by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Guido Ghisolfi is a confident man. A chemical engineer by trade, at 55, he’s already spent three decades leading research and development (R&D) activities at Italy-based Mossi & Ghisolfi …

by Peter Byrne  (The Energy Report)  Believe it or not, industry experts see biofuels accounting for up to 25% of global energy consumption by 2050. With this long-term vision in mind, Mark McHugh, president and …

(Solutions4CO2)  Solutions4CO2 Inc. (“S4CO2”), is pleased to announce a joint venture with BARD Holding, Inc. (www.bardholding.com ) (the “S4CO2 – BARD Joint Venture”) to co-develop waste gas/water to co-products facilities in Canada. The initial phase …

(AFP)  Australia’s Qantas Friday launched the nation’s first commercial flight using a mixture of refined cooking oil, saying it would not survive if it relied solely on traditional jet fuel.
The Airbus A330 left Sydney for …

(Algae Industry Magazine) Below the Surface’s “Driving Innovation” Team established the first official algae-fueled motorcycle speed records during The Texas Mile land speed event on March 24th, 2012. Team leader Kristian Gustavson reached 94.6 mph …

by Greg Breining (University of Minnesota/Bioenergy Connection)   …Did demand for biofuel feedstocks, such as corn, sugarcane, rapeseed, and soybeans, drive the high cost of food? Many analysts later pinned most of the blame on commodities …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine) …Although India’s biodiesel industry is small, it does show potential for growth. This week World Health Energy Holdings announced plans to establish algae biodiesel production in two areas of the country are …

(CNNGo)  First biofuel flight will take off on April 13 from Sydney
…Qantas is the latest airline to launch a flight powered by cooking oil.
Tickets are currently on sale for Australia’s first commercial biofuel flight, which …

(Bernama)  Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s largest producers of palm oil, are on a joint mission to correct and update a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report that could impact future exports of palm …

by Gavin Lumsden (CityWire)   The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched an investigation into Sustainable AgroEnergy, a London-based company that promoted itself to Sipp investors as a specialist in renewable biofuel crops and ‘green oil’ from Asia.
According to Citywire’s New …

by Cori Anne Natoli (DelawareOnline)  The DuPont Co. won the 2012 Sustainable Biofuels award for its research project on the transport and storage of corn stover for conversion to biofuel.
The Stover Harvest Project is a collaborative effort …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Archer Daniels Midland Co. is expanding its research activities related to the use of distillers grains and corn stover to replace corn in cattle diets, recently announcing a two-year …

(Business Day) State wants industry to source feedstock from small-scale farmers, writes Hopewell Radebe
The government has not moved an inch on the proposal by the farming community to include maize as an alternative crop for …

(Chalmers)  Pest insects in tropical rainforests can be a valuable natural asset. So believes Lisbeth Olsson, who is hunting for new enzymes in partnership with Vietnamese researchers.
…Together, researchers from Chalmers and Vietnam are now going …

Sources of Lignin
FP Innovations
Domtar/Metso
Lignol

Commercial Applications
Zoltec
Tecnaro
Woodbridge Group
and Others
 
Research & Development
NSERC Biomaterials and Chemicals Strategic Network (Lignoworks)
National Research Council
University of Toronto – Centre for Biocomposites & Biomaterial Processing
Wageningen UR Lignin Platform
and Others

Government Funding
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research …

Over 200 bioenergy experts are expected to join the Ukrainian Bioenergy Business Forum 2012 conference cum exhibition. Taking place in Kiev on 27-28 September 2012, this strictly B2B conference focuses on commercial opportunities and challenges brought about by the …

by Erin Voegele   (Biodiesel Magazine)   Archer Daniels Midland Co. Agri-Industries Lloydminster oilseeds processing facility recently announced the introduction of its Sustainable Grower Program in connection with the sustainability certification it has earned from …

(MarketWire)  Flight to be scheduled just before Earth Day with a Bombardier Q400 turboprop – Preparatory test flight successfully flown by Bombardier in February 2012
In mid-April, Porter Airlines plans to use one of its Bombardier …

(Platts)  A decision in favor of recognizing Ensus, a UK biofuel sustainability certification scheme, will be taken in “a matter of weeks,” a European Commission source said Monday.
UK bioethanol producer Ensus received the support of …

by Syed Isa (Algae Industry Magazine)    The International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS-UNIDO) presented an Expert Group Meeting on Emerging Technologies for the Production of Biofuels and Chemicals from Algae, March 19-21, in …

(Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative/PhysOrg)  Plane makers and bitter rivals Airbus of Europe, Boeing of the US and Embraer of Brazil announced on Thursday a joint plan to develop affordable biofuels for the airplane industry.
The airplane sector …

by Simon Levey  (Industry Intelligence, Inc.)  Key part of biomass processing could be made 80% more energy-efficient, reducing cost of biofuels by 10%, by treating timber with ionic solvents, find Imperial College London scientists
A little …

(Trend)  …Iran produced a sample of biofuel six months ago and is preparing to start its production. Located in the Khuzestan Province’s Haft-Tapeh, a new 10,000 liter capacity biofuel facility will begin operating in the …

