(Enerkem/PR NewsWire)  Enerkem Inc. (www.enerkem.com), a waste-to-biofuels and renewable chemicals company, announces the launch of a new research project with the Government of Canada. The objective of the project is to develop new catalytic processes for …

(Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper)  The Government of Canada is committed to investing in innovative clean energy technologies that create high-quality jobs, generate new economic opportunities and protect the environment.
To this end, on May …

(American Chemical Society)  The search for a less-expensive, sustainable source of biomass, or plant material, for producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel has led scientists to duckweed, that fast-growing floating plant that turns ponds and …

(US Department of Energy)  The Bioenergy Technologies Office 2013 Project Peer Review will take place at the Hilton Alexandria Hotel from Monday, May 20, 2013, to Thursday, May 23, 2013. The peer review process will …

by  Stuart Radnedge (GasWorld)  Air Liquide has just signed a partnership agreement with the CEA (Commission for atomic energy and alternative energies in France) aiming to develop a second-generation biofuel production pilot unit in France.
As part …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Despite the sluggish economic recovery and questions over policy stability — biofuels ventures have been busy raising lots of capital.   In the past 6 months, $434 million.   Who got what, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Today in part II, we look at a new set of technologies coming along that are redefining our ideas about scale and cost.
… A barrier to long term deployment? The …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Although no commercial-scale cellulosic biofuels facilities are operating in the United States at present, at least ten projects exceeding 20 million gallons per year are expected to begin operations by …

by Erin Voegele (Biomass Magazine) In early March, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany announced the successful commissioning of the second stage of its bioliq pilot plant. The achievement was made in cooperation with …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, Rentech announced plans to cease operations at, reduce staffing at, and mothball its research and development Product Demonstration Unit, in Commerce City, CO, and to eliminate all related …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A 32-page report by Lux Research picks winners and losers in 2012 among alternative fuel developers. The state of the market report, which is provided only to clients, also …

(Environmental Protection Agency)   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action to identify additional fuel pathways that the Agency has determined meet the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction requirements for biomass-based diesel, …

by Mona-Maria Brinker & Roger Coombs (Waste Management World)  Rising prices, continued conflict in producing regions and the spectre of peak oil have highlighted uncertainties about the future of fossil transport fuels in Europe. Mona-Maria Brinker …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Changes in EU policy and the financing of advanced biofuels have led to a revival of project formation in Europe.
The latest news from Finland is that St1 is proceeding towards …

Join us at the cutting edge of thermochemical biomass conversion—real science, real solutions.
Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is pleased to announce tcbiomass2013, the International Conference on Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Science. Mark your calendars for Chicago, IL USA …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A long war of opinion has been waged for years between advanced biofuels’ detractors and supporters.  Mirage or reality? Completion of 6 key projects 2012 decided much of the debate. …

by Leon Kaye (TriplePundit)  …British Airways (BA) announced that it has found a site for a bio-refinery that will generate up to 50,000 tons of jet fuel annually. In a partnership with the American aviation …

(GreenAirOnline)  The British Airways and Solena GreenSky London project to build a sustainable jet biofuel facility in East London is gaining momentum, say the two partners. They won’t reveal the location but an exclusive option …

by James L. Stewart (Biofuels Digest/BioEnergy Producers Association)  For the past decade, repressive provisions in statute have discouraged developers of conversion technologies from operating in California.
Among its statutory roadblocks, the state has a scientifically inaccurate …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Can local communities pyrolize their wastes and residues, to make renewable fuels and chemicals at biobased super-refineries?   Two-step processes could be the ticket to the future, according to an …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The next five years—the often scoffed mantra of cellulosic ethanol developers—is getting whittled down to the next year or two. A milestone was reached this year when Blue Sugars …

(Denver Business Journal)  Enerjetik LLC of Denver said Tuesday it will partner with a North Carolina company to build a pilot-scale facility in Denver to produce biofuels from solid waste.
The joint technology agreement was reached …

by Bruce C. Folkedahl (Biomass Magazine/Energy & Environmental Research Center) As part of the ongoing research at the Energy & Environmental Research Center, we have been developing a catalytic pathway to convert ethanol or mixtures of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Breakthroughs in making consistent syngas from negative-cost municipal solid waste spells “big prospects” for Enerkem in biobased fuels and chemicals.
In oil we have the crack spread, corn ethanol and soy-based …

