donate now
Truly Sustainable Renewable Future
April 17, 2012 – 10:42 am | No Comment

Advanced Biofuels are high-energy liquid transportation fuels derived from: low nutrient input/high per acre yield crops; agricultural or forestry waste; or other sustainable biomass feedstocks including algae.  The key word is “sustainable.”
A technical definition that …

Read the full story »
Business News/Analysis

Federal Legislation

Political news and views from Capitol Hill.

More Coming Events

Conferences and Events List in Addition to Coming Events Carousel (above)

Original Writing, Opinions Advanced Biofuels USA

Sustainability

Home » Archive by Category

Articles in Sustainability

Navy to Demonstrate Great Green Fleet This Summer
May 21, 2012 – 7:35 pm | No Comment

(CNN)  The U.S. Navy for the first time will demonstrate what it calls a Great Green Fleet, a carrier strike group operating in large part on nonfossil fuels, during a larger, 22-nation exercise this summer.
The …

Enough Corn? USDA Says “Abundantly so”, Forecasting Record 2012 Harvest
May 21, 2012 – 7:07 pm | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …The first World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates for 2012, from the US Department of Agriculture, give us an opportunity to review that debate.
Let’s go back 10 years ago, before the …

Model Forecasts Long-Term Impacts of Forest Land-Use Decisions
May 21, 2012 – 6:59 pm | No Comment

(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 …

Colombia’s Biofuels Ready for International Market: Study
May 21, 2012 – 6:53 pm | No Comment

by Rosemary Westwood (Columbia Reports)  Colombia’s biofuels exceed international standards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions – advancing the country’s goal to become a leading ethanol producer, according to a new government report.
The study commissioned by the …

“Biofuels Fuelling Europe’s Economic Recovery”, Echoes ePURE
May 21, 2012 – 3:48 pm | No Comment

(Renewable Energy Magazine)  The European renewable ethanol industry is contributing substantially to the European economy according to ePURE, the European Renewable Ethanol Association, in response to a new report published today.
The report “Contribution of Biofuels to …

Parabel, Inc. and CECEP – Chongqing Industry Co., Ltd. Sign Master Framework Agreement
May 21, 2012 – 3:42 pm | No Comment

(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 …

Contribution of Biofuels to the Global Economy
May 21, 2012 – 1:36 pm | No Comment

(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 …

ThermoEnergy’s Sugar Recovery System Meets Key Environmental Demands
May 21, 2012 – 1:10 pm | No Comment

(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 …

Editorial: Use of Advanced Biofuels Achieves Goal of Using Less Oil for Transportation Fuel
May 21, 2012 – 12:51 pm | No Comment

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA)  In a recent editorial, What Keystone Won’t Do, the Washington Post mused about “the best way to insulate Americans from oil-price volatility and other drawbacks of oil use,” concluding …

Massachusetts Sets Strict Regulations for Biomass: Will This Influence Further Restrictions?
May 9, 2012 – 11:45 am | No Comment

by Meg Cichon (Renewable Energy World)  The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources released a new set of strict standards for biomass in early May that have the potential to cut subsidies for developing plants. According …

Biofuel Demand Fell in 2011,Outlook Bright – Czarnikow
May 7, 2012 – 2:00 pm | No Comment

by David Brough (Reuters)  Global biofuel demand fell in 2011 due to the impact of government requirements and greater incentives in food markets, but usage is set to grow driven by new technologies, commodities house Czarnikow said …

Better Plants for Biofuels
May 4, 2012 – 2:07 pm | No Comment

(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, …

Ceres Sweet Sorghum Hybrids Processed by Amyris
May 4, 2012 – 12:33 pm | No Comment

(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 …

Measuring the energy and greenhouse gas balances of biofuels and bio-based chemicals using LCA, NNFCC 12-023
May 3, 2012 – 11:43 am | No Comment

(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 …

National Farmers Union Attacks Government Biofuel Policy
May 3, 2012 – 11:24 am | No Comment

(FarmingUK.com)  Latest government figures reveal that the vast majority of biofuels supplied in the UK are made from imported feedstock, with almost nine out of every 10 litres of foreign origin.
The NFU have said that …

Sustainable Production of Food and Fuel for the 21st Century (FF21) May 11-13, 2012 LaJolla, CA
May 2, 2012 – 4:20 pm | No Comment
Sustainable Production of Food and Fuel for the 21st Century (FF21)  May 11-13, 2012   LaJolla, CA

The symposium “Sustainable Production of Food and Fuel for the 21st Century (FF21)” will be held May 11th, 12th, and 13th at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. This symposium will focus on the potential …

Fifth Stop: Sustainability
April 30, 2012 – 5:34 pm | No Comment

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 …

EU Biofuels’ Indirect Carbon Emissions Debate To Move Forward
April 30, 2012 – 5:32 pm | No Comment

(Wall Street Journal/Governors Biofuels Coalition)  Top European Union policy makers will next week be faced with one of Europe’s most controversial climate policies, as they consider whether biofuels do more harm than good when it …

Sustainable Biofuels? From Agro-Fueled Land Conflicts to Algae
April 30, 2012 – 5:30 pm | No Comment

by Jack Eidt (WilderUtopia)  Fossil Fuel Alternatives: Our Way Out of the Heat and Smog
…Institutionally-Supported Industrial Monocrop Supercedes Peasant Agriculture. The search for alternatives to fossil fuels has created a land boom in Latin American-African- and …

Green Cars Take Top Prize in U.S. Racing Series
April 30, 2012 – 5:22 pm | No Comment

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 …

Novozymes Joins, Invests in Maabjerg Energy Concept, a New Industrial Energy System
April 26, 2012 – 11:39 am | No Comment

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 …

EU Report Questions Conventional Biofuels’ Sustainability
April 25, 2012 – 1:41 pm | No Comment

(EurActiv)  Conventional biofuels like biodiesel increase carbon dioxide emissions and are too expensive to consider as a long-term alternative fuel, a draft EU report says.

