by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Research from ORNL reveals new details of bioenergy’s most daunting technical barrier
…Lignin, for those newer to the biofuels world, is a complex chemical compound that makes veggies, plants and wood …

(PR NewsWire/The Street)  EdeniQ, Inc., a California-based clean technology company serving the global biofuels industry, announced today that it has licensed yeast technology from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation …

(University of Massachusetts Amherst) Detecting the genetic mechanism for how certain strains of the energy crop model systemBrachypodium can produce more ethanol than others is the aim of a new five-year, $750,000 Early Career Research …

(R&D Magazine)   Scientists recently conducted the first pilot-scale test of algae growth using water from an oil-production well in Jal, New Mexico. This impure water, called “produced water,” is pumped to the …

by Anita Lienert   (InsideLine)  Just the Facts:

Chrysler and the U.S. Department of Energy are at work on a radical experimental engine with multi-fuel technology that can burn gasoline, E85 and diesel.
The 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder multi-fuel …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Private financial support for technology acceleration continues to be important, and certain technologies are becoming clear favorites for investors, according to a recent Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis of …

(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 …

(Daily Markets/PRNewsWire)  Darling International Inc. today (May 31, 2011) announced that Diamond Green Diesel LLC, its previously announced joint venture project with Valero Energy Corporation, has secured financing for the planned construction of its renewable …

by Brian Sims (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  State, county and city dignitaries were on hand to witness the official groundbreaking last week of EdeniQ Inc.’s Corn-to-Cellulosic Migration pilot plant at EdeniQ’s headquarters in Visalia, Calif.
EdeniQ had …

(US Department of Energy)  As part of the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy announced by President Obama and Prime Minister Singh of India last November, the Department of Energy has committed $25 million over the …

(EurekAlert!)  Key to new possibilities for renewable bioproducts
The key to the survival of forestry in South Africa as well as many new possibilities for renewable bioproducts like biofuels and biopolymers may now be available with …

(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 …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Joyce Yang, Technology Development Manager for the Department of Energy’s Biomass Program in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, has revealed recent progress made in algal harvesting technology by the …

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)  In Washington, the DOE’s Energy Blog identified the Diamond Green renewable diesel project as “a biodiesel refinery that will triple America’s domestic biodiesel production.”
US biodiesel capacity, which is at 2.2 billion …

by Jonathan Silver (US Department of Energy)  …One of the three types of loans or loan guarantees offered by our office – Section 1705 loan guarantees from the Recovery Act – will expire by statute …

by Melissa O’Neil Perdue (Washington State University)  An innovative idea for making advanced biofuels such as jet fuel, diesel and gasoline from regional resources is moving forward with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy …

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 Lynn Yarris  (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)   Advanced biofuels – liquid transportation fuels derived from the cellulosic biomass of perennial grasses and other non-food plants, as well as from agricultural waste – are highly …

(RedOrbit)  It’s not quite Christmas, but the DNA sequence of a small plant that resembles the seasonal conifers is providing biofuels researchers with information that could influence the development of candidate biofuel feedstock plants and …

by Robin Bravender  (Politico)  Senate Republicans are pushing a plan to morph the Energy Department and the EPA into one giant agency.
A bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C) would combine the DOE and the …

(Algae Industry Magazine/US Department of Energy) The U.S. Department of Energy’s Biomass Program is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, May 17, 2011, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT, entitled “Sustainability for the Global Biofuels …

by Mary Meehan (Lexington Herald-Leader)  The University of Kentucky has received a $6.9 million federal grant to help reduce America’s reliance on imported oil, one of eight awards in the country.
“It’s going to be big,” …

(The University of Kansas)  …A University of Kansas-led research team has received a $5.6 million grant to develop clean technologies to convert biomass into chemicals that could ultimately replace the petroleum-based chemicals currently used in …

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 Mark Rosenzweig  (Sustainable Planet) …However, moving promising biofuels technology from the lab to demonstration scale often poses a significant financial as well as technical hurdle.
Now, though, developers can take advantage of an expanded government …

by Casey Aylward  (The Dartmouth)  …  (United States Secretary of Energy Steven) Chu said he is optimistic that the United States can lead the rest of the world in clean energy invention and production by establishing …

by Ben Geman (The Hill/E2Wire)  Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is planning a committee vote before Memorial Day on legislation that would create a federal “Clean Energy Deployment Administration” to …

