by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The USDA has announced $14 million payments to advanced biofuel 162 producers in 38 states under the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels. The program awards payments to eligible producers …

(US Department of Agriculture/Biodiesel Magazine)  The USDA has proposed a series of changes to make it easier for agricultural producers and rural small businesses to apply for renewable energy and energy efficiency funding. USDA remains …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Is there bio-based relief for the harried taxpayer in sight?   Could conservationists, growers and biofuels producers find common ground in adapting the Conservation Reserve Program for bioenergy?   Could the US …

by U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Foundation/Biomass Magazine)  After a briefing by senior White House staff on April 17, following their arrival in the U.S., an Israeli delegation of top academic and industrial biofuels research scientists and …

by John Davis (DomesticFuel.com)  Two members of Pres. Obama’s cabinet today have signed their names to an agreement that will extend the administration’s commitment to the production of biofuels for use in airplanes. Secretary of …

by Charles Abbott (Reuters)  The White House will decide in coming weeks whether to attempt to blunt low prices in the U.S. sugar market by buying hundreds of thousands of tons of surplus sugar and …

(US Department of Agriculture/Federal Register)  This Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) announces the acceptance of applications under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) for Fiscal Year 2013 for financial assistance as follows: grants, guaranteed …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now accepting applications for federal REAP funds to help gasoline retailers install blender pumps designed to give consumers flexibility and choice in …

by Diana Johnsen (KCAUTV.com)  …The Jackson Express Gas station in Jackson, Nebraska has what are called ethanol “blender pumps”, which allows drivers to customize how much ethanol goes into their fuel.
And the more ethanol, the …

(Associated Press/Quad Cities Times)  U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack signed an agreement Friday with DuPont that will help establish guidelines for how the company will collect corn-plant residue for a new ethanol plant in central …

(25 x ’25)  The ethanol industry has some good news to share. And it comes in an arena where the domestically produced biofuel has often been challenged – carbon sequestration and the life-cycle assessment of …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  In the heart of Wisconsin, a project is underway to produce energy from a resource that is in little danger of running low: cow manure, or “brown gold.” Thanks to a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The first wave of cellulosic biofuels projects are now reaching completion.  But what does the next wave look like – from technology to financing? We explore the trends in our …

(Domtar)  Plymouth Mill to produce bio-material with wide range of industrial applications as petro-chemical alternative – the first of its kind in over quarter century
Domtar Corporation (NYSE: UFS) (TSX: UFS) today announced that it has successfully …

(PR NewsWire/ZeaChem)  Facility will prove biorefining process for commercial-scale production
ZeaChem Inc., developer of highly-efficient biorefineries, today announced that it has produced commercial-grade cellulosic chemicals and ethanol at its 250,000 gallons per year (GPY) biorefinery in Boardman, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Recommendations from the Milken Institute — and a group of industry heavyweights — to accelerate the bioeconomy revolution.
In California this week, the Milken Institute released a good read on the …

by Jim Lane (BioBased Digest)  … It is a program that encourages companies to voluntarily register the amount of biobased content in their products — and, for those that pass a minimum content threshold, the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In the new USDA long-term forecasts, rising global meat consumption stands out as a driver of rising food prices, exports.
…But you might ask yourself — in a world where you …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  On Feb. 11 the USDA released a report detailing its agricultural projections for the next 10-year period. According to the paper, titled “USDA Agricultural Projections to 2022,” long-run developments …

by Ann Perry (US Department of Agriculture Agriculture Research Service/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Corn crop residues are often left on harvested fields to protect soil quality, but they could become an important raw material in cellulosic …

by John Davis (DomesticFuel.com)  Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says the future success of biofuels in this country is also tied to successfully getting a new five-year farm bill passed. Speaking to delegates of the …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited a state-of-the-art bioindustrial facility at Renmatix today, where he announced $25 million to fund research and development of next-generation renewable energy and high-value biobased products from …

(The Town Talk)  The LSU AgCenter Audubon Sugar Institute plans a Jan. 25 opening for a pilot plant designed to produce biofuels and biochemicals from agricultural crops and byproducts.
The centerpiece of the AgCenter’s sustainable bioproducts …

