by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … In an exclusive Digest interview, Shell’s VP for Alternative Energy, Matthew Tipper, reveals the company’s thinking about RFS2, their increasing re-focus on North America and the EU.   Plus, Shell’s ambition …

by Yuca Waarts, Kor Zwart (LEI Wageningen UR)  Recycling palm oil mill effluent, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and improving smallholder livelihoods are three important topics in debates on sustainable palm oil production. In Indonesia, Zebra Special Products …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  With a fresh investment from Brazil’s GranBio, American Process Inc. is poised to develop its first commercial-scale cellulosic biorefineries in both the U.S. and Brazil. API CEO Theodora …

(Metso) Domtar has successfully started up a commercial-scale LignoBoost™ lignin separation plant at its Plymouth, North Carolina mill, in the USA. This is the first commercial installation of a LignoBoost plant in the world and the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …It used to be that the outskirts of Honolulu had the dual scent of diesel and pineapple processing — but now, all you really smell is the diesel. Sugarcane and …

(US Department of Energy)  The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory have released a joint study on biochemical biorefinery sizing. “Investigation of biochemical biorefinery sizing and …

by John Davis (DomesticFuel.com)  Some researchers say that, at current production levels, algae biodiesel is not a commercially viable product. But some algae advocates believe researchers might have some ulterior motives for coming to that …

(US Department of Energy)  The Bioenergy Technologies Office 2013 Project Peer Review will take place at the Hilton Alexandria Hotel from Monday, May 20, 2013, to Thursday, May 23, 2013. The peer review process will …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Pilot-scale biorefineries for drop-in military diesel, jet fuel the focus of the DOE’s latest grant round.
In Washington, the US Department of Energy announced up to $17.7 million in grants to …

by Pavel Molchanov (Raymond James and Associates/Biofuels Digest)  …There is no question that there have been growing pains along the way, more than we would have hoped, but the industry continues along its trajectory towards scale. We …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The end-goal? High-value oils. Low-cost sugars become shock troops in the war for sustainability.
In New York, we’ve learned that Sweetwater Energy will announce a project today to provide Naturally Scientific …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Sweetwater Energy announed that BioGasol completed delivery of its first commercial biomass pretreatment system.
The cellulosic sugar producer will use the unit, a Carbofrac 10, in its demonstration facility to produce …

by Amanda Peterka  (Governors Biofuel Coalition)  Cellulosic biofuels can become profitable for farmers and help displace oil, but they must use already-available agricultural land, according to a study released by a nonprofit yesterday.
Commissioned by the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Today in part II, we look at a new set of technologies coming along that are redefining our ideas about scale and cost.
… A barrier to long term deployment? The …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Although no commercial-scale cellulosic biofuels facilities are operating in the United States at present, at least ten projects exceeding 20 million gallons per year are expected to begin operations by …

(SEKAB/Davy Process Technology)  Davy Process Technology Limited (Davy), a Johnson Matthey company, andSEKAB, a leading player in the field of the ethanol based chemicals and biofuels, today announced at World Biofuels Markets that they are …

(Direvo)  Direvo Industrial Biotechnology GmbH (Direvo) today announced that it reached an important milestone in developing a consolidated bioprocess for lactic acid production from lignocellulose.
Up until now, there has not been any known consolidated bioprocess …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Compared to prior generations, CodeXyme 4 and CodeXyme 4X significantly reduce the cost of cellulosic sugar production for biofuels and bio‐based chemicals.
…Codexis’ latest generation of advanced cellulase enzymes, CodeXyme 4 …

by Pedram Fatehi (Biotechnology Progress)  In this review, the recent advancements and technical challenges associated with the production of ethanol, butanol, and isobutanol via bioconversion routes from celluloses of woody materials are reviewed. Physicochemical processes, e.g. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Fast pyrolysis developer plans to rapidly expand green benzene and toluene production in 2013 for downstream product development purposes.   Opens new pilot plant, R&D facility in New York; green …

by Kristi Pihl (Tri-City Herald)  A pilot project to produce biofuel using agricultural and organic municipal waste has reached levels that makes the process commercially viable, researchers say.
The project, paid for by the Department of Energy, …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A 32-page report by Lux Research picks winners and losers in 2012 among alternative fuel developers. The state of the market report, which is provided only to clients, also …