(Cellana)  Company Is Leveraging Technology Investments to Date of Over $100 Million; Company Is Focused on Government Programs and New Corporate Partnerships; Plan for Maui Commercial Algae Facility on Track for 2014
Cellana LLC is positioned …

by Katherine Yung (Detroit Free Press) …Together, these deals represent $1.2 billion in new investment in the state and more than 3,800 new jobs. If successful, they would significantly boost the state’s efforts to grow …

by Bryan Sims (Biorefining Magazine)  A team of researchers at State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry are experimenting with different strains of microorganisms to efficiently ferment sugars, extracted from …

(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/PBS)  Can emerging technology defeat global warming? The United States has invested tens of billions of dollars in clean energy projects as our leaders try to save our crumbling economy and our …

(EurekAlert!)  An alliance of top researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has formed the UC Berkeley Synthetic Biology Institute (SBI), advancing efforts to engineer cells and biological systems in ways that promise to transform …

by Rebecca Baillie  (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)  With the price of fuel hitting $1.50 a litre, there’s a growing push to develop renewable alternatives. Scientists in Australia are part of the global race to develop new …

by Abby Schultz  (CNBC.com)  …“There’s a significant amount of capital required for algal oil producers to scale up to commercial meaningful quantities,” says Jim Rekoske, general manager at Honeywell’s UOP division, which provides technologies to the …

(US Department of Energy)  ARPA-E’s 4th round of funding focuses on rare earth alternatives and breakthroughs in biofuels, thermal storage, grid controls, and solar power electronics
U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that …

(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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Paul Bryan, program manager of the DOE’s Office of Biomass, said at the Advanced Biofuesl Leadership Conference that the DOE is shifting gears from focusing solely on replacing the gasoline …

(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 Matt Hourihan (Innovation Policy Blog) One of the big gaps in federal energy innovation policy has been the lack of overarching vision or strategy to define how to get where we need to go. …

by Maynard Herron and Bob Matousek   (Kansas Alliance for Biorefining and Bioenergy)     AGCO (Hesston, KS) received an award for biomass feedstock supply demonstration as a partial match of a $5 million renewable …

(U.S. Energy Information Administration)  Despite an economic recession and a significant fall in overall energy demand/consumption, the use of renewable fuels grew strongly in 2009. This growth has been supported by Federal and State programs, …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  In 2008, America imported 11 million barrels of oil a day. On Wednesday, the President announced a bold goal of cutting that amount by one-third by 2025. To achieve this goal …

(KQED/Quest/Planet Forward)  For years there’s been buzz — both positive and negative — about generating ethanol fuel from corn. The Bay Area is rapidly becoming a world center for the next generation of green fuel …

The conference will focus on topics that provide a context for energy policy decisions and a forum to discuss both near-term and long-term energy challenges.
This year’s keynote speakers may be of particular interest to you …

(SustainableBusiness.com)  …The public-private partnership aims to assist large companies in reducing diesel and gasoline use in their fleets by incorporating electric vehicles, alternative fuels, and fuel-saving measures into their daily operations.
AT&T (NYSE: T), FedEx (NYSE: …

(US Department of Energy)  To support the goal announced by President Obama today to reduce America’s oil imports by one-third by 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it will be accepting applications for …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   During a U.S. Senate committee hearing on March 30, Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said that focusing on advanced biofuels for homegrown energy is in the best interest of the …

(University of California, Riverside)  Research by UC Riverside’s Charles Wyman could lead to less expensive production of biofuels
New clues about plant structure are helping researchers from the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center narrow down a …

by Jim Lane  (Biofuels Digest)    In Washington, 34 cleantech CEOs, are trying to make sure the DOE doesn’t drop its loan guarantee program despite threats of budget cuts from Congress. Signatories to the letter …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  A multitude of leading energy trade associations today wrote to Congressional leaders with a request for Congress to maintain support and funding for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) including the Loan …

by Eartha Jane Melzer  (The Michigan Messenger)  Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Crystal Falls) campaigned on cutting federal spending. Now some of his constituents are asking him to keep the U.S. Dept. of Energy from spending $58 …

by Bryan Sims (Biorefining Magazine)  The U.S. DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and industrial processing firm Nalco Co. struck a licensing agreement for a novel electrodeionization technology that can be integrated into biorefineries to convert biomass …

by Kay Rossi    (KXLH.com)  …Five years ago, Montana State University-Northern received $800,000 in grant funding for infrastructure and staffing for a new biofuel lab at the MSU-N Bio-Energy Center
Now the nationally-certified facility performs a …

