Bio-ethanol can be used as petrol supplementary and it will increase the octane number of petrol as it is added to the fuel. It will lead to the decrease of greenhouse fuel production.

Bio-ethanol will be manufactured from cellulose material including wood, paper, wheat wastes and sugarcane inside the country.   READ MORE

OK, let’s see. A dominating position in the future of manufacturing, a structural advantage in the cost of energy, enough food security and energy security to pursue an expansionist foreign policy.

Eventually, dominance in finance when all the capital has drained out of the EU and the US and sits in mountains of cash back in China, as it did before the Age of Navigation and the Industrial Revolution eroded China’s 2000-year dominance of world trade.

Let’s look at the 20 signs.

Next generation technologies deploying in China

Lemna.  …build-out of ten commercial-scale units of approximately 5,000 hectares will be implemented step by step at locations to be determined around the world.  …

Cassava stalk.  …ethanol for less than two dollars per gallon…  commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol and butanol distillery that will produce 50,000 metric tons annually.  …

Corncobs. … corncob residues from furfural production into fermentable sugars and then into ethanol…

Pulp mill black liquor. …black liquor gasification technology – a route to 2nd generation biofuels or green power. …

Potato starch residue. …ethanol for fuel use and DDG to verify the profitability for commercialization.  …

Algae.  … 250-module algae biofuels facility …

Integrated biorefineries …

Demand for food crops, oils on rise, affecting world prices …

Aviation biofuels …

New ventures planned …

R&D …

Feedstocks …

Renewable chemicals and Materials …

Expansion to Africa …  READ MORE

The plant, developed by renewable energy firm Agri, will process used cooking oil to create biodiesel which can then be used in vehicles.

…The plant will produce up to 16 million litres of EN14214 biodiesel every year; a European specification which Agri said is not often achievable when used cooking oil is used as a feedstock.

…Eddie O’Reilly, Agri’s biodiesel plant manager, said: “By using ISO 14064 methods we can measure the carbon footprint of our biodiesel to show at least 90% less greenhouse gas emissions when compared to regular mineral diesel. This makes it the most sustainable type of biodiesel in the world.” READ MORE

…What is it with Louisiana? It seems like at-scale renewable diesel projects have never found a a better home. There’s the Dynamic Fuels project – 75 million gallons in Geismar; the 137 million gallon Diamond Green Diesel project under construction in Norco, as a JV between Valero and Darling, and now this one, clocking in at 85 million gallons.

If and when all three are completed, that’s 297 million gallons of capacity in the one state.  …All three plants find themselves in the heavy shipping corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  READ MORE and MORE (Emerald Biofuels) and MORE (Advanced Biofuels USA)

Food and beverage wastewaters have high biological oxygen demand (BOD) from dissolved sugars, fiber, and carbohydrates and cannot be discharged into a sanitary sewer without significant surcharges. ThermoEnergy can help eliminate the expense of BOD treatment and disposal by making concentrated sugars suitable for resale in a wide variety of applications, including feedstocks for bio-ethanol production. In addition to concentrating the sugars, the remaining water is purified to levels suitable for normal discharge.

“Instead of incurring profit-draining treatment and disposal costs, companies are studying converting those wastewater streams into revenue streams, and ThermoEnergy is ready to help,” said ThermoEnergy CEO Cary N. Bullock.

“One particularly exciting use for the recovered sugar is for feedstock for bioethanol production,” Bullock noted. “Bioethanol is garnering significant international attention and support. Cleaning up a water discharge stream and converting it to a usable bio-feedstock has a tremendous, positive impact on sustainability.”

ThermoEnergy’s system is compact in size, uses less energy than competing technology, produces higher-quality concentrations, and is very low maintenance.

In 2011, Congress eliminated corn subsidies for ethanol production. The Obama Administration, however, continues to support renewable fuel standards that call for the production of more than 15 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2012. In addition, the U.S. Department of Defense has a goal of meeting 25% of its energy requirements from renewables by 2025. Waste sugar is expected by ThermoEnergy to become a high-value feedstock replacement for corn in conventional ethanol production.

ThermoEnergy Sugar Recovery Systems integrate best available technologies to achieve the lowest OPEX/CAPEX, and the highest concentration levels of recovered sugar. These include reverse osmosis, ThermoEnergy TurboCAST®, and ThermoEnergy CAST® systems. ThermoEnergy’s Controlled Atmospheric Separation Technology (CAST®) concentrates sugar-bearing wastewater to create up to a 65-brix sugar product for use in a variety of agricultural and renewable fuel market applications. At the same time, the system recovers 100% of the wastewater for reuse in plant operations. ThermoEnergy’s TurboCAST® systems combine controlled atmospheric separation with state-of-the-art blowers to provide maximum efficiency, flow rates in excess of 60,000 GPD, and integration with commercial water technologies for zero liquid discharge applications in the food and beverage industry.