( Bharat Book Bureau/PR NewsWire/WFSB)  Bharat Book Bureau has recently added the market intelligence report titled “Global Markets and Technologies for Biofuel Enzymes.”
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
- An overview of the global market for biofuel enzymes, which include amylases, lipases, …

by Steve Raabe (Denver Post)  A Colorado ethanol producer is set to employ a landmark technology that could help resolve the food vs. fuel controversy swirling around corn-based ethanol.
Front Range Energy in Windsor successfully has …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   NEAtech, a new energy alternatives company, is searching for financing to further test and commercialize its patented distillers grain-to-cellulosic ethanol process.
The consulting company, which has a joint venture …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Changes in EU policy and the financing of advanced biofuels have led to a revival of project formation in Europe.
The latest news from Finland is that St1 is proceeding towards …

(Nanowerk.com)  A collaborative study by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a bioenergy research center led by Berkeley Lab, and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has shown that an ionic liquid …

by Holly Jessen  (Biodiesel Magazine)  A two-year research project aims to crack the lignin question by engineering a microbe to break down the byproduct into a lipid, or fat, and then into biodiesel. The research …

(Science Daily)  The mainly EU-funded DISCO project coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed powerful enzymes, which accelerate plant biomass conversion into sugars and further into products such as bioethanol. The project’s …

by Vinod Sreeharsha (IEEE Spectrum)  Later this year, northeastern Brazil will host one of the most ambitious biofuel experiments ever. There, in the small town of São Miguel dos ­Campos, surrounded by sprawling sugarcane fields, a commercial-­scale ethanol plant is …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A long war of opinion has been waged for years between advanced biofuels’ detractors and supporters.  Mirage or reality? Completion of 6 key projects 2012 decided much of the debate. …

Biofuels Digest announced its annual awards for achievement in the development of biofuels, renewable chemicals and biobased materials – all available with background on the who, what and why of each award – today at …

(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)  Goal is to develop new catalysts to lower costs for producing biofuels
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will partner with Johnson Matthey, a global specialty chemicals company, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  It’s been years of struggle to get cellulosic feedstock supply chains downfield.  Now, companies like Woodland Biofuels, Sweetwater Energy, Ceres, Delta BioRenewables and Commonwealth Agro-Energy are moving the chains.
…This week …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Funded by a $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Biomass Program, Dr. Adeniyi Lawal of Stevens Institute of Technology will be leading a team investigating microalgae as a biomass …

(Leaf Energy)  The patent application titled “Methods for Converting Lignocellulosic Material to Useful Products” (“Glycerol Bio-refinery process”) describes the process developed at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) by Zhanging Zhang, Ian O’Hara and William …

(Direvo)  Direvo Industrial Biotechnology GmbH is commercializing its BluCon™– platform for complete, one-step conversion of non-food feedstocks to carbohydrates used in the production of fuels and chemicals. In the recent years Direvo has undertaken a …

(BioMCN) Suiker Unie, GasTerra and BioMCN sign agreement for production and delivery of biogas
The companies Suiker Unie, GasTerra and BioMCN signed a biogas supply agreement at the official opening of the Suiker Unie biomass fermentor at …

(Transparency Market Research/PR NewsWire)  According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research (http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com) “Biofuel Enzymes Market- Global Industry Size, Market Share, Trends, Analysis and Forecast, 2012 – 2018,” the global biofuel enzymes …

by Ed Hamrick (Biofuels Digest/Greenworld Fuels)  … There are more than two billion tons of MSW produced worldwide every year, with more than 250 million tons per year produced in the USA every year. Disposal of …