(Renmatix/Sacramento Bee)  Building on success in hardwood, Philadelphia-based Renmatix adds on-site capability to convert multiple local and international feedstocks to cellulosic sugar
Renmatix, the leading manufacturer of cellulosic sugars for biobased chemical and fuel markets, welcomed …

by Luke Geiver (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The Biomass Crop Assistance Program may have been extended through 2013 with the passing of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, but the program’s usefulness in the coming …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  What do people in the Southeast think about biofuels? Do they support biofuel ventures? Who will grow the biomass? Will those in established industries fight against it? These are just a …

(The State Journal)  Researchers from West Virginia University are exploring the economic and environmental impacts of wood biomass utilization in rural central Appalachia.
The Morgantown school says the team was recently awarded a nearly $350,000 grant …

(Associated Press/Times Union)  Energy from willows is moving out of the experimental stage and into commercial production in New York.
Farms are growing willow shrubs and selling them to a utility, a nursery sells them commercially and …

(ClarionLedger.com)  A team of Mississippi State University agricultural economists recently received U.S. Department of Agriculture funding to study policies impacting biofuel supply chains.
Keith Coble is the principal investigator for a project to develop a model …

(WebWire)  Biofuels made from high yield, short rotation woody crops or from forest residuals and thinnings that are currently left unused have substantial potential to reduce CO2 emissions as well as to contribute to energy …

by Stephanie Strom  (New York Times)  A blue-ribbon panel of scientific and technology advisers to President Obama warns that the nation risks losing its longstanding supremacy in food production because research in agriculture has not kept up …

(US Department of Agriculture)    Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $10 million in research grants to spur production of bioenergy and biobased products that will lead to the development of sustainable regional systems and help …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the US Senate voted 54-41 in favor of an amendment offered by Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina to repeal section 2823 of the annual Defense appropriations bill.
Sec. …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager today (November 16, 2012) announced payments to 189 companies to support the production and expansion of advanced biofuels.
“These payments support the nation’s expanding …

(U.S. Department of Agriculture)  In January 2012, USDA launched its brand new Energy Web site.  The site contains agricultural, economic, and social data on renewable energy to assist stakeholders, public users, state and local government in …

(USDA Agricultural Research Service)  From 1850 to 1950, the Tri-State Mining District of southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma produced 50 percent of the zinc and 10 percent of the lead in the United …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A total of $16 million in investment for 244 projects received funding from the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program, including several blender pumps and a few biomass-related projects. …

by  Bruce Dorminey (Renewable Energy World)  …Armed with a $200,000 U.S.D.A. two-year research grant, Fernando Resende will start work on a fast pyrolysis mobile reactor next year that could revolutionize how foresters and the timber industry …

(Pennsylvania State University)  The Northeast could help lead the way to a renewable-energy-based economy by utilizing marginal and abandoned land to grow energy crops such as perennial grasses and fast-growing woody plants.
That’s the goal of …

(Primus Green Energy)  New Northeast Consortium Tasked With Developing Perennial Biomass Feedstock Production Systems
As part of its continued effort to drive the commercialization of alternative fuels, Primus Green Energy Inc. an alternative fuel company based …

by  Kristofor Husted (KBIA)  In the parched, rolling hills of western Missouri, you might expect to see a desolate scene after this summer’s drought. But in this field, hip-high native grass sways across the landscape like …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   A drought tolerant grass known as elephant grass or napiergrass that is fed to cattle in the tropics is being studied as a possible cellulosic ethanol feedstock in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …We say that biofuels are “capital-intensive,” mainly to be polite. It’s like saying that Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great or Attila the Hun had “land interests”.
…Put it this way. How much …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Growing crude oil as a crop – Sapphire Energy and its Green Crude Farm – can it be the sunlight in your universe and change the world?   What does it look …

by Roy Roberson (Southeast Farm Press)  • Sounds like a good deal for grain growers and a bad one for livestock producers and consumers, but are such high prices really good for any of us?
• …

by Jason Mick (Daily Tech)  New method could repurpose existing equipment, improve the efficiency of biodiesel extraction
Biodiesel production tends to boil down (no pun intended) to one of two methods –repurposing waste oil to auto-capable fuel or …

(US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service)  …Of the five regions, the Southeast has the greatest natural capacity in the continental United States, with sufficient sunshine, soils, water, and other natural resources to produce more …

(Phys.Org)  Sweet sorghum is primarily grown in the United States as a source of sugar for syrup and molasses. But the sturdy grass has other attributes that could make it uniquely suited to production as …

by Todd Atkinson  ( US Department of Agriculture  Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service/Biomass Magazine)  Since the 20th century, scientists have worked to cure cancer. They have yet to succeed.
Many researchers develop hypotheses that end in disappointment, with …