(Waste Management World)  Successful field tests of vehicles powered by a biofuel derived from the black liquor wastes produced at a pulp mill have been conducted by Volvo Trucks.
The company said that ten of its …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …While the economic growth in China has been drawing virtually all the headlines in recent years, the “Tiger” economies of Southeast and South Asia have been fast-growing for a long …

by Robert Rapier (Biofuels Digest/Consumer Energy Report)  Distillates are petroleum products that includes diesel, jet fuel, and fuel oil. Renewable distillates may be categorized as substitutes or drop-in replacements. The most common distillate substitute is …

by Thomas Corle (Leifmark LLC, Inbicon Technology Marketing Partner) Opening his presentation with imposing nature images of pristine beauty, Corle’s presentation lays Denmark’s aspirations on the table – to move from 2006′s 15/85 (CO2 emission) …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Gas Technology Institute’s (GTI’s) new pilot-scale IH2 Plant in Chicago, Illinois, demonstrates their efforts to broaden biomass-to-liquid hydrocarbon fuel conversion. The 70-year-old research, development and training organization has turned much of its research …

(INEOS Bio)  Florida project is first large-scale facility to receive registrations for the production of advanced cellulosic biofuels from non-food vegetative waste materials

INEOS Bio announced that its joint venture project in Florida has been granted Parts …

by Sue Retka Schill (Biomass Magazine) Fulcrum BioEnergy Inc. received a $105 million condition loan guarantee from the USDA, putting its planned 10 MMgy Sierra BioFuels Plant closer to groundbreaking. “This USDA loan guarantee provides a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Yet, even in an era where venture capital has been harder to come by (Why? See these 42 article links under the rubric, “The VC Model is Broken” ) — some great …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …With the coming of advanced bioprocessing, the picture of opportunity has radically changed and the Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest, in particular, have been assessing their opportunities and attracting projects.
…But in …

by Kay Ledbetter (Texas AgriLife/Southwest Farm Press)   Biomass gasification is being considered as a possible technology for converting 60 million acres of Texas brush into biofuel, according to Dr. Jim Ansley, Texas AgriLife Research …

(Purdue University)  A new Purdue University-developed process for creating biofuels has shown potential to be cost-effective for production scale, opening the door for moving beyond the laboratory setting.
A Purdue economic analysis shows that the cost …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, the state Energy Commission today unanimously approved funding of $35,031,310 to projectsthat will accelerate the development of green fuels and technology in California. The awards are provided through the …

(CORE BioFuel, Inc.)  CORE BioFuel Inc. announced today (May 2, 2012)  that it has selected Technip, a world leader in engineering, construction and project management in the energy industry, to complete the construction engineering of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Making good, affordable syngas from municipal solid waste to unlock 9 billion gallons of low-cost fuel? Covanta’s hot new gasification technology makes a big dent in the big challenge.
…The bumps …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Four projects, four technologies, four feedstocks, four geographies.  Couldn’t be more differentiated, couldn’t be more linked in terms of affirming investor confidence in advanced biofuels.
…Virent CEO Lee Edwards… outlined four basic …

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 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But in the past two years, five technologies have emerged that are focused on renewable gasoline (along with some others that have the capability of producing gasoline-like fuels but are …

by Kari Williamson (Renewable Energy Focus)  The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) will develop alternative liquid fuels, including biofuel, for US military applications under a US$906,000 contract from the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology …

by S. Heather Duncan (Macon Telegraph)  Wearing green hard hats with the LanzaTech logo pasted over the words “Range Fuels,” officials of the company that now owns a Soperton ethanol plant visited the site this …

(Science Daily)  A team of chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered a small molecule that behaves the same as cellulose when it is converted to biofuel. Studying this ‘mini-cellulose’ molecule reveals …

by Martin LaMonica (CNET)  For a new crop of biofuel companies, ethanol is out and “biogasoline” is in.
One of them is Primus Green Energy, which plans to open a demonstration plant by the end of the …

(Solve for X/CoolPlanet Energy Systems)  Solve for X is a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork.
The fact is that plants have a carbon-negative phase – a time during which they remove …

by Jim Stewart (Biofuels Digest/BioEnergy Producers Association)  …In America’s quest for alternative and renewable energy, the “ball” is national security and energy independence.  All other issues pale by comparison.
Let’s not lose sight of a critical …

