by Raj Mosali  (Jatrodiesel Inc./Biodiesel Magazine)  Biodiesel is traditionally produced via esterification of fatty acids and transesterification of triglycerides with an alcohol such as methanol and sodium methylate. The transesterification of triglycerides is comprised of …

(Business Wire)  TMO Renewables (“TMO Group”), a leading technology provider for cellulosic biofuels production, today announced the company has advanced to demonstration scale on cassava stalk feedstock with major Chinese fuel and food producers. TMO …

(Ceres)  • Pilot project validates U.S.-produced sweet sorghum as a potential feedstock for advanced biofuels and bio-products.
• Conversion efficiency of sweet sorghum sugars were similar to sugarcane.
Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. (Nasdaq: CERE) today announced …

(CORE BioFuel, Inc.)  CORE BioFuel Inc. announced today (May 2, 2012)  that it has selected Technip, a world leader in engineering, construction and project management in the energy industry, to complete the construction engineering of …

by Bryan Sims (Biorefining Magazine)  The biorefining industry is hungry for a low-cost, high-quality and readily available supply of sugar feedstock from nonfood biomass sources. A number of pure-play sugar technology developers and manufacturers like …

by Erin Voegele (Biorefining Magazine)  …The BioFeed model is the product of University of Illinois researchers funded by BP’s Energy Biosciences Institute under a research program titled Engineering Solutions for Biomass Feedstock Production. According to …

by Denise Deveau (Financial Post)   {ISSUE} Soaring energy prices are thinning profit margins in the transport sector and increasing operational costs in many manufacturing industries
{SHIFT} Turning wood waste into bio-fuel helps industry find a …

(Virdia/Biorefining Magazine)  Cellulosic sugar developer Virdia announced April 24 the opening of its demonstration facility at its new technology center in Danville, Va. Located on the campus for the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Finding synergy between biogas, ethanol and power generation – the Maabjerg Energy Concept promises a new approach to energy economics and sustainability, through the capture and repurpose of industrial byproducts.
…Last …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Making good, affordable syngas from municipal solid waste to unlock 9 billion gallons of low-cost fuel? Covanta’s hot new gasification technology makes a big dent in the big challenge.
…The bumps …

(CFOCEO Magazine)  …Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – April 20, 2012
…C1 is a very unique fungus we found in the Russian soil in an alkaline lake in the early 1990’s. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Four projects, four technologies, four feedstocks, four geographies.  Couldn’t be more differentiated, couldn’t be more linked in terms of affirming investor confidence in advanced biofuels.
…Virent CEO Lee Edwards… outlined four basic …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Here’s a 2-Minute Guide to all the Gevo and Butamax hollerin’, and how to separate the alcohol from the folderol.
In case it has escaped your attention, Butamax is suing Gevo …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  North American sugar-to-ethanol strategy differs from Brazil’s, Europe’s
…North Dakota-based Green Vision Group is resolutely moving forward with a plan to build multiple 20 MMgy dedicated energy beet plants in …

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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Honeywell’s UOP announced two projects this week, and generally more attention was paid by ABLC delegates to its ATJ (alcohol to jet) technology release, suggesting that, in the near term, …

by Harry Cline (Western Farm Press)  Former sugar beet growers on the West Side of the San Joaquin Valley are expected to learn next month whether they’ll be able to take the next step in …

by Robert Kozak (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Problem Definition:  The production of biofuels in the US is at a substantial roadblock. Due to the high cost of transporting large quantities of low density, low value biomass …

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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Virent, Virdia debut super-performing drop-in aviation biofuels made from drop-in cellulosic pine tree sugars; “passed under conditions where conventional jet fuels would fail,” says Air Force.
In Wisconsin, Virent and Virdia …

(Maryland Clean Energy Center/The Current)  Serial entrepreneur Craig Stuart-Paul has found a novel formula for growing a business.
For the CEO of Fiberight, personal expertise in brewing beer plus innovations in recycling residential waste has added …

(Dow Jones Newswire)  A push by U.S. ethanol companies into corn oil is starting to give the livestock industry indigestion.
Corn oil, which is used both for cooking oil and to make biodiesel fuel, has emerged …

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 Stu Ellis (FarmGateBlog)  …Now the bloom is off the rose.  Gasoline demand is down, the blend wall is pushing ethanol demand down, and corn prices are not as strong as they once were.
…He (Bob …