Martin Lamonica  (MIT Technology Review)  Sapphire Energy has started operation of its demonstration-scale algae farm, a project which perhaps brings more clarity to an industry debate over the best way to grow algae.
The San Diego-based …

by Ann Perry (US Department of Agriculture Agriculture Research Service)  A gene that keeps switchgrass forever young could have far-reaching implications for the development of the plant as a biofuel crop, according to U.S. Department of …

by Michael Sheffield (Memphis Business Journal)  Infinite Enzymes LLC has received a $450,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to advance its enzyme development technology.
This is the second Small Business …

by Dan Chapman  (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)   … In a blistering critique obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, (Hosein) Shapouri (a senior economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington) labeled the proposed Range Fuels plant …

(PR NewsWire/Sapphire Energy)   Initial Phase of World’s First Green Crude Farm Completed On Time and On Budget
Sapphire Energy, Inc., one of the world leaders in algae-based green crude oil production, today announced the first phase …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In North Carolina, Chemtex announced that it has received a $99 million conditional loan guarantee from USDA, under the USDA’s 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program for the engineering and construction of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Like many states (or countries) that have limited oil reserves or reserves that are economically unfeasible to extract at this time – the path to energy independence lies generally in …

(US Department of Agriculture)   USDA announces the availability of grants through the Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program for Fiscal Year 2012. Approximately $14 million in competitive grant funds for FY 2012 is available to …

by Ian C. Campbell (The Oregonian) …A new $6 million federal grant to develop jet fuel and clean diesel from grass and sugarcane could help. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture money to researchers at Oregon State University, the …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced payments for 125 advanced Biofuel producers across the country to support the production and expansion of advanced biofuels from a wide variety of non-food sources, …

The race to create a better, less controversial biofuel has spawned plenty of research into a variety of potential new sources – including switchgrass, cornstalks and algae.
One goal behind the next generation of ethanol fuel …

Jannette Pippin (JDNews)  Eastern North Carolina farmers have an opportunity to get involved in growing renewable energy crops for fuel and power through a program that will help pay planting and other start-up costs.
USDA Farm …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The recent focus on drought, and the scarcity scare, shows that diversification and yield enhancement remain the bioeconomy’s chief weapons in the war on availability and affordability.   The USDA and …

(PRWeb)  Yulex Corporation, as part of a consortium headed by Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, announced today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded the company and its consortium partners a $6.9 million grant. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As bio-based companies race across the Valley of Death, in the dash for scale, who’s getting financing now, and how?
The path to financing success in bio-based project development used to …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Out of 430 Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) awards announced by the USDA June 25, four were for blender pumps or flex fuel pumps. In all, projects in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Myriant closes first bio-based chemicals loan under USDA’s Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program.  Industry’s first private bond placement under innovative structure developed to finance advanced industrial scale-up; Q1 2013 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …The Obama Administration has laid out an integrated strategy for commercializing advanced biofuels, with a focus in this phase on military advanced biofuels at cost-competitive prices with conventional fuels.
The vehicle …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA has selected for funding 450 projects nationwide, including 31 in North Carolina, that are focused on helping agricultural producers and rural small businesses …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The nearly $10 million awarded by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency to three energy crop project areas on June 13 will be the only funding distributed through the Biomass …

by Chris Guy (US Department of Agriculture)  …ARS scientists say that barley leftovers such as straw, hulls, and dried distiller grains (DDGS) can be used to produce an energy-rich product called bio-oil. Bio-oil offers several …

(Observer-Dispatch)  The U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest $4.3 million to ReEnergy and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry to encourage growth of shrub willow as a renewable energy fuel, according to a news …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Section 9011 of the Farm Bill – the Biomass Crop Assistance Program – USDA deploys $9.6M in new investments in bioenergy crops as questions revolve around the program’s future and …