(Logos Technologies)  DOE commits full $20.5 million to retrofit and build pilot plant in Visalia, CA
Logos Technologies®, Inc. and EdeniQ, Inc., announced U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approval to fully fund $20.5 million in federal …

(PhysOrg.com)  Deep inside the University of Connecticut’s chemical engineering building in Storrs, Professor Richard Parnas and a team of students quietly monitor a murky brown emulsion bubbling inside an enormous 6-inch diameter glass tube like …

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)  DOE’s Biomass Program Lead Engineer warns that, when it comes to biofuels, “it’s the economy, stupid”.
In Georgia, DOE Biomass Program Lead Engineer Brian Duff, keynoting the BioPro Expo in …

(SG Biofuels)  SG Biofuels and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) today released results of a study revealing the performance and emissions benefits of using Jatropha oil as a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel in industrial furnaces …

by Vinod Khosla (GreenTechMedia)  Mr. Khosla comes out swinging at the Wall Street Journal’s take on Range Fuels and biofuels.
…Regarding certain “facts” in the editorial, “The Range Fuels Fiasco” (Review & Outlook, Feb. 10):
The WSJ …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Essentially, despite rising banking sector profits and good results from stress tests, the bank financing market has not returned for biofuels – the financing source for whom the USDA loan …

(KiOR)  Project would produce drop-in fuels from wood biomass at four facilities across three states
KiOR, Inc., announced today that it has received a term sheet for a loan guarantee supporting an over $1 billion biofuels project …

(US Department of Energy)  Energy Innovation Portal now has more than 300 business-friendly marketing summaries available to help investors and companies identify and license leading-edge energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. The Portal is an …

(Georgia Southern University)  Georgia Southern University researchers have been awarded a $250,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Energy that will allow them to study the emissions of alternative fuels designed to replace fossil fuels.
The …

(SRI)  DOE-funded project will develop enhanced tools to accelerate bioenergy research
SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, announced today it has been awarded a grant by the Department of Energy (DOE) to expand …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …Researchers at the U.S. DOE’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, based at the University of Wisconsin and Michigan State University, are three years into a research project focused on identifying …

by Ginny Simmons (Energy.gov)  During the event, Secretary Chu highlighted several parts of the President Obama’s clean energy and innovation agenda:
•    Ending taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuels so we can increase our investments in clean …

by Jonathan Silver (DOE/Biofuels Digest)  …After a year of unprecedented growth, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) has emerged as one of the largest and most productive project finance organizations in the …

by Liz Moore (Project Officer, Biomass Program, Golden Field Office, U.S. Department of Energy) Moore begins with a breakdown of the cost structure describing the manufacturing process of ethanol from feedstock.  She shows how each …

(US Department of Energy)  …As part of the Department of Energy’s comprehensive strategy to support the production of advanced biofuels, Secretary Chu also announced the launch of a new online collaboration tool and data resource …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …(S)team reformation, a process by which gasified biomass is converted into a useful balance of hydrogen and carbon monoxide … itself has struggled with high costs associated with the high temperatures …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today(December 16, 2010) the Department is accepting applications for up to $184 million over three to five years to accelerate the development and deployment of new …

(Green Car Congress)  The US Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking input from industry, academia, and other biofuels stakeholders regarding supply systems and services for the production, handling, storage, transport and delivery of algae via a …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced the Department is now accepting applications for up to $30 million in total funding for small-scale process integration projects that support the development of …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today joined seven other U.S. Government agencies in launching the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Export Initiative, a coordinated effort to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Honolulu, much of the leadership of the advanced biofuels and renewables chemicals industries have gathered this week at BIO’s Pacific Rim Summit.  …(W)hat are the key trends? Here are …