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 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 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 Kay Ledbetter   (PhysOrg.com)  Crude glycerin, a byproduct of biodiesel production, could be an economical ingredient in cattle diets, according to studies by Texas AgriLife Research and West Texas A&M University personnel.
Dr. Jim MacDonald, AgriLife …

by Sarah Brew and Steve Toeniskoetter (Ethanol Producer Magazine/Faegre Baker Daniels)  Pop quiz time—which federal agencies regulate your plant? Did your answer include the Food and Drug Administration? If your plant produces distillers grains, corn …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Ethanol serves as not only a liquid transportation fuel but also as a feedstock for biobased chemical production
Although ethanol is generally associated with the transportation fuel market, it is …

by Holly Jessen  (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Al-Corn Clean Fuel, a 50 MMgy plant in Claremont, Minn., is working with a St. Paul company investigating secondary production of green diesel at a new or existing ethanol …

(Butamax/iStockAnalyst.com)  Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels, LLC, the biobutanol technology leader, announced today that the Company filed a new lawsuit against Gevo, Inc. for infringing the recently awarded Butamax™ patent8,129,162.
The patent covers recombinant KARI enzymes which perform …

(Advanced Biofuels Association)  Better Fuels Moment
With barrels of biofuel flowing from the success of America’s first commercial advanced biofuels plant, the Advanced Biofuels Association, ABFA, takes its online video series, Better Fuels Moment, on the …

(Metso)  A demonstration plant enables bio oil production from forest residue
Metso and Fortum Power and Heat have signed a contract regarding a delivery of a bio-oil production plant and a related automation system to the …

by Pamela Glinski (Highlands Today)  Vercipia is no more. The name has been changed to BP Biofuels, Highlands Ethanol LLC, explained Mike Milicevic, the agricultural operations manager for the company.
Vercipia was a joint-venture company formed …

(Maverick BioFuels)  Companies will integrate technologies to accelerate the cost competitive production of transportation fuels and bioplastics from biomass and waste feedstocks…
Maverick Biofuels, a second-generation biofuels and bioplastics technology company, and TopLine Energy Systems (TES) …

(Kyiv Post)  Chinese investors are to change the line of business of a distillery in the Village of Popovka in Konotop district (Sumy region) to the production of bioethanol, reads a posting on the Web …

by Nina Chestney (Reuters)  Water management company Aqualia plans to launch a commercial-scale demonstration project using waste water to cultivate algae for biofuel production, which could fuel 400 vehicles, the firm said on Monday.
Spain’s Aqualia, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  What are Google, BP, Conoco, and GE investing? Is 3,000 gallons per acre of renewable gasoline possible?
In the past few weeks, news has begun to circulate around the industry – …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Small North Carolina producer continues to innovate
The founder of Pittsboro, N.C.-based Piedmont Biofuels, Rachel Burton, gave details at the 2012 National Biodiesel Conference & Expo in Orlando on the company’s …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine)  A former polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pelletization plant in Plaquemine, La., will soon be home to a new biodiesel plant. Construction on the facility, which is under development by Louisiana Biodiesel …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine)  …Development on innovative heating solutions will continue, but several unique heating systems are already in operation at plants across the U.S. In North Carolina, Patriot BioDiesel LLC has installed a …

by Bryan Sims (Biodiesel Magazine)  Minimizing catalyst use, particularly homogenous catalysts, while simultaneously maximizing product quality and process yield is a pervasive challenge that every biodiesel producer encounters daily because, after all, single digit differences …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Can companies like Mascoma and Sud-Chemie, by transforming the economics of cellulosic ethanol, compete at parity with gasoline – no subsidies, no five-years-to-commercial-scale, no kidding?
Part II – “Chain-Chain-Chain, Chain of …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   Leaders of the National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative  were joined by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, on Capitol Hill Feb. 28 to unveil a set of recommendations …

(The Fish Site)  The Centre for Aquaculture and Seafood Development will establish a demonstration bio-refinery that will convert fish oils into biodiesel with support from the Provincial Government.
Darin King, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, announced …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  While confusion reigneth on Shell’s plans for cellulosic ethanol, the company quietly builds a drop-in biofuels pilot plant in Texas, based on Virent’s bioforming technology.
…After a stunning move to establish …

by Renewable Fuels Association (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  According to analysis commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Association, the production of an estimated 13.9 billion gallons of ethanol directly employed 90,200 Americans. An additional 311,400 Americans found work …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …Groups like the Emergency Ethanol Response Coalition were formed years ago to educate first responders on best practices for ethanol-related incidents. Accidents are rare, but they do happen. For …

Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Diversification has been a topic of interest for some time now, but this is the year producers need to move toward incorporating alternative revenue streams into their operations. High on …