Articles in R & D Focus
(NYDailyNews) Rapping the rural development ministry’s land resources department for the “inordinate delay” in finalising a bio-fuels programme, a parliamentary panel has sought for the matter be placed before the cabinet at the earliest for …
by Kevin Billinghurst (KTH) The KTH-led, 26-member consortium BRISK has begun accepting proposals from researchers studying improved production methods for biofuels and thermal biomass conversion. Financed by €11 million in EU research funds, the project …
(PhysOrg) The drive to develop crops for use as biofuel, continues to raise questions about additional uses of forest land. A cutting edge computer model developed at North Carolina State University offers detailed insight to predict …
(Parabel (formerly PetroAlgae)) Parabel, Inc. new, economical sources of feed, food, and fuel, today announced that it has finalized a restated Master Framework Agreement with CECEP – Chongqing Industry Co., Ltd. (An absolute holding subsidiary of China …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Emerald Biofuels announced that it will build an 85 million gallonrenewable-diesel refineries at a Dow Chemical site in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The company will use Honeywell’s UOP/Eni EcoFining process technology for the …
(Global Renewable Fuels Association/Cardno ENTRIX) …As is the case with virtually all other emerging and developing countries, biofuels offer the prospects of a new cash crop for farmers, increased employment in rural areas, expanded manufacturing output, reduced …
(PRNewswire) – At a time when regulatory agencies are increasing pressure for the disposal of wastewater containing soluble sugars, ThermoEnergy Corporation’s CASTion® Sugar Recovery System is a proven, cost-effective technology to capture and recover sugar in …
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 …
by Dan Krotz (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Berkeley Lab-led team explores a way to create biofuels, minus the photosynthesis
Is there a new path to biofuels hiding in a handful of dirt? Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley …
(MarketWire) An article in F1000 Biology Reports (http://f1000.com/reports/biology) published today (May 2, 2012) argues that recent advances in knowledge mean that plant-derived biofuels could meet about 30% of the global demand for liquid transportation fuels, …
(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 …
(Origin Oil) Algasol, collaborating with NASA and Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, will bundle its offering with OriginOil’s Algae Appliance™
OriginOil, Inc., developer of breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, and Algasol Renewables, a technology …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Arizona, Heliae announced a capital raise of $15 million in funding from international conglomerate Salim Group’s agribusiness company, PT. PP London Sumatra Indonesia, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Agri Investments.
This …
(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 …
(UK’s National Center for Biorenewable Energy, Fuels and Materials) This report investigates the importance of allocation procedures in reporting and understanding energy and greenhouse gas balances from life cycle assessment of biofuels and bio-based chemicals.
Life …
by Erin Voegele (Biorefining Magazine) …According to LBNL, the work focuses on transferring a hydrocarbon-synthesizing gene from cyanobacteria into a tobacco plant. The resulting plants would be able to produce fuel molecules within their leaves. …
by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine) Panama Green Fuels, an entity working to establish biodiesel infrastructure within Panama, recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the director of the country’s National School of Agriculture (IDIAP) to …
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 Tova Cohen (Reuters) Algae-based biodiesel producer World Health Energy Holdings (WHEN) plans to begin two commercial projects in India this year and is targeting over $200 million in sales in 2013.
The first project, with Prime …
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 …
by Margaret Broeren (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center) …Much more than a buzzword, “sustainable” means that trade-offs—social, environmental and economic factors—have been measured, modeled and validated against actual “boots on the ground data” measured at agricultural …
by Julia Pyper (E&E/Governors’ Biofuel Coalition) The Audi R18 Ultra, a turbocharged-diesel prototype running on bio-to-liquid fuel, won the 2012 Sebring race and the Michelin Green X Challenge.
