Articles tagged with: woody biomass
by Javier E. David (CNBC) Imagine a world where leftover corn, wheat and wood chips can be used to power your car.
That’s the aim of cellulosic ethanol, a budding sector of the renewable fuel industry that …
(Edeniq/Yahoo! News) Visalia Plant Milestone Signifies Greater Commercial Viability for Cellulosic Ethanol and Sugars
Edeniq, a biomaterials and sustainable fuels company, today announced the company’s first demonstration plant, located at its Visalia, CA headquarters, has completed …
(SB Wire/Eccotopia) Julian Moses, president of Symphony Trade and Investment 57 (Pty) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eccotopia Ltd.,http://www.eccotopia.com/, has announced that Eccotopia and Pacific Tree West are in the process of signing a …
by Vicki Ekstrom (Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change/Renewable Energy World) …Their study, recently released in Geophysical Research Letters, found that land-use changes caused by a major ramp-up in biofuel crops — enough …
by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The International Energy Agency Bioenergy Task 39 group recently published a report that outlines progress on more than 100 advanced biofuel projects under development worldwide. The report, titled “Status …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Norway, Norwegian Finance Minister Sigbjørn Johnsen officially inaugurated the Borregaard biorefinery demonstration plant in Sarpsborg, which will produce green chemicals and sugars based on biomass from wood and agricultural …
(European Geosciences Union) …Attention has now turned to second generation biofuels, produced from non-edible sources such as wood or waste plant residual like straw. In the next decade, these biofuels are expected to replace three …
by Jessica Shankleman (BusinessGreen.com) …Three campaign groups, backed by 12 organisations in the timber, paper and furniture industries, yesterday warned that a surge in demand for wood as a result of renewable electricity subsidies …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …It used to be that the outskirts of Honolulu had the dual scent of diesel and pineapple processing — but now, all you really smell is the diesel. Sugarcane and …
UPM, VTT and VV-Auto Group will start fleet tests of renewable domestic diesel. Biofuel will be produced by UPM, fleet tests will be coordinated by VTT and cars will be supplied by VV-Auto Group. Fleet …
(Environmental Research Web) …It referred to a report by North Energy Associates (NEA) and Forestry Research (FR) produced for DECC, which tried to answer the question: ‘Is it better to leave wood in the forest …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Pilot-scale biorefineries for drop-in military diesel, jet fuel the focus of the DOE’s latest grant round.
In Washington, the US Department of Energy announced up to $17.7 million in grants to …
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) An explosive report from Bloomberg alleges that a pathway to $2.18 per gallon gasoline was developed at Chevron-Weyerhaeuser owned Catchlight Energy. Yet, the project was sidelined. Why? Was the project …
by Aldo Svaldi (The Denver Post) Cool Planet Energy Systems took a step closer Friday to a corporate relocation and expansion that could bring nearly 400 jobs to the metro area and place the state …
by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) Neste Oil has begun using tall oil pitch as a feedstock for renewable diesel production. Neste Oil successfully tested tall oil pitch in commercial refinery operations in March and April …
by Emily Pickrell (FuelFix) On Jan. 1, Congress made algae-based fuel production eligible for a $1.01-per-gallon cellulosic biofuel production federal tax credit.
Cellulosic biofuels typically are made from woody, non-food material such as grasses or wood …
(Biofuels Center of North Carolina) The Biofuels Center of North Carolina recently awarded $684,058 for six projects to accelerate the renewable fuels industry in western North Carolina. Awards are made through the 2012-2013 targeted biofuels …
(European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Energy and Transport) In the current European energy policy framework, biogenic CO2 emissions from combustion of forest biomass used for energy and transport purposes are set to zero.
Biomass …
Dr. Mike Strain (Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry/25 x ’25) … However, many do not realize that Louisiana’s strong agriculture and forestry industries have also primed us to be a national leader in new …
(Science Codex) Rapidly growing trees like poplars and willows are candidate “biofuel crops” from which it is expected that cellulosic ethanol and higher energy content fuels can be efficiently extracted. Domesticating these as crops requires …
by Jessica Nelson (Auburn University) Maobing Tu, an assistant professor in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, has received a $401,155 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award for his research in biofuels …
(Canadian Renewable Fuels Association/Ethanol Producer Magazine) The Canadian Renewable Fuels Association has announced a new committee and classification of membership to advance next generation biofuels in Canada. The new committee and its members represent leaders …
by Katie Feherenbacher (Gigaom) Companies that are still looking to produce biofuels from plant waste (and not corn) are making slow, but steady progress on milestones in 2013.
On Monday, KiOR, which was largely funded by …
(Southern Research Institute) Research could encourage blending of bio-oils into refinery streams for producing renewable diesel and gasoline
Durham, North Carolina — Southern Research Institute today announced it has entered into a cooperative agreement with the …
(Institute for European Environmental Policy) This report focuses on the potential sustainability of an advanced biofuel industry relying on mainly wastes and residues as the feedstock base. Presented as a series of ‘factsheets’ we consider …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Texas, KiOR announced the initial shipments of cellulosic diesel from its first commercial-scale facility in Columbus, Mississippi.
