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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … If you invest $2 million, $10 million, and $30 million every other year in bringing a technology forward to the commercial threshold (and you’d be a miracle worker in …

by James daSilva (SmartBlog on Leadership)   I attended the 2012 Milken Institute Global Conference last week in Los Angeles, where a panel of company advisers and a Department of Energy official discussed financing and scale challenges facing …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Shell and Iogen cancel their long-contemplated Canadian cellulosic ethanol project, and announce 150 layoffs.
…In Canada, Shell and Iogen announced that they will not pursue the jointly owned 23 million gallon …

by Kris Bevill (Biorefining Magazine)   A report recently released by Boston-based advisory firm Lux Research Inc., titled “Mapping Empires, Goldmines, and Landmines in the Alternative Fuels Network,” examines the role of partnerships within the alternative …

by Joelle Dent (Biofuels Digest Asia)  …The new boss, acting in the in the person of Brazil, has already wrought what most would consider a miracle by bringing India and Pakistan to the peace table …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Guido Ghisolfi is a confident man. A chemical engineer by trade, at 55, he’s already spent three decades leading research and development (R&D) activities at Italy-based Mossi & Ghisolfi …

by Matthew L. Wald (The New York Times)  How will the world meet its rising demand for energy? Experience suggests the solutions might already be at hand, although it may be years before they are …

by Jim Camden  (The Spokesman-Review)  …Among legislation closely followed by Spokane businesses was an aviation biofuels plan that allows bonds from the state’s Housing Finance Commission to be sold to help build facilities to turn …

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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Biofuels Digest released an updated version of its Biofuels Venture Value Calculator, downloadable here.. The purpose of the calculator is to assist project developers to quickly compare their basic system economics …

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 …

(Télam. National News Agency of Argentina.)   Industry Minister Débora Giorgi met with Entre Ríos Production Minister, Roberto Schunk, who presented a US$ 40 million investment project from a local company that will open a factory …

by Stephan Nielsen (Bloomberg)   Usina de Acucar Santa Terezinha Ltda., a Brazilian ethanol producer, plans to invest 500 million reais ($283 million) in a mill and sugar-cane plantations as the country seeks to increase …

by Usman A. Bello (Daily Trust)  The Kogi State government has said its planned biodiesel refinery would be completed on schedule in Itobe area of the state.
Acting Governor of the state, Arc. Yomi Awoniyi said …

by Nadim Chaudhry  (Biofuels Digest/Greenpower Conferences)  1500 industry leaders expected to gather in Rotterdam as oil prices, aviation dominate thinking on growth, in 100-leader industry survey.
As we gear up for the 2012 World Biofuels Markets event …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …It’s called FCP. You can’t buy it in a dime bag, and you can’t synthesize it from municipal solid waste. It’s not angel-investor dust. It costs a world.
…Doesn’t matter, you …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In California, Virdia, formerly HCL CleanTech, a leading developer of cellulosic sugars, today announced major company milestones, including a new brand and CEO, its latest funding round, and a $75 …

by Felicity Carus (Aol Energy)  Now that almost all the gasoline in the United States is blended with up to 10% ethanol, producers are looking to export markets and refiners are looking at retooling strategies …

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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Can companies like Mascoma and Sud-Chemie, by transforming the economics of cellulosic ethanol, compete at parity with gasoline – no subsidies, no five-years-to-commercial-scale, no kidding?
Part II – “Chain-Chain-Chain, Chain of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, Ceres raised $65 million yesterday in its initial public offering of 5,000,000 shares of common stock, which priced at $13.00 per share after a day-to-day roller coaster in recent weeks, …

(Caelus Green Room)  After healthy growth over the past decade, the global biofuels industry is entering a new era marked by feedstock flexibility, product neutrality, and sustainability.  As a near-term solution, biofuels are a proven …

by David Shaffer   (Star Tribune)  A biofuels company opts for plants elsewhere after being helped by nearly $1 million in grant funding from Minnesota.
A biofuels company that benefited from nearly $1 million in grants …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …The changes at Codexis and delayed IPO at Ceres are indications that life in the public markets remains a rough one for early-stage industrial biotech companies. The changes at Codexis …

by Erin Voegele (Biorefining Magazine) …Of the nearly $2.34 billion requested for energy efficiency and renewable energy, a total of $270 million has been specifically requested to support biomass and biorefinery systems development. That is …