(POET)  POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels has contracted for a key technology/process component in breaking down cellulose to produced advanced biofuel.
POET-DSM has contracted with International Technology Group ANDRITZ, through its U.S. subsidiary ANDRITZ Inc., to supply a …

(Bioenergy Deployment Consortium/MarketWire)  BDC held its 2012 Fall Symposium in Alpena, MI on September 18 & 19, capping the event with a tour of the new cellulosic ethanol plant owned by American Process Inc. (API), …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Every great biofuels technology has its own companion feedstock strategy – with unique advantages and technical challenges.  Who’s got what it takes to be a great Sherpa, providing that feedstock …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The next five years—the often scoffed mantra of cellulosic ethanol developers—is getting whittled down to the next year or two. A milestone was reached this year when Blue Sugars …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  …High moisture feedstocks can muck up the hammer mill system. However, many advanced biofuel producers do not want completely dry feedstocks.
The solution will lie in a technology that works well to …

(Melodika.net)  …Biofuels of the 2nd generation are made of agricultural waste – from wood chips, straw or specially cultivated “energy crops”. The Austrian competence centre acib (Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology) has found ways to …

(Missouri University of Science & Technology)  Biofuel production can be an expensive process that requires considerable use of fossil fuels, but a Missouri University of Science and Technology microbiologist’s patented process could reduce the cost …

Name of Provider: Technology ED- continuing education for scientists and engineers 
Type: basic: Overview/ Part of Certificate Program (CP)
Course: Biofuels- Biomass Pretreatment Technologies
Course description:   Lignocellulosic materials provide a raw material source for biofuel conversion and …

(Iowa Renewable Fuels Association)  As a part of its 10th Anniversary celebration of progress and prosperity, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) today released a list of the ethanol and biodiesel industry’s Top 10 efficiency …

(Retail Solutions Online)  Presentation at 16th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference Demonstrates Benefits of Revolutionary Straw-Pulp Technology to the Farmers and Rural Communities of China
…After more than 10 years of research and development, YFY Corp. has …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Yet, even in an era where venture capital has been harder to come by (Why? See these 42 article links under the rubric, “The VC Model is Broken” ) — some great …

(DSM)  Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, has been qualified as supplier of enzymes for DONG Energy – Inbicon’s wheat straw to cellulosic ethanol process. The enzymes have been successfully used …

(Macauhub)  The first crop of jatropha of biofuel company Ceci Api Biomassa Mozambique is due to be harvested by July, the company’s chief executive told Mozambican news agency AIM.
Domercico Manfredi also said that the harvest, …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The Iowa Energy Center recently awarded three grants to research projects focused on improving thermochemical conversion of biomass to biofuels and renewable chemicals. The selected projects will receive one-year research and …

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 …

(EurekAlert/Michigan State University)  MSU research looks for ways to improve shipping of materials for biofuels
If the increased use of biomass to produce alternative fuels is to become a reality, more attention needs to be paid …

(Sermatec Zanini and GeoSynFuels, LLC)  Sermatec Zanini and GeoSynFuels, LLC (GSF) have announced the formation of a strategic alliance for the development and commercialization of GSF’s proprietary cellulosic ethanol technology. The strategic alliance allows Sermatec Zanini …

(Novozymes)  A new research collaboration between Novozymes and Sea6 Energy will explore enzymatic technology to produce fuel ethanol, fine chemicals, and protein from seaweed.
Novozymes, the world leader in bioinnovation, announced an exploratory research agreement with …

by Lauren Sommer  (KQED)  …The idea behind biofuels is pretty simple. Plants take sunlight and use that energy to make sugars. The biofuels industry wants to transform those sugars into fuel. That requires some molecular …

(Los Alamos National Laboratory)  Los Alamos National Laboratory’s top 10 science stories of 2011 illustrate the broad variety of scientific excellence that’s the hallmark of the Laboratory. This year’s stories include alternative energy research, world …