ThermoEnergy offers several financing options for system deployment, including sale of capital equipment, leasing, and “design/build/own operate” with fixed monthly payments. Service and extended warranties are also available.  READ MORE

Is there a new path to biofuels hiding in a handful of dirt? Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) biologist Steve Singer leads a group that wants to find out. They’re exploring whether a common soil bacterium can be engineered to produce liquid transportation fuels much more efficiently than the ways in which advanced biofuels are made today.

The scientists are working with a bacterium called Ralstonia eutropha. It naturally uses hydrogen as an energy source to convert CO₂ into various organic compounds.

The group hopes to capitalize on the bacteria’s capabilities and tweak it to produce advanced biofuels that are drop-in replacements for diesel and jet fuel. The process would be powered only by hydrogen and electricity from renewable sources such as solar or wind.

The goal is a biofuel—or electrofuel, as this new approach is called—that doesn’t require photosynthesis.

…The scientists chose to work with R. eutropha because the bacterium is well understood and it’s already used industrially to make bioplastics.

…In the first approach, Logos Technologies is developing a two-liter bioelectrochemical reactor, which is a conventional fermentation vessel fitted with electrodes. The vessel starts with a mixture of bacteria, CO₂, and water. Electricity splits the water into oxygen and hydrogen. The bacteria then use energy from the hydrogen to wrest carbon from CO₂ and convert it to hydrocarbons, which migrate to the water’s surface. The scientists hope to skim the first batch of biofuel from the bioreactor in about one year.    READ MORE includes animation

Spain decreed on April 20 that only biodiesel produced in the European Union could be used to comply with a legal minimum of 7 percent which has to be blended with mineral diesel used in motor fuel.

…The government decree was passed days after Argentina seized Spanish-owned oil firm YPF (YPFD.BA), but had been drafted months earlier to help Spain’s biodiesel industry, which was working at just 14 percent of its 4.5 million tonnes per year capacity.

… “One of the great shortfalls in policy to promote biofuels is that we have not managed to develop home-produced raw materials,” (APPA Biocarburantes President Manuel) Bustos said. “An extra effort is needed as well as developing energy crops like rapeseed.” READ MORE

The unit, invented by Bio-Energy Holdings CEO Pete Chapin, is designed to sit outside of a restaurant and be serviceable 24/7, and it is housed in a military-grade container to thwart would-be grease thieves. The A-Ceptor has four compartments that separate the solids and water out of the grease, leaving a final product that is 98 percent pure brown grease.  READ MORE

…Last August, the Danish prospects for expansion took a leap forward with the launch of the Maabjerg Energy Concept, a highly ambitious effort to produce cellulosic ethanol, biogas, district heat, power, and a small amount of industrial CO2.

It’s an integrated design concept, as routinely developed, it seems, by the Danes, although rarely so comprehensively elsewhere. The consortium aimed to build a 2nd generation bioethanol plant, a hydrogen production plant and a waste treatment plant in Måbjerg. At the same time, the production of biogas by Maabjerg BioEnergy would be increased significantly, and the biomass-fired cogeneration plant Måbjergværket would be revamped.

Today, the project took a major step forward with the news that Novozymes had joined the project as a participant and investor.

…Maabjerg BioEnergy was completed at the end of 2011 and will start commercial operation in April 2012. The plant will convert 550 000 tons of biomass to biogas annually. Maabjerg BioEnergy will be expanded to accept 185 000 tons of molasses from the production of bioethanol, as well as 77 000 tons of bioliquid from the domestic waste plant.

The Måbjergværket cogeneration plant was commissioned in January 1993 and produces electricity and district heating from straw, wood chips, domestic waste and sewage processing sludge, and natural gas. Måbjergværket will be revamped to primarily use 120,000 tons of lignin from the bioethanol process, 45,000 tons of fibre from the production of biogas and 16,000 tons of RDF waste as its future fuel.

Maabjerg Bioethanol will be built on the site next to Maabjerg BioEnergy. The plant will use 400 000 tons of straw and other annual plants to produce 2nd generation bioethanol, molasses and lignin. The plant will be based on the technology that DONG Energy developed in the Inbicon pilot plant in Kalundborg, Denmark.  READ MORE

The deal will see about 5,000 litres of used cooking oil a month avoid the landfill and instead be converted into high-quality Biogold™ renewable fuel. Every litre of used cooking oil makes a litre of Biogold™ fuel and saves more than 2kg of carbon emissions. By supporting a local manufacturer, the Department of Corrections is also helping to support jobs and reduce New Zealand’s dependence on imported fossil fuel.

“The Department of Corrections is excited to be contributing towards a greener environment by collecting waste cooking oil to supply to Biodiesel for refinement into a sustainable renewable product,” says Brent Maughan, National Manager Corrections Inmate Employment. “Prisoners who work in our prison kitchens are enthusiastic to be involved as they take pride in their workplace and environment.”

Each prison houses its own Biodiesel-supplied collection tank for used cooking oil to be stored once it has reached the end of its useful life. Biodiesel carefully manages its collection logistics with pickups made monthly. North Island collections are brought together in large consignments in South Auckland, then sent by sea to Lyttelton. The oil is processed and converted into biodiesel in Christchurch.  READ MORE