by Alex Morales (Bloomberg)  Royal DSM NV, the Dutch enzyme maker which last month set up a cellulosic ethanol venture with Poet LLC, is seeking similar tie-ups in Brazil, China and Europe, Chief Executive Officer Feike Sijbesma said.
DSM …

by Andrew Herndon  (Bloomberg)  Gevo Inc. (GEVO), the U.S. biotechnology company backed by oil refiner Total SA (FP) and specialty chemicals maker Lanxess AG (LXS), rose the most in two weeks after saying it expects to begin shipments in July, …

(Dow Jones Newswires/Fox Business)  China’s aviation regulator has begun deliberating China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s (SNP) application to produce aviation biofuel commercially, the refiner said Wednesday, while a senior aviation official said the country hopes that nearly …

(American Chemical Society)  Almost 80 percent of current farmland in the U.S. would have to be devoted to raising corn for ethanol production in order to meet current biofuel production targets with existing technology, a …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Removing fiber from dried distillers grains with solubles using the elusieve process results in an enhanced product with greater nutritional value for growing and finishing pigs, according to a …

(Shanghai Daily)  A bilateral cooperative project on the study of biomass fuel sponsored by the Chinese and Swedish governments has made initial progress and is expected to enter the experimental phase, according to experts speaking …

by Robert Mbakou (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)   Spain’s Biocongo Global Trading will spend 150 million euros ($201 million) developing 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) of palm oil plantations and two processing plants in Congo Republic over the next …

(UPI)  Growing crops for fuel as opposed to refining fossil fuels and substituting bioethanol for gasoline is a sustainable energy strategy, Japanese researchers say.
In a study published in the International Journal of Foresight and Innovation …

by Dirk Lammers (NewsOK)  A South Dakota corn ethanol plant will soon begin producing a fuel additive with a wider variety of uses.
Tom Hitchcock, chief executive of Redfield Energy, said the 50 million gallon-per-year plant is teaming …

by Lori Valigra (Mass High Tech)  Renewable fuels company Mascoma Corp. of Lebanon, N.H., said Wednesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine has completed its scientific review of the company’s MGT yeast product and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Novozymes releases a new, high-performance enzyme for advanced cellulosic biofuels: Cellic CTec3. Will Novozymes win the enzyme wars? Will enzymes defeat gasification?  When will renewables defeat fossil fuels on cost?
In …

by Lori Ranson (FlightGlobal)  Successful commercial biofuel flights operated by US carriers in late 2011 were underpinned by an understanding that price and supply chain infrastructure remain the big hurdles to creating a viable full-scale …

by Kelly Madsen (Iowa State Daily)  For the past decade, corn ethanol has predominated Midwest biofuel production. But with increased technology and interest, an additional ethanol — cellulosic ethanol — may also shape local farming.
…Essentially, …

(Big Pond News)  Australia will need a vibrant bio-fuel industry more than ever if Caltex decides to close its refineries, independent MP Bob Katter says.
Caltex Australia has flagged shutting its two domestic refineries in Sydney …

by Wendell Roelf  (Reuters Africa)  South Africa plans to invest 2 billion rand ($258.5 million) to build an ethanol plant and help a nascent biofuels sector that could reduce the country’s reliance on imported fuel, …

(The Manila Times)  Sugar industry stakeholders may have to take a hard look at the Biofuels Law as an option now that it is clear there is no way to stop or postpone trade liberalization …

(Science Daily)  A team of chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered a small molecule that behaves the same as cellulose when it is converted to biofuel. Studying this ‘mini-cellulose’ molecule reveals …

(Pellets-Wood.com)  The Ministry of Agricultural Policy of Ukraine announced that it intends to allocate 40 million tons of sugar beet for the production of biofuel. It will reduce the volume of imports of fuel and, in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …The changes at Codexis and delayed IPO at Ceres are indications that life in the public markets remains a rough one for early-stage industrial biotech companies. The changes at Codexis …

by Kris Bevill  (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and a handful of bioenergy stakeholders were given the opportunity to present the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry with their opinions on the …

by Steve Tarter  (The State-Journal Register)  More U.S. ethanol was shipped overseas in 2011 than any year in history.
The Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Fuels Association reported that 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol — worth about $2.5 …

by Louise Downing (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)  A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S, the world’s biggest container ship owner, is leading its industry in developing biofuels made from organic waste that could cut its carbon emissions and reduce a …

(Solve for X/CoolPlanet Energy Systems)  Solve for X is a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork.
The fact is that plants have a carbon-negative phase – a time during which they remove …

