(Mettler – Toledo Int. Inc/Environmental Expert)   The main obstacle in biodiesel production from waste fats and oils is their high free fatty acid content. Its precise measurement helps Professor Karel Kolomaznik’s Faculty of Applied Informatics team at …

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 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 …

(CORE BioFuel, Inc.)  CORE BioFuel Inc., a Canadian company focused on energy security for the North American and European markets, announced today that it has successfully tested the last step in its wood-to-gasoline process to …

(EurekAlert!)  Researchers potentially find a renewable path to fuel additives, rubber and solvents
Researchers in the Pacific Northwest have developed a new catalyst material that could replace chemicals currently derived from petroleum and be the basis …

by Bryan Sims (Biorefining Magazine)  A novel waste conversion technology developed at Mississippi State University’s Sustainable Energy Research Center is moving out of the lab and into the marketplace thanks to a licensing agreement between …

(US Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Biomass Program will be conducting detailed biennial peer review meetings of its activities throughout the first half …

(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 …

(National Advanced Biofuels Consortium)  This 55-slide presentation from a National Advanced Biofuels Consortium Webinar describes the organization and work of the consortium using many valuable charts, graphs and illustrations, including those that depict existing infrastructure.
One …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …How’s an investor to parse out all these technologies. For many, it’s a case of “you’re making what, from what, using what?”
…Here at the Digest, we think of it as …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …Amongst the various projects that received support under the 2009 Recovery Act were an algal R&D consortium called the NAABB, and a drop-in biofuels R&D consortium called the NABC, of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Is there enough energy, food, fiber and feed for all? Advances in industrial fermentation – a/k/a an incredulous “you’re making what? from what? using what? – will be the key to answering that …

(Virginia Tech/EurekAlert)  Conversion of biomass to fuel requires several steps: chemical pretreatment to break up the biomass – often dilute (sulfuric) acid, detoxification to remove the toxic chemicals required in pretreatment, and microbial fermentation to …

(GlobeNewsWire)  American Jianye Greentech Holdings, Ltd. , a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor of alcohol-based automobile fuel and civil-use fuel in China, today announced that AJGH has received approval to undertake a new project in alcohol-based …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As the pulp and paper industry reels from the internet’s impact, biofuels and renewable chemicals are offering value-adds, waste remediation, and new markets
In Florida, the affable Rod Young, perhaps the …

(Green Car Congress)  A team from the Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences reports on a pilot-scale biomass-gasification-reforming system with optimized catalyst to produce …

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.  …

(Wayne State University)  NextCAT Inc., a Detroit-based company, announced that it has received $250,000 in seed funding from Automation Alley in Troy, Mich. NextCAT is commercializing biodiesel catalyst technology developed at the National Biofuels Energy …

by Dr. Maureen McCann (Professor, Purdue University) Dr. McCann begins by describing the different plant cell wall architectures belonging to various types of feedstock.  She shows how different processing methods can be utilized to more …

by David Hoyt (Senior Research Scientist, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) Hoyt first provides an overview of EMSL and their mission to integrate experimental and computational resources with innovative technologies to support …

by Sahil Luthra  (The Brown Daily Herald)  Two Brown chemists have developed a more efficient way to produce biodiesel from waste vegetable oil.  
Using two catalysts common in organic chemistry, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jason Sello …

(US Department of Energy)  U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced September 8, 2010, the investment of up to $16.5 million for two major research and development (R&D) initiatives that will support the expansion of renewable transportation …

by Dion Vlachos (Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor, University of Delaware / Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC)) Vlachos’ research focuses on the development of heterogeneous catalysts to facilitate the thermochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels. The …

by Dr. Thomas D. Foust (Executive Director of the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium, National Renewable Energy Laboratory)  The DOE created the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC) to help develop cost-effective technologies to develop advanced “drop-in” biofuels …

by Terry Marker (Bioenergy Initiatives Manager, Gas Technology Institute)  Fuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass have the potential to fill a significant portion of the demand for transportation fuels, but simple pyrolysis of biomass requires expensive conversion …

by Travis Herrmann  (TheAuburn Plainsman)  Auburn University researchers have patented a new process for producing ethanol from paper (m)ill waste materials through biological conversion.
With research funded by the Masada Resource group, the new conversion process …

by Katie Fehrenbacher  (Earth2Tech)   Wow, for a biofuel startup few have heard of, KiOR has raised a whole lot of money. According to an amended filing, KiOR, has now raised a whopping $110 million from …

(University of Massachusetts Amherst)  A new method of converting biomass feedstock into sustainable fuel developed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Minnesota has the potential to have a profound effect …

by Jane Meinhardt (Tampa Bay Business Journal)   A startup formed when University of South Florida researchers created a patent-pending catalytic process that transformed sawdust into jet fuel is taking off.
COSI Catalysts Inc. received honorable mention …

NextCAT Inc., a Detroit-based company, announced March 31, 2010, that it signed an option agreement for a biodiesel technology developed at the National Biofuels Energy Lab at Wayne State University.  The technology that NextCAT brings to market …

Call it a “shrimp cocktail” for your fuel tank. Scientists in China are reporting development of a catalyst made from shrimp shells that could transform production of biodiesel fuel into a faster, less expensive, and …

by George W. Huber and Bruce E. Dale (Scientific American)  Scientists are turning agricultural leftovers, wood and fast growing grasses into a huge variety of biofuels–even jet fuel.  But before these next generation biofuels go …