The checkered flag dropped at the Le Mans …
(U.S. Department of Energy) As part of President Obama’s blueprint for an economy fueled by homegrown and alternative energy sources, the Energy Department announced today up to $15 million available to demonstrate biomass-based oil supplements …
The Energy Department announced up to $2.5 million available this year for applied research to advance clean biomass cookstove technologies for use in developing countries. The funding will support the development of innovative cookstove designs …
(Algae Industry Magazine) Many eyes are closely watching the development arc at Bioprocess Algae, in Shenandoah, Iowa, for signs that this might be the model for future farming.
…Tim Burns was also President, CEO and a …
by Erin Voegele (Biorefining Magazine) A team of researchers at the University of Georgia’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology recently published the results of a study relating to hyperthermophiles—or heat-loving microorganisms—that may prove beneficial …
(Trillium FiberFuels Inc./Biorefining Magazine) A team of scientists from Trillium FiberFuels and Oregon State University has been awarded a Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the U.S. DOE to further develop innovative enzymes that could …
(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 …
(Radio New Zealand) The researchers are putting 7000 Miscanthus giganteus plants on sites near Port Chalmers and Oturehua in central Otago to test its growth patterns and frost-resistance.
Lead botanist Janice Lord says the grass has great potential …
by Robert F. Service (Science) If drivers switch from gasoline to biofuels, will it lessen the air pollution that shrouds cities around the world? Studies of auto emissions have indicated it might. But the first citywide …
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 …
by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine) A group of researchers representing two Chinese universities have published a peer-reviewed research paper in theBiotechnology for Biofuels scientific journal that investigates how the overexpression of purple acid phosphatase 2 (AtPAP2) …
(The Hindu Business Line) The biotechnology division of the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) here has set up a Centre for Biofuels. It will be a nodal centre for research in the …
(AOL Energy) Researchers at UCLA say they have come up with a method for converting electrical energy into a liquid fuel, in a development that could lead to regular petrol cars being powered by electricity.
The process, which …
(University of Florida) A University of Florida-led research team has been selected to participate in a five-year, $125 million energy project involving the United States and India, U.S. Department of Energy officials have announced.
Known as the …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …A couple of voices expressed caution, prominent among them, algae’s Doctor No, John Benemann of Benemann Associates, who wanted at the time, “if algae looks good [for fuel], we’re all …
(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. …
(MarketWire) - Biofuel test program led by Bombardier Aerospace, Porter Airlines, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Targeted Growth successfully concluded
- Program funded by the key partners and by Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) …
(Boeing) Boeing and All Nippon Airways (ANA) made aviation history today as a 787 Dreamliner flew for the first time powered in part by sustainable biofuels.
“The 787 is the most environmentally progressive jetliner flying today, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As Honeywell and Agrisoma collaborate to pioneer aviation biofuels from a new carinata-based feedstock, critics wonder exactly why the military is paying so much for the biofuels it is utilizing …
(The Green Car Website) Substantial societal benefits could be the result of using higher volume blends of ethanol, according to the Ford Motor Company.
It wants to see the higher blends to leverage the inherent high …
by Kris Bevill (Ehtanol Producer Magazine) A recently published article in the peer-reviewed Journal of the Royal Society Interface suggests that in order for life cycle analyses (LCA) of biomass-based products such as biofuels to be most …
by Dan Piller (Des Moines Register) Cellulosic ethanol could use a break, and it appears that the U.S. military may be riding to the rescue.
A Missouri cooperative called (what else?) ShowMe Energy is building an …
(Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Light of specific wavelengths can be used to boost an enzyme’s function by as much as 30 fold, potentially establishing a path to less expensive biofuels, detergents and a host of …
(Air Fuel Synthesis) … The company’s demonstration unit fuel reactor has produced methanol fuels from carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and also from carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
The production of these first liquid hydrocarbon fuels – …
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 …
(GEM Biofuels) … Based on the internal review it is clear that, having planted very large areas of land, totalling 55,737 hectares, with Jatropha between 2007 and 2009, a lack of resources has resulted in …