(Metso)  Metso will supply the world’s first commercial installation of LignoBoost technology to Domtar in North America. The equipment will be intergrated with the Plymouth North Carolina pulp mill. The LignoBoost process separates and collects …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …“The government rushed into investments, with no diligence,” says Codexis chief Alan Shaw. “They are just not industrialists, in my opinion.”
Two major announcements this week drive the point home in …

by Heather Lammers (National Renewable Energy Laboratory/Renewable Energy World)  …In June, DOE announced an award of up to $13.4 million dollars to Virent and its partners to develop a process to cost effectively convert cellulosic …

by Roman Wolff (Biorefining Magazine/Enhanced Biofuels)  There has been a great deal of effort in recent years to develop algae growth technology; and for good reason, since some algae can produce biomass (and in particular …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine)  Approximately 100 professionals working in the feedstock and biorefining sectors recently met at Idaho National Laboratory to participate in a U.S. DOE-funded workshop. …“Our objective was to broaden the view …

(PhysOrg.com/Purdue University)  Not all parts of a corn stalk are equal, and they shouldn’t be treated that way when creating cellulosic ethanol, say Purdue University researchers.
When corn stover is processed to make cellulosic ethanol, everything is …

by Hoyt Thomas (OpenAlgae)  Hoyt Thomas, President and CEO of  OpenAlgae, points out that the algae industry is suffering from a case of separation anxiety. To find out the solutions, OpenAlgae developed unique separation technologies …

by Marie Louise Ballon (U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute/Renewable Energy World)   …Published online October 2 in Nature Biotechnology, an international team of scientists including DOE JGI researchers compared the finished genomes of Thielavia …

(PR Newswire/Renmatix)  Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, and Amyris CEO John Melo laud company’s novel use of super critical water
Renmatix, the leading producer of cellulosic sugars, today unveiled the Plantrose™ process, the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But underneath all the excitement, one feels just a little bit of desperation – oh, perhaps not just from these companies but their competitors. Everyone knows at some macro level …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Intrigued by cellulosic ethanol and a new product called MGT, in Mascoma’s IPO?
…Mascoma Corporation announced that it has filed an S-1 registration statement relating to a proposed $100 million initial …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Wonder how the world will ever produce enough energy and cut back enough carbon?  Here are 8 technology platforms for 2050 that could make the difference.
…What kind of technologies will …

by Hoyt Thomas (OpenAlgae/Biofuels Digest)  …Dealing with the separation issue is perhaps the biggest obstacle we face.  But that’s not what you’ll read on most algae companies’ websites.
…Compared to the well-developed soy and palm crops …

by Brian Wallheimer  (Purdue University)  Adding a pretreatment step would allow producers to get more ethanol from switchgrass harvested in the fall, according to a Purdue University study.
Michael Ladisch, a distinguished professor of agricultural and …

(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)  The ailing United States’ economy would receive a much needed boost with the commercial development of a domestic source of transportation fuel – especially if that fuel were to be clean, …

(US Department of Energy/Idaho National Laboratory)  The United States is increasing the use of lignocellulosic biomass as part of a portfolio of solutions to address climate change and improve energy security, in addition to other benefits that an invigorated …

Stefan Kuhnel; Henk A Schols; Harry Gruppen (Biotechnology for Biofuels/Highbeam Business)  Sugar-beet pulp (SBP) consists of up to 75% w/w of carbohydrates (dry matter). Arabinose, glucose and galacturonic acid (GA) are the main sugar moieties …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Nebraska-based Pellet Technology LLC is teaming up with CPM to offer second-generation biofuels producers a solution to the logistical issues surrounding the use of bulky biomass as feedstocks. Pellet …