(Aviation Goes Green) Everyone agrees that aircraft engines need to get greener. Does the answer lie in revolutionary propulsion systems, or will our future travels be powered by the same old jet engine running on renewable …

by Jeff Wilson and Whitney McFerron (The Washington Post)  …Global food costs are down 11 percent from a peak a year ago as grain output rises from China to Canada, U.N. data show.
…The Agriculture Department affirmed its forecast for …

by Jeff Wilson  (Bloomberg)  China’s five-year plan to slow domestic production of grain-based ethanol will mean tighter supplies of a byproduct used for animal feed, boosting demand for imports through 2016, the U.S. Grains Council said. …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A project aiming for energy beet-to-ethanol production in North Dakota hit some significant milestones recently. Putting the project a big step closer to reality is $1 million in funding …

by Iowa State University News Service (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   The most recent annual results from a four-year Iowa State University study on using cover crops between rows of corn reveals that higher yields – …

(NCS International)  NCS International (“NCSI”) has certified the world’s first organisation against the Principles and Criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (“RSB”). RSB is a new international standard that can be applied across the …

(Neste Oil)  Neste Oil and Raisio have worked together for a number of years on how by-products and sidestreams generated by Finnish agriculture and food manufacturing can be used as inputs for producing biofuels. The …

by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com)  DuPont businesses Pioneer Hi-Bred and DuPont Industrial Biosciences are collaborating with Iowa State University in performing studies on residue to establish best practices in harvesting, storage and transportation, with an eye toward its use in …

(UPI)  Studies of the genome of Miscanthus, a large perennial grass, could speed the development of biofuels derived from the plant, U.S. researchers say.
Changsoo Kim, a researcher at the University of Georgia, identified a set …

(Bioenergy Insight)  Scientists from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC) have uncovered a series of genes which could help grasses being breed with better characteristics for bioenergy production.
The genes …

by Ken Field (Financial Post)  Ethanol reduces the price of gasoline
Ethanol’s chief benefit is environmental.  …Last summer, there were no smog alerts in the GTA and 5.5 million Canadians breathed easier. Ethanol was a major …

(US Environmental Protection Agency)  The Biofuels and the Environment: The First Triennial Report to Congress (External Review Draft) (EPA/600/R-10/183A) report, prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) within EPA’s Office of Research and Development, is …

(Queensland University of Technology)  Biofuel technology being developed by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers has caught the interest of the US Navy, which is currently in Australia on an alternative fuel fact-finding mission.
The US …

(Macau Hub)  Portuguese group Galp Energia plans to head up a project for second generation biofuel produced using cultivated jatropha in Mozambique, the Portuguese press reported.
The project, which is projected to cost 2 million euros, …

by Ilene Grossman (CSG Midwest)  The benefits of using biomass residuals — the byproducts from activities such as agriculture and forestry — as an energy source are clear for the Midwest.
Both plentiful and a potentially …

(Asia News Network)  Dung Quat Bio-Ethanol Plant, located in the Dung Quat Industrial Zone in the central province of Quang Ngai, turned out its first batch of bio-ethanol E100 last week after 33 months of …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  BioProcess Algae LLC and Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. announced Feb. 1 that they have begun constructing a five acre algae production facility in southwest Iowa at the site …

By Alessandro Torello (Wall Street Journal)  …But this plant, with a capacity of 800,000 metric tons a year, and others built by different companies around Europe face a new challenge: a possible shift in EU …

by John Lindt (Visalia Times-Delta)  Edeniq is expanding in the Visalia Industrial Park expecting to turn on its new pilot cellulosic ethanol plant in March, with plans to double employment this year, said Scott Janssen, …

(UPI)  The Ministry of Production and the National Association of African Palm Growers, analyzes based biodiesel plant. The raw material would be palm oil. Andes news agency said the authorities’ intention is to strengthen energy sovereignty. Ecuador ranks …

by Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo  (The Manila Times)  Eastern Petroleum Corp. has dropped plans to put up an ethanol production facility using cassava as feedstock in lieu of a sugarcane-based plant.
Fernando Martinez, Eastern Petroleum chairman, said …

(AgWeek/NDSU Agriculture Communication)  A project that will develop an advanced biofuel from energy beets and provide growers across North Dakota with a new industrial crop is taking another important step forward, fueled by a significant …

Michael Richardson (Canberra Times)  Don’t laugh! The United States military is dead serious about being able to fly its combat and cargo planes on jet fuel derived from algae and plants, and to power many …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …The challenges?    Well, there have been three grand ones.
First, the development of economically feasible technologies. Second, the financing and construction of new capacity, including any bolt-ons, restarts or retrofits …

by Esteban Israel and Peter Murphy (Reuters Africa)  Brazilian builder Odebrecht plans to produce sugar in Cuba, the company said on Monday, as looser restrictions on foreign investment in the communist island raise hopes of a recovery in the once-booming …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   A project to build an ethanol plant co-located with anaerobic digesters is in its final phase. Growing Power Hairy Hill L.P., a 40 MMly feed wheat ethanol plant …

(EurActiv)  Greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels such as palm oil, soybean and rapeseed are higher than those for fossil fuels when the effects of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) are counted, according to leaked EU …