KiOR’s facility uses pine wood chips previously feeding a shut down paper mill …
(National Academies of Science) A new National Research Council report finds that by the year 2050, the U.S. may be able to reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent for light-duty vehicles — cars …
(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 …
(SEKAB/Davy Process Technology) Davy Process Technology Limited (Davy), a Johnson Matthey company, andSEKAB, a leading player in the field of the ethanol based chemicals and biofuels, today announced at World Biofuels Markets that they are …
by Stuart Radnedge (GasWorld) Air Liquide, in a joint project with the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) in Germany, has successfully completed the second stage of a second generation biofuels pilot unit at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe.
This pilot …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Louisiana — hot as cayenne pepper in biofuels capacity development, but some cautionary tales there in the sauce.
When it comes to the first generation of ethanol and biodiesel-based biofuels, Louisiana …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Algae, drop-in fuels get a kick-start from $3.2 billion ARENA funds
In Australia, two key projects focused on algae biofuels and drop-in fuels from wood biomass and residues took major steps …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … In the world of biofuels there is no sector as active as military and aviation biofuels in terms of willing customers. At the Low Carbon Fuel Conference, held over …
(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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) What is fibre fuel, how does it displace petroleum via supercritical technology, and what does the plant look like?
… For those less familiar with New Zealand’s energy brands, Z Energy …
by Steve Raabe (Denver Post) A Colorado ethanol producer is set to employ a landmark technology that could help resolve the food vs. fuel controversy swirling around corn-based ethanol.
Front Range Energy in Windsor successfully has …
by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Just months after shipping a load of bagasse-based cellulosic ethanol to Brazil, Western Biomass Energy LLC filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 31. Peter Gross, CEO of Blue …
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 Ben Messenger (Waste Management World) Advanced biofuels produced from waste feedstocks are a key component of EU climate and energy ambitions, and offer a huge opportunity to drive economic growth in Europe, according to the European Biofuels …
by Tracy Dang (ICIS.com) Exploring a future in advanced biofuels can be one way the US ethanol industry address the “food vs. fuel” debate, a consultant said on Thursday.
“Even though it is a misconception that first-generation …
by Aino Siirala (Advanced Biofuels USA) Aalto University School of Chemical Technology, Finland, organized a biofuel seminar February 2,2013, where Finland’s leading companies in this field introduced their expertise and recent projects.
The EU has set …
(St1) Bioethanol transport fuels produces energy company St1 is planning to Kajaani new production plant, which produces ethanol sawmill by-product of the waste sawdust. Plant in the environmental licensing process takes approximately 9 – 12 …
(Arcadia Biosciences) New Tree Crops To Increase Productivity While Preserving Natural Resources and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., an agricultural technology company focused on developing technologies and products that benefit the environment and human …
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 …
by Andrew Herndon (Bloomberg BusinessWeek) Iogen Corp., a closely held biotechnology company, is focusing on producing ethanol from sugar cane waste in Brazil after selling its industrial enzyme business to Novozymes A/S (NZYMB), according to …
(ABC News) Tasmania could become home to Australia’s first commercial plant converting trees into the biofuel, ethanol.
Timber communities in Dorset and the Huon Valley are in formal talks with the developers of technology that allows …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …In Maryland, The Wildlife Society released a Technical Review, “Effects of Bioenergy Production on Wildlife and Wildlife Habitat,” to provide answers to questions on bioenergy development and wildlife so that …
by Mark Schulman (BlueRidgeNow.com) The Biofuels Center of North Carolina awarded $766,256 to 14 entities led by AdvantageWest Economic Development Group to advance biofuels in the region and create jobs, support sustainability, agribusiness, diverse education …
(Bioenergy News) Finland-based bio and forestry business UPM has picked up multi-million investment to aid the construction of a biorefinery in France. The European Commission has awarded a grant of €170 million ($222 million) as …
(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 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. …
(Forest Products Society) 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 …
(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 …
by Jim Kinney (The Republican/MassLive) Qteros and the “Q microbe” discovered byUMass researchers and valued for its ability to digest plant waste into ethanol fuel is making a comeback.
…But the money dried up early in 2012. …
(Associated Press/The State) Clemson University researchers are joining with a commercial forestry company to try to figure out what variety of poplars are best to make biofuels.
ArborGen planted four species of poplars last year at …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As renewable fuel developers put steel in the ground, oil & gas points to a fossil-based transformation in transportation fuels just “five years away”.
Today, it is the oil & gas …
by Jim Lane (Biobased Digest) Counting the EU out in biobased development? Not so quick, pilgrim — BioMCN, Siemens, Linde and Visser & Smit Hanab land a whale, grant-wise.