The study ‘EU Transport GHG [greenhouse gases]: Routes to 2050’ estimates that …

Forecast Calls for Climate-Smart Business (Part 2): Paul Douglas
April 25, 2012 – 1:28 pm | No Comment

by Paul Douglas (Bloomberg Business Week)  When will American business wake up to the scientific reality of climate change?
When the common-sense moderate middle wakes up. When pragmatic entrepreneurs and investors realize an intransigent, inflexible and, …

Biofuels and City Air: A Marginal Effect
April 25, 2012 – 12:25 pm | No Comment

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 …

UK Climate Advisers Recommend International Aviation Emissions Be Included in National Carbon Budgets
April 23, 2012 – 12:37 pm | No Comment

(GreenAir Online)  The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which advises the UK government on national carbon targets, has recommended international aviation and shipping emissions be included in carbon budgets and the UK’s 2050 overall target …

Biofuels Lobbying Could Pay off This Harvest
April 20, 2012 – 1:03 pm | No Comment

(NFU Online)  The updated Red Tractor farm assurance scheme for crops and sugar beet is on the verge of being officially accepted across the EU in time for this year’s harvest, the NFU said today.
The move is …

Journal Article Explores Hybridized Life Cycle Analysis Method
April 18, 2012 – 3:24 pm | No Comment

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 …

EU Requires Sustainable Biofuels: How U.S. Ethanol Producers Can Become Certified
April 16, 2012 – 6:59 pm | No Comment

by Antje Grzesik (Ethanol Producer Magazine/ISCC System GmbH)  …The EU Renewable Energy Directive (Directive 2009/28/EC) establishes a common framework for the promotion of energy from renewable sources in the European Union. In the area of biofuels …

Brazil’s Biofuel Boom: Mark McHugh
April 16, 2012 – 3:48 pm | No Comment

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 …

Que SARA, Será (Whatever Is Sustainable, Will Be): Sorghum, Water and Biofuels
April 13, 2012 – 12:40 pm | No Comment

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 …

Growing Risk: Addressing the Invasive Potential of Bioenergy Feedstocks
April 12, 2012 – 2:00 pm | No Comment

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 …

High Octane Number Ethanol–Gasoline Blends: Quantifying the Potential Benefits in the United States
April 11, 2012 – 11:58 am | No Comment

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 …

Land Matters: Sizing Up the Bioenergy Potential of Marginal Lands
April 11, 2012 – 10:14 am | No Comment

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 …

USDA Explores Feasibility of Alternative Energy Production at Airports
April 10, 2012 – 8:00 pm | No Comment

(US Department of Agriculture)  A recent study conducted by researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) highlights the potential for alternative energy production at airports. The study …

Mapping Grasslands for Biofuel Potential
April 10, 2012 – 7:25 pm | No Comment

(U.S. Geological Survey)  USGS scientists have developed a new method for mapping grasslands that demonstrate high potential for growing biofuel crops with relatively little energy input and environmental impact.
The pioneering investigation used remote sensing data …

Tom Murphy Interview: Resource Depletion is a Bigger Threat than Climate Change
March 29, 2012 – 1:45 pm | No Comment

by James Stafford (OilPrice.com)  Rising geopolitical tensions and high oil prices are continuing to help renewable energy find favour amongst investors and politicians. Yet how much faith should we place in renewables to make up …

Malaysia, Indonesia Refute EPA Report on Palm Oil-Based Biofuels
March 29, 2012 – 11:34 am | No Comment

(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 …

The Victory Plant
March 29, 2012 – 10:34 am | No Comment

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Last July, the Digest launched a project called “Victory Plants” and set about recruiting a Biofuels Council of Advisors on Science, Technology and Economics to define a threshold standard for advanced manufacturing …

DuPont Lands Award for Feedstock Innovation
March 28, 2012 – 4:41 pm | No Comment

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 …

ADM Funds Distillers Grains Research in China
March 28, 2012 – 3:44 pm | No Comment

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 …

Algal Diesel Outperforms Petrodiesel 2-1 in New Study
March 28, 2012 – 3:26 pm | No Comment

(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 …

Government Drags Feet on Biofuel Project
March 28, 2012 – 2:55 pm | No Comment

(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 …

The Distributed/Centralized BioProduction Approach: Sustainable Biofuels and Bioproducts Are Possible Through the Significant Reduction of Biomass Transportation Costs
March 27, 2012 – 4:53 pm | No Comment

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 …

ADM Introduces Sustainable Grower Program for Canadian Canola
March 27, 2012 – 3:31 pm | No Comment

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 …

EU to Recognize Ensus as Biofuel Certification in ‘Matter of Weeks’: Source
March 27, 2012 – 2:41 pm | No Comment

(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 …

Trieste Conference Considers Algae in Developing Economies
March 27, 2012 – 12:03 pm | No Comment

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 …

Cenusa Bioenergy Receives $25 Million Grant from USDA
March 26, 2012 – 5:43 pm | No Comment

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 …

Sustainability Focus at World Biofuels Markets Conference in Rotterdam
March 26, 2012 – 1:55 pm | One Comment

by Stefaniya Becking  (Advanced Biofuels USA)  The World Biofuels Markets conference that took place on March 13-15, 2012 in Rotterdam provided an excellent environment for attendees to network with decision-makers from 80 countries and learn …

Volkswagen Partners with Amyris and Solazyme to Promote Automotive Use of Renewable Fuels
March 23, 2012 – 8:36 pm | No Comment

(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, …

The Olive Economy
March 23, 2012 – 7:21 pm | No Comment

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 …