Articles in R & D Focus
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 …
(City of Galesburg) Pennycress Energy and the EBI Network are promoting Pennycress as a renewable, alternative energy fuel crop for the Galesburg/West Central Illinois Region. The project, generating interest among growers, will identify possible investors …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) There’s water, water everywhere, hardly a drop to use. The latest on Sustainable, Affordable, Reliable, Available biomass feedstocks that keep down the stress on our water tables.
…The basic dilemma in …
by Aviva Glaser and Patty Glick (National Wildlife Federation) Without question, America needs to transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future. As we move forward with our energy choices, we must be mindful of how …
by J.E. Anderson, D.M. DiCicco, J.M. Ginder, U. Kramer, T.G. Leone, H.E. Raney-Pablo, T.J. Wallington (FUEL/ScienceDirect.com) Ethanol provides a significant contribution to road transportation fuel in the US, Brazil, and elsewhere. Renewable fuels regulations in the US and EU imply that ethanol …
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 …
(UPI) The U.S. Energy Department said up to $15 million is available to help support nearly a dozen so-called bio-oil projects targeted for the transportation sector.
…The Energy Department said the so-called bio-oil precursors could find …
by Dan Piller (Des Moines Register) Fuel for carriers, jets adds demand for biofuel source other than corn
A Missouri cooperative called (what else?) ShowMe Energy is building an $80 million, 3 million gallon facility that …
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 …
(Algae Industry Magazine) A team of scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory has published a paper in IOP Science’s Environmental Research Letters comparing the emissions performance of algal biofuels to petroleum fuels. In their qualified …
(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 …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Companies like KiOR, ZeaChem, Virent take aim at a tasty aviation biofuels market with new recipes and game-changing economics
…If you can produce in-spec, sustainable, low-carbon, renewable jet fuel at $3.32 …
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 …
(The Economist) …A report published last year by the American Physical Society (APS) put the cost of extracting and storing carbon dioxide using an air-capture system based on known technology at between $600 and $800 …
(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 …
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) A new study released today by the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) indicates that a low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states could result in doubling gasoline prices and other negative …
by Lynn Yarris (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Develop Dynamic System for Regulating Metabolic Pathways
Significant boosts in the microbial production of clean, green and renewable biodiesel fuel has been achieved with the …
(PhysOrg) Just as aspiring authors often read hundreds of books before starting their own, scientists are using decades of knowledge garnered from sequencing or “reading” the genetic codes of thousands of living things to now …
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) …KiOR did not recognize revenue during 2011, as its activities remained focused on construction of its first commercial facility in Columbus, Mississippi, research and development (R&D) designed to improve production …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Texas, the National Algae Association called on presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich to issue a retraction of statements he made at a campaign speech in Pennsylvania, branding the Speaker’s claim that …
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 …
(Algae Industry Magazine) This video from Sapphire Energy tracks the cultivation of algae from their San Diego lab in microscopic images, to petri dishes, to flasks, and then outside in their Las Cruces, NM facility …
(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 …
by Kelly Madsen (IowaStateDaily.com) The Iowa State University-led Cenusa Bioenergy project works to develop a biofuel with both a Midwestern and environmental focus.
Through a five-year, $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National …
The First Major Event that Brings Together the Auto, Oil and Biofuels Industries to Tackle the Challenges of the New CAFE and Tier 3 Standards
Hear the perspectives of key decision-makers who need to coordinate their …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Now, in Brazil, the generally accepted threshold point for ethanol and gasoline is around 70 percent – if the ethanol price is 70 percent, or less, of the gasoline price, …
(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, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In “Four Star Biofuels: How the Pentagon Is Outpacing Civilians in Gen2 Adoption” a special Raymond James look at the military and biofuels demand, Pavel Molchanov writes: “A key differentiator …
by Teresa Messmore (PhysOrg.com) The tiny, plant-like Heterosigma akashiwo is too small to see with the naked eye, but the microscopic algae may pack a big environmental punch. University of Delaware researchers are studying whether …
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 …
by Lynn Yarris (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) A class of chemical compounds best known today for fragrance and flavor may one day provide the clean, green and renewable fuel with which truck and auto drivers …
(HyperSolar) Company lays out specific milestones for reaching commercial viability of the world’s first nanotechnology-based, zero-carbon process for the production of renewable hydrogen and natural gas
HyperSolar, Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce …
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 John Maday (Drovers Cattle Network) A couple weeks ago, we ran an article titled “Feeding the biofuels beast,” which documented a University of Montana study suggesting current production methods and policy for biofuels are unsustainable. The …
by Paul Gottlieb (Peninsula Daily News) A state Department of Natural Resources study has concluded that 3 million tons of bone-dry wood slash and other wood waste — double the existing amount that’s extracted — …
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 …
(Cobalt Technologies/Sacramento Bee) Contract Issued to Albemarle to Process First Run of N-Butanol Into Jet Fuel
Today, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), China Lake announced a contract award to Albemarle Corporation, a leading specialty chemicals company, to complete its …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Yield unlocks value, and especially feedstock yield. What’s the latest? What feedstocks are reporting yields that could support 1000+ gallons per acre for terrestrial crops?
…Yield from the acre, yield from …
(ScienceAlert/Ecos Magazine) Cellulose in plant cell walls contains sugars used to manufacture biofuels. However, this cellulose also resists decomposition, making it difficult to extract the sugars for use. New research into how plants form cellulose …
(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 …
(Solazyme/BusinessWire) -Solazyme, Inc., a renewable oil and bioproducts company, announced today that the USS Ford, a U.S. Navy Frigate fleet ship, successfully journeyed from its homeport in Everett, WA to San Diego, CA using Soladiesel HRD-76®, …
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 Brian Jennings (American Coalition for Ethanol/Ethanol Producer Magazine) …First, with E15 market ready in many states, the U.S. EPA ought to ensure summer Reid vapor pressure (RVP) limitations do not stand in the …
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) …The arrival of the blend wall and expected increase in E85 prices due to the lapse of VEETC are two factors that have complicated the future outlook of ethanol …
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 …
