …
(Nebraska Farmer) The Nebraska Department of Agriculture and the Nebraska Corn Board have jointlyreleased a video that shows the opportunities available for feeding cattle in Nebraska.
…”We have talked about Nebraska’s Golden Triangle of corn, livestock …
by Dr. Maureen McCann (Professor, Purdue University) Dr. McCann begins by describing the different plant cell wall architectures belonging to various types of feedstock. She shows how different processing methods can be utilized to more …
by David Hoyt (Senior Research Scientist, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) Hoyt first provides an overview of EMSL and their mission to integrate experimental and computational resources with innovative technologies to support …
by Jane Fisher (Senior Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory) Fisher first provides a general overview of the biofuel production process, identifying key areas for potential cost reductions through R&D and commercial scale production. Fisher focuses …
by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The California Air Resources Board will hold a public hearing Feb. 24 to consider 25 amendments proposed by various ethanol producers, representing 1.6 billion gallons of annual domestic production, …
by Merry MacKinnon (Pamplin Media Group) …Jana Gastellum, global warming program director for the Oregon Environmental Council, says the sustainable approach to making biodiesel for heavier vehicles and ethanol for passenger cars is to concentrate …
by Vinod Khosla (GreenTechMedia) Given the likely continued dominance of the internal combustion engine, cellulosic and sugar-derived fuels offer one of the lowest risk advances to quickly and affordably achieve low-carbon transportation. Furthermore, substituting higher …
by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Research being conducted in Tennessee to take biomass from the “farm gate to the biorefinery gate” has zeroed in on switchgrass. That’s not to say that switchgrass is the …
(Bloomberg) A Chinese company plans to produce jatropha … in the Democratic Republic of Congo,…Greater Kingdom Group, has asked for 10,000 hectares in each of the provinces… READ MORE
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Illinois, Chromatin announced the successful first demonstration that genes can be assembled, stacked, and expressed in sugarcane using the company’s mini-chromosome technology.
Now, what exactly is a gene stack and …
by Robyn L. Minor (Bowling Green Daily News) Officials studying logistical challenges facing biofuel progress
With gas prices in December seeing the biggest jump in 18 months, consideration of alternative fuel development moves to the forefront.
“Gas …
by Robert Vierhout (ePURE/Ethanol Producer Magazine) It took the European Commission several stakeholder meetings, two public consultations and many more economic modelling studies to conclude that the indirect land use change (ILUC) effects of biofuel …
(IEA Bioenergy Task 39) The outlook consists of a set of market and sector income prospects elaborated on the basis of specific assumptions regarding macroeconomic conditions, the agricultural and trade policy environment, weather conditions and …
(NewKerala.com) Purdue University researchers have made a discovery that could reduce the amount of water required for growing plants and help plants survive and thrive in adverse conditions. They have found a genetic mutation that allows a …
by Steven Sexton, David Zilberman (National Bureau of Economic Research) Increased global demand for biofuels is placing increased pressure on agricultural systems at a time when traditional sources of yield improvements have been mostly exhausted, generating …
by Susan Taylor (Reuters) A tiny Canadian startup company that is preparing to open a biodiesel plant in Toronto this spring says it will produce clean fuel, animal feed and human food all from the …
by Andy Reid (Sun Sentinel) Instead of planting more sugar cane and citrus, biofuel farming could spread to South Florida land set aside for future water management and environmental restoration.
The South Florida Water Management District …
(BIO tech NOW) BIO and government make case for allowing interim planting of genetically biotech beets until APHIS completes its environmental impact statement
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has issued a …
(Michigan Ag Connection) …Ethanol, 200 proof alcohol, is a renewable fuel made from corn. It has been used mainly in automobiles, but is now being looked at for use and increased performance of snowmobiles. The …
(Nashville Business Journal) East Tennessee farmers have started to reap benefits from efforts to turn switchgrass into biofuel, with at least one farmer saying that if he had it to do over again, he would …
(Iowa Office of Energy Independence) Project Would Produce Jobs and New Energy Technology for Iowa
The Iowa Power Fund Board (Board) approved terms January 12, 2011, to start contract negotiations on a grant award for one of …
(Pacific Rim BioEnergy) Note: This is an update from an earlier post. The earlier post outlined the concepts but did not have any specific details. This post utilizes current figures and displays the economic principals …
by Ubaidillah Masli (Brunei Times) LAILA, the rice variety heralded as the answer to Brunei’s food self-sufficiency woes, might also fuel the Sultanate’s cars in the future as an efficient and more environment-friendly biofuel. This …
by Todd Neeley (The Progressive Farmer) …(P)ressure from rising corn prices at the start of 2011 is expected to test ethanol producers’ ability to manage risk. …Rabobank said ethanol would remain profitable with corn …
(Biofuels Center of North Carolina) Retired U.S. Coast Guard veteran Captain Terry Carter has joined the Biofuels Center staff as director of eastern and military partnerships. He will lead a significant large project, Eastern Gain: Biofuels Enrich …