(Virent)  Biofuels Pioneer Converts Corn Stover and Loblolly Pine Into BioFormate™ Gasoline with Molecular Composition Similar to Gasoline Derived from Fossil Fuels
Virent announced it has successfully produced biogasoline from corn stover and pine harvest forest residuals, as …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   Figuring out how to produce enzymes at a feasible cost is just part of the puzzle
A decade ago, the cost of enzymes was at the top of the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …AER Sustainable Energy – enzymatic hydrolysis This Ireland-based group, set up in 2006, applied for license to supply ethanol into the Irish market, and by 2010 was supplying up to …

by Donna Goodison (Boston Herald)  Greater Boston doesn’t usually rate as a Hub of agriculture but yesterday U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Medford to praise start-up Agrivida Inc. as an example of how …

by Harry Cline  (Western Farm Press)  Camelina, a weed in the mustard and distant relative to canola, may be emerging as the front runner in California agriculture’s continuing search for a biofuel crop.
It captured the …

Projects will help develop sustainable, renewable biofuels in the U.S.
As part of the Obama Administration’s comprehensive plan to address rising gas prices, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced …

by Karen Holst (The Local)  …Earlier this year, Preem, a leading Swedish oil company, emerged as the world’s first company to offer an innovative biodiesel made from tall oil, a renewable by-product of the forestry industry.
…Known …

by Annie Ilnicki   (WANE.com)    Nature’s Fuel to open by end of year
A company in Huntington is on its way to turning trash into liquid gold.  Officials from Nature’s Fuel broke ground Wednesday afternoon, on …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  In order for ag residues and energy crops to be profitably converted to biofuels, it is expected that biorefineries will need to acquire all of their feedstocks from within …

(Biofuels Center of North Carolina)  The Biofuels Center of North Carolina has awarded $1.6 million for 15 projects statewide to accelerate the commercialization of renewable liquid fuels. Awards are made through the 2011 Statewide Biofuels …

(Biocommodity.com)  Bhavnagar based research institute Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute(CSMCRI), is likely to initiate talks with oil companies for manufacturing jatropha-based biofuel on a commercial scale.
“We have recently been granted the US patent …

(SustainableBusiness.com)  Biobutanol company Cobalt Technologies and American Process Inc. (API), a developer of lignocellulosic sugar production technologies, announced an agreement to build the world’s first industrial-scale cellulosic biorefinery to produce biobutanol.
Additionally, the companies agreed to …

(U.S. Department of Agriculture)  To support President Obama’s goal of reducing America’s oil imports by one-third by 2025, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) today jointly announced up to $30 million over …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …(F)or some time, observers have been waiting for an intermediate group of technologies to spring up, or even one, that takes in unsorted MSW from a municipality, crushes, sorts and …

by Heather Lammers   (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)  The scenario for your business dream plays out like this. You have an idea to make a fuel from biomass using a biochemical conversion processes. You and …

(MarketWire)  Diversified Technologies, Inc. has introduced a low-cost process (patent pending) for the pre-treatment of algae using pulsed electric field (PEF) technology to streamline the extraction of oils from algal cells early in the biorefining process.
The …

by Kris Bevill  (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  KL Energy Corp. is preparing to validate its modified process technology to turn sugarcane bagasse into ethanol.
As the bitter winter turns to spring in the tiny town of Upton, …

by Bill Brandon (Advanced Biofuels USA)  On February 10 & 11, about 120 participants gathered in chilly Chicago for the first Municipal Solid Waste to Biofuels Summit presented by the British firm, Eye for Energy.  …

by Alex Morales (Bloomberg)  The market for ethanol made from plant waste and grasses rather than foodstuffs is set to ramp up in 2013 as the first commercial plants start, Novozymes A/S Chief Executive Officer …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Codexis yesterday announced a stunning 29% increase in revenue, …What’s driving the numbers in Redwood City?  ”We achieved our technical milestones with Shell, we made our first shipments of two …

by Blake Simmons (Vice-President, Deconstruction Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute)  Simmons provides an overview of Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBI) and their research associated with converting cellulosic biomass to biofuel.  He describes the challenges of the various …

by Susan Taylor  (Reuters)  A tiny Canadian startup company that is preparing to open a biodiesel plant in Toronto this spring says it will produce clean fuel, animal feed and human food all from the …