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 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 …

by John P. Hurley (Biomass Power and Thermal Magazine/U.S. Department of Energy, Energy & Environmental Research Center)  Minnesota’s forestry operations produce 300,000 tons per year of wood waste that is not used in any existing or …

(Cal-Bay International/MarketWire)  Cal-Bay International, Inc.,  announced the company is negotiating a land acquisition deal for its renewable forest division for the production of Clean Energy & Power.
The company has entered negotiations for the purchase of multiple …

(Cool Planet BioFuels/MarketWatch)  Cool Planet BioFuels announced today it has received approval from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to begin fleet-testing its negative carbon gasoline. Cool Planet BioFuel’s technology converts low-grade biomass — such …

by Mike Salciccioli (Frontiers in Energy Research)   Researchers combine experiments and fundamental models to unveil the previously unknown mechanisms for how biofuels are generated from biomass
A series of complex processes fracture large biomolecules containing millions of …

by Rich Christianson (Woodworking Network)  Sundrop Fuels Inc. has selected Rapides Parish, LA, as the site of its first gasification plant to produce gasoline from forest waste.
The company is purchasing about 1,200 acres of land …

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 David Bransby(Auburn University/Biofuels Digest)  We hear a lot about “drop-in” fuels these days. While this term typically means an infrastructure-compatible liquid transportation fuel, Wayne Keith has come up with his own version of a …

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)  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 Henry A. Stephens (TCPalm.com)  The nation’s first waste-derived bio-ethanol plant won initial approval Tuesday to avoid paying almost $956,000 in county property taxes during its first 10 years of operation.
In a series of 14-0 …

by Kris Bevill (Biomass Power and Thermal Magazine)  Partnering to produce energy from stover could be an attractive option for corn ethanol plants.
In mid-July, right around the time the area’s corn crop was beginning to …

by Michael Sheffield (Memphis Business Journal)  Mid-South Community Collegewill name its $9 million renewable energy facility after retired Congressman Marion Berry.
The 35,000-square-foot Marion Berry Renewable Energy Center will provide a learning facility for the school’s green jobs training, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Colorado, Sundrop Fuels announced that they have agreed to purchase about 1,200 acres of land near Alexandria, Louisiana to build their first plant.  Using forest waste and hydrogen from natural …

by Will Nichols (Business Green)  Government research body says next generation biofuels made from waste are a feasible low carbon option
The UK could miss its renewable transport targets unless it spends £900m over the next …

by Mick Swasko  (Chicago Tribune)  … The city will unveil a new “green fuels depot” next week. The facility will be used to convert yard waste into electricity, ethanol and hydrogen.
The city can put the electricity …

by Jim Lane  (Biofuels Digest) Solazyme edges Amyris, Gevo in Hot 50 for 2011-12, as hot IPOs dominate, gasification advances.
Biofuels Digest announced that Renewable oils developer Solazyme took the #1 spot in the 2011-12 “50 Hottest …

by Susan Frick Carlman (Naperville Sun)  The first phase of the local partnership working toward collecting yard waste and converting it into fuels is poised to go live in the coming weeks. In the works for …

(Coskata)   With More than 15,000 Run Hours, Company Focus Turns to Commercial Scale Facilities
Coskata, Inc., a developer of technology for the production of advanced biofuels and biochemicals from biomass and waste materials, achieved two …

by Tilde Herrera  (GreenBiz.com)  …That’s because for Waste Management, garbage isn’t just garbage anymore.
“You can begin to extrapolate some pretty interesting business models when you think of waste as a resource,” said Tim Cesarek, managing …

by Paul Spindler (Catchlight Energy, LLC). The company CLE (Catchlight Energy) is a 50/50 partnership between the sustainable, forest-based feedstock company, Weyerhaeuser, and the commercial fuel company, Chevron. The purpose of this partnership is to …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A lesser-known pilot project in Mexico says it can produce biofuels at parity with $33 oil. Can this ultra-low cost project replicate its results at scale. Where is it deploying, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The first zero-cost feedstock biofuels company comes to the public markets with its IPO.
…Fulcrum becomes the 12th company to file for an IPO in the industrial biotech boom, which began …

Laurel Harmon (LanzaTech Inc.) LanzaTech, Inc., was founded in January 2005 by CSO Dr. Sean Simpson in New Zealand. Funds were mainly from New Zealand government US$ 10M, Khosla Ventures US$ 12M in …