(Manchester Evening News)  A biotech business has developed and patented a process which it believes has the potential to fight the world’s energy and food crises. Protein Technologies, based at Manchester Science Parks, specialises in research …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  New reports from Bloomberg and the USDA focus on 2018 as a critical year for commercial-scale, affordable aviation fuels
In New York, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said that jatropha-based fuels were the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Part II of our series, we look today at Ceres, Myriant, PetroAlgae, BioAmber, Elevance, Genomatica, Enerkem, Mascoma, and Fulcrum Bioenergy.
In Part I, yesterday, we looked at the performance of …

by Marc Chase (NWITimes.com)   As time began to run out on Lake County’s trash-to-ethanol plan last week, so did the faith and confidence of solid waste district officials — both in the project and …

by Joseph Magdalena (Jornal de Angola)  Angola and Japan signed yesterday in Luanda, a protocol for the construction of factories for production and refining of sugar and ethanol in the city of Humbe in Cunene.
The …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest–scroll down)  Moving over to Coskata, the company recently revised its IPO documentation to reflect a settlement of its lawsuit with INEOS Bio, which reflected a trade secret dispute.
From the revised S-1: “On …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In this two-part series, we look at the IPO market for industrial biotech stocks. …
In Part I, today, we look at the performance of the six IPOs to date in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …While most of the United States was focused on the 2012 Super Bowl, the CSPAN television network snuck a revealing interview from Brian Lamb with Secretary of the Navy, former …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  BioProcess Algae LLC and Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. announced Feb. 1 that they have begun constructing a five acre algae production facility in southwest Iowa at the site …

by S. Heather Duncan (Macon Telegraph)  Although the company that purchased a defunct ethanol refinery in Soperton has some of the same financial backers as previous owners who lost the plant to foreclosure, leaders of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In Canada, Enerkem has filed an F-1 registration statement for a proposed $125 million initial public offering. The number of shares to be offered in the proposed offering and the …

by S. Heather Duncan (Macon.com)  The new owner of a shuttered ethanol plant in Soperton plans to eventually add hundreds of jobs there to produce ethanol and other chemicals, a company official said this week.
That …

by Bryan Sims (Biorefining Magazine)  Toronto-based CORE BioFuel Inc. has signed an exclusive agreement with Osprey Capital Partners Inc., Canada’s leading mid-market investment banking firm, to secure equity investment capital for financing the completion of …

(The Costa Rica News)  …Blame it on increased awareness of climate change or on the fact that humans have found this new appreciation for nature but biofuel production is the newest craze to hit Costa …

(Biofuels Center of North Carolina)  The mission of the Biofuels Company Accelerator is to provide a place, intelligence, and connections to grow businesses, ideas, and relationships that contribute to the development of a biofuels industry …

(Dominican University of California)  Dominican’s new Venture Greenhouse is accepting a third round of applications from early stage businesses that address environmental and social issues.
Inspired by Dominican University of California’s MBA in Sustainable Enterprise (the …

by Esteban Israel and Peter Murphy (Reuters Africa)  Brazilian builder Odebrecht plans to produce sugar in Cuba, the company said on Monday, as looser restrictions on foreign investment in the communist island raise hopes of a recovery in the once-booming …

(Novozymes)  A new research collaboration between Novozymes and Sea6 Energy will explore enzymatic technology to produce fuel ethanol, fine chemicals, and protein from seaweed.
Novozymes, the world leader in bioinnovation, announced an exploratory research agreement with …

(Cyprus Mail)  A consortium comprising 12 organisations from Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Lebanon and Egypt has been established to study the production of biodiesel from algae in selected Mediterranean countries.
The consortium is coordinated by the …

by Robert Bailey (Biorefinery Magazine/Trusted Advisory)  …As in any bold challenge to old thinking, the biofuels industry is running into resistance to funding. The Valley of Death is where concepts lie in finance limbo between proven …

by Luke Geiver (Biorefining Magazine)  Experts say it’s counterproductive, but biorefining firms continue on with government
The government is a tricky organization to work with. At least that’s what Pamela Serino, director for the quality and …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …Can a Nebraska company process wet distillers grains into a biobased resin to replace conventional petroleum-based resins? Laurel BioComposite LLC says yes.
…The pilot plant started up the end of …

by Nomthandazo Nkambule  (The Swazi Observer)  A South African based company will invest about E3 billion in an ethanol project to be established along the Siphofaneni/Lavumisa corridor
Minister of Agriculture Clement Dlamini said the company, FuelEthanol and Agricultural Plantation, completed …

By Douglas L. Faulkner (Biofuels Digest)  What should be the priorities for federal government support for bioenergy, in an era of fiscal austerity and a broken consensus on energy policy?
My goal is develop interactively with …