(Fulcrum BioEnergy)  Fulcrum Receives Detailed Term Sheet Proposal from DOE
Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc. announced November 16, 2010, that the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) has selected Fulcrum’s Sierra BioFuels Plant to enter the final phase of DOE’s …

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Faith and Belief.  Most impressive about the 2010 Cellulosic Biofuels Finance & Investment Forum, as compared to the 2009 event, was the whiff of positive belief that somehow, some  …

by Dr. Christopher Wright (Research Engineer, Idaho National Laboratory)  Dr. Wright’s presentation describes his current project on the creation of a mobile unit to preprocess bales of cellulosic feedstock into a form that can be utilized by …

by Dr. J. Richard Hess (Biomass Program Technology Manager, Idaho National Laboratory)  Dr. Hess details the biomass attributes that impact the nature of and cost of feedstock preparation, biochemical conversion, and thermochemcal conversion, along with general …

(Yahoo! Finance/PR Newswire) U.S. Rep. Connie Mack and Lee County Commissioners Tammy Hall and Ray Judah join in celebrating new advanced research labs and integrated biorefinery that will diversify local economy and create clean energy jobs
Algenol …

(US Department of Energy)  BioEnergy Atlas, a Web portal that provides access to two bioenergy analysis and mapping tools, was released September 28, 2010, by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The visualization …

(AgriMarketing/Purdue)  Purdue University is receiving $1.59 million in federal funding for a project to conduct a sustainability assessment of energy crops for biofuels.
The funding is part of a $16.5 million renewable fuel initiative by the …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Renewable Algal Energy, LLC of Kingsport, Tennessee, has announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded them $3,000,000 to develop “Algal Biodiesel via Innovative Harvesting and Aquaculture Systems.”   READ MORE  and …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Solution Recovery Services, of Dexter Michigan, an employee owned industry leader in oil separation and purification systems has partnered with Touchstone Research Laboratory, a privately owned U.S. company with principal operations in Triadelphia, …

(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 …

(US Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the members of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB). Eliminated during the last administration, SEAB is being reestablished under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. …

(US Department of Energy)  Secretary Steven Chu announced today that the Department of Energy is extending the application deadline for the July 2009 energy efficiency, renewable energy and advanced transmission and distribution technologies solicitation. The Round …

At a White House Forum on Energy Security July 27, 2010, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of …

(US Department of Energy)  California Institute of Technology to lead team in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and other California institutions
As part of a broad effort to achieve breakthrough innovations in energy production, U.S. …

(Renewable Fuels Association)  …“Access to capital is a chief hindrance to the commercial deployment of cellulosic ethanol technology,” said RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen. “DOE has created a loan guarantee program that in theory …

(US Government Accountability Office)  Since the Department of Energy’s (DOE) loan guarantee program (LGP) for innovative energy projects was established in Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, its scope has expanded both in …

by Dan Burciaga (President & CEO, TRI)  Burciaga discusses TRI’s proprietary steam reforming gasification system, and its applicability to the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and renewable power. TRI’s biorefineries are feedstock-flexible, controlled to maximize thermal efficiency, …

by Dr. Eric Toone (Program Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, U.S. Department of Energy)  Dr. Toone described the role and mission of ARPA-E, the process related to ARPA-E’s first Financial Opportunity Announcement (FOA1), project selection and awards at …

(US Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today the launch of the Technology Commercialization Portal—an online resource that will serve as a tool for potential investors to identify opportunities to invest in …

(ETCGreen.com)  Vehicle owners now understand the ever dwindling supply and higher expense and risks of extracting petroleum will continue to increase the price at the pumps.
For over 100 years we have enjoyed this cheap energy …

(US Department of Energy)  Despite algae’s potential, many technical and economic challenges must be overcome for algal biofuels to be commercialized.
To identify these hurdles and guide research and development activities, DOE convened the National Algal Biofuels …

(US Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) June 2, 2010, announced $5 million in funding for research focused on sustainable production of large quantities of non-food biomass for bioenergy. The intent of this Funding Opportunity …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A team from the investment bank Stern Brothers, the law firms Mintz Levin and Kreig DeVault have developed a bond-oriented approach that has received favorable initial reaction from the USDA, and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …The invite-only meeting, which attracted more than 100 attendees, was structured around two panels, one focused primarily on policy and led by USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber and featuring biofuels …