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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Two titans form a monster JV, starting out with a $250M investment.
…In Iowa, Poet has teamed with Dutch-based Royal DSM to create a 50/50 joint venture called Poet-DSM Advanced Biofuels that will …

by Jason Bacaj  (Bozeman Daily Chronicle)  …(Mark) Kozubal found the fungus could survive in an acidic habitat with a pH of 6, an acidity level similar to cow’s milk. What was really amazing, though, was …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In India, LanzaTech is working with Indian Oil and Jindal Power and Steel Limited on a facility to convert industrial waste gases into ethanol. It also has partnered with Concord …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The ethanol industry’s understanding of hedging has evolved over the years, making it a vital puzzle piece in profitable operation
…One common hedging practice is for ethanol producers to also …

by David Louie (ABC Local)   Solazyme, a company that focuses on biofuels, recently made an interesting cosmetics discovery.
Algae is turning out to be a very versatile product. Solazyme can turn it into jet fuel. And …

by Jonathan Williams (Biofuels Digest)  Who’s in front in the development of algal-based fuels and biomaterials? India, China, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Israel, the EU, or the US. The NAABB’s globe-trotting chief parses it out.
In New …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …First commercial projects from newly-minted public companies Solazyme, Gevo and KiOR. Two trash-to-biofuels projects from INEOS Bio and Enerkem, located in Florida and Alberta. Europe’s largest biosuccinic acid project, scheduled …

by Marc Chase (Northwest Indiana)  The former Lake County sheriff is seeking answers regarding the absent financing for a proposed south county trash-to-ethanol plant.
And the chief political champion of the plan, Lake County Commissioner Gerry …

by Mark Steil (Minnesota Public Radio)  A couple of key federal subsidies for the renewable fuel industry are about to end, cutting billions of dollars tax credits for the ethanol and biodiesel industries.
Congress could renew …

by Rakesh Radhakrishnan (Navigant Consulting/Renewable Energy World)  …The current technology maturity-level for several advanced biofuels concepts is too low and therefore poses a significant investment risk. There is a potential for large changes in fuel …

by Brent Erickson (Biofuels Digest/BIO)  …To be clear, the bioeconomy is the total economic activity from all sectors of the biotechnology industry – pharmaceuticals, food and agriculture and industrial biotechnology. With biotechnology we can help, …

(Renmatix)  BASF is participating with $30 million through BASF Biorenewable Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG in the American technology firm Renmatix Inc. The BASF subsidiary led a $50 million financing round, joined by new and …

(Bloomberg)  Range Fuels, Inc.,…, a closely held U.S. cellulosic ethanol company that was offered $156 million in federal government backing, sold its only factory to LanzaTech NZ Ltd. as part of a government-approved liquidation.
The U.S. Department …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Nigeria, Bloomberg and several local outlets are reporting that the Nigerian government has signed a $2.55 billion development deal with Global Biofuels, to construct 15 integrated biorefineries throughout the West …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  By the end of January, Atlantic BioEnergy Corp. expects to be producing ethanol at its new $6.2 million demonstration plant in Cornwall, Prince Edward Island. The 79,000 gallon a …

by Angela Monaghan (The Telegraph)  The plans, announced in the financial year so far, could create almost 12,000 jobs across the country according to research by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

It came as …

(PRLog)  Alta Vista Securities today (December 29, 2011) announced today a new Bioenergy Joint Venture focusing on the processing of Rice, Sugarcane and Coconut into energy producing Biofuels
Pacific Biofuels Corporations will establish three biofuels plants …

(PR Log)  Innovacorp today announced the list of clean technology start-ups moving on to round two of the Nova Scotia CleanTech Open competition.
Innovacorp today announced the list of clean technology start-ups moving on to round …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …Brazil began developing its domestic ethanol industry in the 1970s in response to the worldwide oil crisis that hit countries with little to no oil production, including Brazil, extremely …

(German Union for the Promotion of Oils and Protein Plants – UFOP)  The global biodiesel market has shown an exponential growth in production and trade across the past decade. Nowadays, more biodiesel than ever before is sourced …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  There were IPOs a go-go, a big comeback from biodiesel. The global ethanol fleet has acquired new popularity amongst advanced biofuels developers looking for capital light steel in the ground. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But think nylon, the wonder material. Friend of low-cost carpet, your latest pair of Jimmy Choo sneakers, or mass-market, ready-to-wear fashion sold at everyday low prices. Adipic is a major …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The first gas fermentation technology to come to the public markets: Coskata files its $100 million IPO.  Here’s our 10-minute version of the filing, with a translation of the risks …

by Pavel Molchanov, Cory J. Garcia, Stacey Hudson (Raymond James)  Our industry brief from June 10, “Bio-Based Plastics: In Coke-Pepsi War’s New Front, Gen2 Biofuels Set to Benefit,” introduced the bioplastics opportunity as it relates to …

(OriginOil)  JV receives preliminary funding commitment of $4.5 million to carry out bankable feasibility studies
OriginOil, Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to extract oil from algae and an emerging leader in the global algae oil …

by Kevin Bullis (MIT Technology Review)  This month, Range Fuels, one of the first companies in a wave of startups that promised cheap biofuels made from sources such as wood chips rather than corn, shut …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Your calls and emails are always the highlight of our days. Most questions can be answered johnny-on-the-spot. Some are still out there and well worth arguing over. Here are the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …“The government rushed into investments, with no diligence,” says Codexis chief Alan Shaw. “They are just not industrialists, in my opinion.”
Two major announcements this week drive the point home in …

by Erin Voegele (Biorefining Magazine)  The biorefining sector reached an important new milestone this year with at least five companies undergoing successful initial public offerings (IPOs). As we move into the new year, members of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Minnesota, Warburg Pincus announced that it will invest up to $355 million in First Green Partners, a newly formed early-stage venture capital company.
First Green will, in turn, invest in …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Capacity for alternative fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, and renewable diesel is at 44.6 billion gallons a year in 2011, but systemic hurdles will constrain their growth to under 5% annually through …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The U.S. federal government continually names China as being a country to beat in the clean energy race. However, increasingly, cellulosic ethanol producers and technology developers are coming to …

by John Harangody (Ethanol Producer Magazine/Atlas Commodity Markets)  …The ethanol market has many diverse participants that view price from different perspectives, including relationships to corn, basis locations, reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate (RBOB) blending, renewable …