As a result of the growing impact of renewable resources, this conference aims at bringing together academic researchers, industrial experts, policymakers and venture capital providers to discuss the challenges emerging from the transition towards a …

by Steve Creedy  (The Australian)  QANTAS hopes to boost government interest and involvement in aviation biofuels when the airline conducts Australia’s first biofuel-powered commercial flight next month, using fuel derived from cooking oil.
The return flight will …

(4-Traders.com)  Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) along with the Ministry of Energy, PTT Public Company Limited, public and private organizations, and international airlines jointly launched the “Thai Aviation and Environmental Workshop – Biofuels …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Two reasons why Queensland’s election stands out.     First, the election was also notable for the electoral debut of the rural, populist Katter’s Australian Party, which was formed last year …

One of the major events in the Brazilian bioenergy calendar, the 2nd annual World Biofuels Markets Brazil conference, offers both new entrants and established energy market professionals the chance to hear from and meet with the thought …

(PRNewsWire/Yahoo!)  Partnership will advance research in automotive renewable diesel solutions for current and next-generation TDI® Clean Diesel applications
Volkswagen of America today announced partnerships with Solazyme and Amyris, two of the world’s leaders in renewable fuels, …

(Neste Oil)  Already 49% of the raw materials that Neste Oil used in 2011 to produce its renewable fuel was certified. This was an increase of 28 percentage points on the figure for 2010, and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Here are five types of technologies that straddle the political divide between green and black.
Re-using industrial waste gases  Here are three companies aiming at capturing CO2 and either directly converting to …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The increased use of ethanol creates new fire risks, particularly when considering the potential for large tank fires. The behavior of a fire involving large volumes of ethanol is significantly different …

(Neste Oil)  Neste Oil and Lufthansa tested Neste Oil’s NExBTL renewable aviation fuel on a total of 1,187 flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg last year and one intercontinental flight between Frankfurt and Washington D.C. this …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Sugar prices are booming, good news for producers in Brazil, India and elsewhere, but in Brazil it has created, shall we say, a certain reluctance to maximize ethanol production.
Part of …

(4-Traders)  Petrotec AG (ISIN DE000PET111), the largest European producer of waste to biodiesel mainly used cooking oil based, reported a 97% sales increase in financial year 2011 (January 1 to December 31, 2011).
…Backed by an …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  BP to showcase capabilities in low-carbon fuels at 2012 London Olympics. BP Biofuels chief Phil New outlines the BP’s path towards “getting biofuels right”.
“6 percent of the entire BP workforce …

by Jim Lane ( Biofuels Digest)  From Denmark, Danielle Spiegel Feld of the Copenhagen University Faculty of Law writes: “I’d like to announce the launch of a new biofuels research initiative here in Copenhagen: the …

by José Vitor Bomtempo  (Grupo de Economia da Energia)  In the previous article, we compared the BP and Shell’s strategies for biofuels. Today we present the case of Petrobras. We have to recall the reasons for the …

(Agra-net.com)  Usimat Destilaria de Alcohol said it has started ethanol production from corn during the intercrop season in Mato Grosso. In recent weeks, it produced 90,000 litres of ethanol from corn. It has invested BRL20 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  It was revealed yesterday, in the peer-reviewed, online journal PLoS One that Ceres and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University in Wales have completed the first …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine)  The Government of Saskatchewan has announced it will provide up to $1.7 million to Milligan Bio-Tech Inc. under the Saskatchewan Biofuels Investment Opportunity (SaskBIO) program. The program provides repayable contributions …

by Andrew DeWitt (The Asia-Pacific Journal)  …The Republicans think they see their chance to throw a wrench in the works. They recently decided to open congressional hearings to try, through focusing on Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, to …

(BusinessReviewCanada/MarketWire)  …”Our approach will be achieved through the company’s Green, Broad and Deep principles, all geared towards generating high quality business development and the deployment of resources, but in a sustainable, systematic way that is …

By Meng Yew Choong  (The Star)  Palm oil milling is far from benign, but the industry is frantically conducting research to realise low-emission technologies. The zero-discharge plant is one such bold concept.
THE extraction of palm …

(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 …

by Joelle Brink (Biofuels Digest Asia)  … So why, you ask, is the US lagging behind Asia? In the US too, biofuels will create lots of jobs as always happens in new growth industries, and …

by Eric van den Heuve (Edofys)  Biofuels might offer opportunities for achieving improved balance of power to the European airlines in their high competitive market. It faces high rivalry and increasing fuel costs due to …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But in the past two years, five technologies have emerged that are focused on renewable gasoline (along with some others that have the capability of producing gasoline-like fuels but are …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine)  Solvay, an international chemical group, recently announced that its Thai affiliate Vinythai successfully commissioned a biobased chemical plant. The $157 million facility, based in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, utilizes Solvay’s …

(Télam. National News Agency of Argentina.)   Industry Minister Débora Giorgi met with Entre Ríos Production Minister, Roberto Schunk, who presented a US$ 40 million investment project from a local company that will open a factory …