(BusinessWire) Radio Lifeline, a non-profit based in the US, announces the launch of the Black Earth Project, a new initiative designed to help farmers mitigate the growing effects of climate change. Radio Lifeline’s partner in this project is re:char, a …

(ActionAid)  At a seminar on biofuels in Dublin yesterday, David Barissa, a leading expert on food security and land rights from ActionAid Kenya spoke of the litany of broken promises, rights violations and destruction which …

by Justus Ochieng (AllAfrica)  THE Kisumu molasses plant will outsource for raw materials from Uganda and Tanzania to continue its operations. Insufficient supply of molasses has derailed operations at the company.
The plant had been closed …

The workshop is organised by NL Agency with the support of WIP Renewable Energies. The objective is to discuss and share experiences on current initiatives for the development of sound frameworks for bioenergy in African …

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA)  The United Nation’s emphasis of “Sustainable Energy for All” (SE4All) in 2012 wrapped up with a decision to continue the focus with a Sustainable Energy for All Decade.  The …

by Sara Mojtehedzadeh  (Edmonton Journal)  Bedford Biofuels’ plantation is stalled, and along with it the company’s promise to provide jobs and cash for community development
…Though this is an arid and unforgiving area, the land surrounding Garsen …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Brazil, India, the US, China and the EU point the way towards a 60 billion gallon biofuels market by 2022 – but can the capacity be built, and can the …

by Drew Kershen (BioFortified)  …I do not write to enter the debate focused on fuel standards, markets and commodity speculators.   I acknowledge that other factors also contribute to food crises, particularly in developing nations – …

(Ventures-Africa)  A 32-year-old Swedish-Kenyan has won the European-African Entrepreneurship Award for a proposal to covert used cooking oils, widely used in the restaurant industry, into biodiesel.
The awards were held in The Hague in the Netherlands, with nine …

(CLC bio)  Today CLC bio and the International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology (ILTAB) at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, announced a collaboration to benefit the Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa project (VIRCA), a partnership including researchers …

by Karthikeyan Sundaram and Siddharth Philip (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)   Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (HMCL), India’s biggest motorcycle maker, is seeking partners for products such as blended-fuel compatible engines as it prepares to tap customers in Brazil …

by David Muwanga  (AllAfrica.com)  As the East African Community (EAC) was planning to release a total of Ksh1b for the removal of the water hyacinth from Lake Victoria, a United States based technology company has …

(JOil)  • Tamil Nadu sites achieve first-year flowering in three months and first harvest in five months
• Field trials now being conducted in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia
JOil (S) Pte. Ltd., a scientific bioenergy …

(Daily Nation)  A Sh12 billion biofuel complex to produce fuel ethanol from tropical sugar beet will be started in Bungoma, with construction commencing immediately. The first trail run is expected early next year.
The company, Webco, …

by The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (FocusingOnWildlife.com)  A Kenyan wildlife haven threatened by the rush to grow biofuels for European companies such as IKEA, has been saved.
The Dakatcha Woodland in Kenya – …

(Project Gaia)  Nigerian Government Agency Launches Microdistillery and Stoves to Provide Sustainable Ethanol Fuel for Household Cooking, Lighting and Small-Scale Power Generation
The National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), a parastatal under the Nigerian Federal Ministry of …

(Project Gaia)  Project Gaia, Inc., a U.S. non profit with operations in East Africa, is working with the UNHCR and others to bring relief to refugees from the Horn of Africa Famine in a very …

(Netzwerk Biotriebstoffe News)  Biofuel production is booming. Worldwide, production of ethanol for fuel has almost quintupled since 2000, while that of biodiesel has risen by almost 25 times. This is, in part, a response to policies …

by Henry Wanyama  (AllAfrica.com)  Tana River councillors have asked the National Environmental Management Authority not to revoke a biofuel project licence in the area. Led by Tana River County Council chairman Salim Golo, they said …

(Nature Canada)  Nature Canada is concerned that a Canadian company – Bedford Biofuels – plans plans to set up a jatropha tree plantation in Kenya’s Tana Delta, an area that provides refuge for 350 bird …

by Joao Peixe  (OilPrice.com)  The bio-ethanol gel is an alternative biofuel developed by Consumer’s Choice Limited to reduce Kenya’s reliance on imported petroleum.
…Consumer’s Choice Limited developed a bio-ethanol gel made from molasses derived from sugarcane. …

(Guardian News and Mail)  Gamba Manyatta village is empty now, weeds already roping around the few skeletal hut frames still standing. The people who were evicted took as much of their building materials as they …

By Mazera Ndurya and Daniel Nyassy (Daily Nation)  The environmental watchdog has not licensed a controversial multi-million shilling jatropha project because the investor has not complied with some of the conditions set by the government.
Although …

by Damian Carrington and Stefano Valentino (The Guardian)  British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations than companies from any other country, a Guardian investigation has revealed.
Half of the 3.2m hectares (ha) …

(Client Earth)  The European Commission has been sued, accused of violating European transparency laws. Environmental law organisation ClientEarth, Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE), FERN and Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) filed the lawsuit following the …

(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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …NGOs in Africa have been touting for some time the use of ethanol cook stoves, to replace three-stone, wood based stoves that can trigger local deforestation and expose women and …

by by Ricardo Sequeiros Coelho   (CoolTheEarth)  A report by ActionAid, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature Kenya revealed that using biofuels from jatropha results in more greenhouse gas emissions than using …

by Mazera Ndurya    (AllAfrica.com)  A team of specialists has been set up to study the viability of the controversial jatropha trees after renewed interest by foreign investors to start the project.
The team was formed by …

by Xinhua  (Business Daily)    A Kenyan green energy firm has announced plans to generate ethanol-based electricity.    Gravitas Ltd managing director Lorna Omuondo said the company will introduce ethanol-powered cells into the market by mid …

by Miyuki Iiyama and James Onchieku (SciDev)  It sounds too good to be true: a biofuel crop that grows on semi-arid lands and degraded soils, replaces fossil fuels in developing countries and brings huge injections of cash …

by Joseph Bonyo   (Daily Nation)  …The plant that is expected to produce about 22 million litres of ethanol a year will be the latest addition to the firm’s portfolio.

According to the company, the ethanol will …

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 …

by Carol Christian (Fort McMurray Today) …John Mitchell, general manager of Bedford Biofuels, explained the company has 160,000 hectares of prime development land for jatropha cultivation in the eastern coastal region of Kenya with 200,000 …

(EurekAlert)  Policies needed to address potential conflicts, but report views bioenergy as crucial to ‘unlocking Africa’s latent potential’.
Crops can be produced for bioenergy on a significant scale in west, eastern and southern Africa without doing …

(AllAfrica)  A planned biofuel project in Magarini District (Kenya) has put Malindi County Council and ecologists on a collision course.
This follows a request by the National Environment Management Authority for residents’ views on the project, …