(University of California-Riverside) Two grants will allow further development of steam hydro-gasification process that turns waste from food, yards and other sources into transportation fuels or natural gas
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside’s Center for Environmental …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Hawaii goes all in on microalgae to provide fuel, food, fiber and power to grow its energy-starved Mid-Pacific economy and fit its environmental values
…Hawaii has no fossil fuel resources of …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Iowa’s research community has been awarded $20 million through the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research with the goal of establishing the state as a leader …

by Theodore D. Matson, Katalin Barta, Alexei V. Iretskii, and Peter C. Ford  (Journal of the American Chemical Society)  Efficient methodologies for converting biomass solids to liquid fuels have the potential to reduce dependence on …

by James Murray  (Business Green)  Could gasification hold the key to the decarbonisation of the North East’s heavy industries?
Researchers at the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability(NIReS) are working on ambitious plans that could establish the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Can synthetic biology capture and utilize CO2 to such an extent that it not only can make money – but can mitigate the carbon intensity of no-no feedstocks like coal, …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Poet LLC is venturing into the realm of energy grasses with a newly launched collaborative effort to establish native grasses on degraded lands in areas surrounding its 100 MMgy …

(INEOS Bio/PR NewsWire)  Florida project is first large-scale advanced biorefinery facility in U.S. to close financing in latest round of USDA backed financing

INEOS Bio announced that its joint venture project closed private financing on a $75m loan …

(US Department of Energy)  …More than 600 speakers, moderators, sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees were able to listen to discussions about the ongoing challenges and achievements in the bioenergy industry. Biomass 2011 addressed key issues in important …

by David Biello (Scientific American)  Making biofuels from waste makes dollars–and sense
…Turning garbage into fuel is potentially an answer to two pressing problems—diminishing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and an alternative to burying trash in landfills. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But a new generation of technologies is coming along fast, primarily in advanced biofuels, which is gasifying biomass at the front end along its path towards making fuels, chemicals or …

by Brian Moody (Translogic)  …Although “Beaver” is a strange moniker for a car, Chip Beam has a good reason for naming his ride after the trunk-chewing critter; after all, the Beaver XR7 runs …

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 …

(Denver Business Journal)  Colorado biofuel startup Sundrop Fuels Inc. on Monday announced it will get $175 million in new investment, with the lion’s share coming from natural gas company Chesapeake Energy Corp.
…Chesapeake said it plans …

by Matthew Liebenberg (Nipawin Journal)  Timber that will be cleared from the proposed Shore Gold diamond mine site in the Fort à la Corne forest will be processed and converted into cellulose ethanol at a …

(Iowa State University)  Laura Jarboe pointed to a collection of test tubes in her Iowa State University laboratory.
Some of the tubes looked like they were holding very weak coffee. That meant microorganisms – in this …

(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 …

(Advanced Biofuels USA)  …(T)here is a third, hybrid process which combines both biochemical and thermochemical elements, capturing the benefits of each pathway while mitigating some of their deficiencies.  This process, called syngas fermentation, is a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Iowa, Honeywell has been selected to help SynGest design a proposed first-of-its-kind processing facility that will produce ammonia from biomass. The southwest-Iowa plant will process as much as 400 tons of …

(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 Dan Piller (Des Moines Register)  Prototypes of the biofuels refinery of the future sit in a 19,000-square-foot complex on the Iowa State Research Farm west of Ames.
Two experimental plants, whose network of pipes and …

(Rentech)

Province of Ontario selects Rentech’s newly-announced Olympiad Project in the Township of White River for proposed supply of up to 1.1 million cubic metres/year of wood fibre to produce renewable RenJet®, a certified low-carbon jet …

(Biofuels Center of North Carolina)  The Biofuels Center of North Carolina has awarded $1.6 million for 15 projects statewide to accelerate the commercialization of renewable liquid fuels. Awards are made through the 2011 Statewide Biofuels …

By Robert Kozak (Atlantic Biomass Conversions, Inc.)  Worldwide Importance of Protein Animal Feed
When I began working with sugar beet processors on our beet pulp biofuel sugar process, one of their first questions was, “Will there …

by David Beattie (Renewable Energy World Magazine)   …Importantly, and what sets these latest fuels apart from their first-generation predecessors, is the fact that they are produced using feedstock that would normally be classed as …

(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 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)   But this week in the little burgh of Boardman, Oregon (population 3,300), which happens to sit adjacent to the second-largest inland port in the western United States (the port …