(Chemtex International/Ethanol Producer Magazine) Chemtex International announced today (June 13, 2012) that it has been selected by the USDA to participate in the Biomass Crop Assistance Program. The $3,996,000 award will support establishing and growing over 4,000 acres …

by Emery P. Dalesio  (The Republic/AP)  An Italian company’s Wilmington-based subsidiary is geared up to build a factory that can convert grassy plants into fuel for cars and trucks amid Sampson County’s hog and turkey …

by Mateusz Perkowski   (Capital Press)  The USDA has decide to again fully deregulate genetically engineered sugar beets that are resistant to glyphosate herbicides.
The agency has found that the crop doesn’t pose a plant pest risk …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Most of the stories we write at the Digest on the subject of biofuels feedstocks fall into the well-established realms of normal. But every once in  a while, a feedstock …

(Pacific Business News)  The University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources will receive a $6 million federal grant to continue its work to convert grass and other biomass into biofuel.
The college will …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Novozymes, a global biotech company, first considered building its newly built enzyme production plant in China but eventually zeroed in on the U.S. One big deciding factor was the …

by David Rogers (Politico)  …At issue are government-backed premium discounts designed to make the insurance more affordable to farmers. While not truly cash subsidies, the costs have soared in recent years and fit neatly into …

(CSP Daily News)  Installs ethanol blender pumps across southcentral Wisconsin
United Cooperative has been selected to receive a $448,500 Rural Energy for America Program grant to assist with the installation of 36 ethanol flex-fuel blender pumps …

(Beaver Dam Daily Citizen)  United Cooperative was selected to receive a $448,500 Rural Energy for America Program grant to assist with the installation of 36 ethanol flex-fuel blender pumps and seven biodiesel dispensers at 11 …

(US Department of Agriculture)  On June 23, 2010, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a strategic biofuels production report, “A USDA Regional Roadmap to Meeting the Biofuels Goals of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) by …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …The first World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates for 2012, from the US Department of Agriculture, give us an opportunity to review that debate.
Let’s go back 10 years ago, before the …

(National Farmers Union)  National Farmers Union (NFU) and a coalition of agricultural, conservation, environmental, energy, forestry, hunger, and rural stakeholders sent a letter to Senate leadership today urging them to bring the Agriculture Reform, Food and …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …API has legally challenged every step of the U.S. EPA’s approval of E15, claiming that more scientific research should be completed before it is allowed to be used in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the Senate Agriculture Committee has approved $800 million in mandatory biofuels-related funding for the proposed energy title in the upcoming Farm Bill.
…Yesterday, Senators Kent Conrad of North Dakota …

(U.S. Federal Register)  The United States Department of Navy (DoN) in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration (DOT FAA), …

(U.S. Department of Agriculture)  The U.S. Department of Agriculture – along with the Department of Energy, and the Department of Navy – will co-host an Advanced Biofuels Industry Roundtable in Washington D.C. on May 18, …

(US Department of Agriculture)  A recent study conducted by researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) highlights the potential for alternative energy production at airports. The study …

by Kelly Madsen (IowaStateDaily.com)  The Iowa State University-led Cenusa Bioenergy project works to develop a biofuel with both a Midwestern and environmental focus.
Through a five-year, $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Research to advance next generation biofuels and renewable energy technologies
Today, as President Obama went to Ohio State University to discuss the Administration’s all-out, all-of-the-above strategy for American energy, the White House …

By Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA)  At the March 21 Bioenergy Day on Capitol Hill, discussion focused on the need for a continued Renewable Fuels Standard, reviews of the history of biofuels, assessment of current …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Yield unlocks value, and especially feedstock yield. What’s the latest? What feedstocks are reporting yields that could support 1000+ gallons per acre for terrestrial crops?
…Yield from the acre, yield from …

by Sarah Bittleman (USDA/25 x ’25)  America needs and is developing a reliable, sustainable, fuel supply. If we are able to produce more of it here at home – rather than relying on foreign oil – …

by Tom Polansek (Reuters)  U.S. officials said on Friday they would offer higher payments to certain owners of environmentally sensitive farm land if they idle it in a conservation program instead of using it to …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …Maintaining the energy programs within the Farm Bill will also be a challenge, with the expectation that there will be deep budgets cuts from the baseline. Vilsack explained that with …

(MarketWatch)  ZeaChem Commences USDA-Funded Initiative to Build a Bioenergy Industry in the Pacific Northwest
ZeaChem Inc., a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of renewable biomass into sustainable fuels and chemicals, today announced that it has …

by Josh Rathod (Advanced Biofuels USA) With a refreshing sense of focus, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairwoman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, opened the hearing on Energy and Economic Growth for Rural America …

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 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 …