In the Netherlands, a consortium consisting of …
(Renewable Fuels Association) The Advanced Ethanol Council this morning released a report giving a snapshot of cellulosic ethanol producers in the U.S. and around the world. A look at facilities owned by companies such as …
(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 …
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory) Goal is to develop new catalysts to lower costs for producing biofuels
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will partner with Johnson Matthey, a global specialty chemicals company, …
by Ned Stowe (Environmental and Energy Study Institute) EESI Policy Associate Ned Stowe recently gave a presentation on biomass, bioenergy, and sustainability to the 11th Annual Great Lakes Environmental Legislators Forum of the National Caucus …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Policy, finance, technology, feedstocks, markets, prices, opposition. Here’s what’s on your mind, as the critical 2013 deployment year for biofuels looms.
So here are 15 burning questions as suggested by various …
by Andrew Herndon (Bloomberg)
Cellulosic biofuel companies will boost production almost 20-fold in 2013 as the first high-volume refineries go into operation, signaling a shift from an experimental fuel into a commercially viable industry.
Production of the …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) It’s been years of struggle to get cellulosic feedstock supply chains downfield. Now, companies like Woodland Biofuels, Sweetwater Energy, Ceres, Delta BioRenewables and Commonwealth Agro-Energy are moving the chains.
…This week …
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 …
(25 x ’25) … In any strategy aimed at meeting America’s soaring energy demand, biomass must be considered a principal among the several renewable, sustainable solutions that make up the fastest growing domestic energy sector since …
(FuturaGene) FuturaGene, a world leader in the enhancement of yield and sustainability of woody crops for plantation forestry, biopower and biofuel markets, is pleased to announce the signing of a Cooperation Framework Agreement with EMBRAPA, …
by Kari Lydersen (Midwest Energy News) …Commercial-scale development of aviation biofuels is still in the early stages, and as experts explained at the Airports Going Green conference in Chicago earlier in November, viable aviation biofuel industries would look …
by Tom Robertson (Minnesota Public Radio) There may be hope for the shuttered Ainsworth lumber mill in Grand Rapids, which closed three years ago, a victim of the housing market crash and the Great Recession.
The J.M. Longyear …
(Direvo) Direvo Industrial Biotechnology GmbH is commercializing its BluCon™– platform for complete, one-step conversion of non-food feedstocks to carbohydrates used in the production of fuels and chemicals. In the recent years Direvo has undertaken a …
by Peter Hemphill (Grain & Hay WeeklyTimes) An American biofuels company is looking to build a refinery in Australia to produce ethanol from wheat straw and other residues.
…Investors in the biorefineries include Australia’s Macquarie Bank and …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Ensyn – moving rapidly towards scale as a transport fuel technology after decades in smaller, high-value markets. What does Ensyn’s signature RTP technology, that’s making such a splash, look like?
…Ensyn …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Canada’s $500 million NextGen Biofuels Fund, five years after formation, gets close to making its first investments just as Canada’s leaders consider pulling the plug
It was the most amazing sovereign …
by Matthew L. Wald (New York Times) For years, scientists and engineers have been juggling various combinations of acids, steam, bacteria, catalysts and the digestive juices of microorganisms to convert agricultural waste and even household …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Brent Crude trades this past week at a transorbital $109 per barrel (West Texas Intermediate at a suborbital, if high, $85). It puts the conventional wisdom that biofuels are too …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) 500 ton per day wood biomass to biocrude plant commences oil production – the long wait for cellulosic biofuels at scale is over.
…But the news from Columbus, Mississippi, that cellulosic …
by Robert Sanders (Biodiesel Magazine/UC Berkeley) A long-abandoned fermentation process once used to turn starch into explosives can be used to produce renewable diesel fuel to replace the fossil fuels now used in transportation, University …
(MSN Money/PR NewsWire) During the first Moscow International Forum for Innovative Development Open Innovations, the State Corporation ‘Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs’ (Vnesheconombank), venture capital firm Bright Capital Management, and Renmatix, the leading …
(Energy Efficiency News) Finnish firm Neste Oil officially opened its first European pilot plant for producing microbial oil from waste material in Porvoo, Finland on Friday.
…Neste Oil, meanwhile, has invested €8 million in its pilot plant as …
by Charles A. Levesque and Eric W. Kingsley (Innovative Natural Resource Solutions LLC/Biomass Magazine) Increased talk about the use of woody biomass for energy in the U.S. has many people wondering how best to assure that …
(ZeaChem) ZeaChem Inc., developer of highly-efficient biorefineries, today announced that it has completed construction of its 250,000 gallons per year (GPY) cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Boardman, Oregon. The project was completed on budget and is …
by Stefaniya Becking (Advanced Biofuels USA) The 4th Nordic Wood Biorefinery conference held in Helsinki, Finland (October 23-25, 2012) brought together over 300 people from around 30 countries. The organizers successfully achieved the goal of …
(Environmental Leader) Google has been using Cool Planet Energy Systems’ biofuel blend to run a fleet vehicle at the search giant’s Mountain View, Calif. campus, according to the energy-tech startup.
…During the Google trial, a campus …
(Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes) Crude oil is getting scarce. This is why researchers are seeking to substitute petroleum-based products – like plastics – with sustainable raw materials. Waste wood, divided into lignin and cellulose, …
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 …
(Hyrax Energy) A licensing agreement for a novel renewable chemical and biofuel production method between Hyrax Energy and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation promises to accelerate commercial development of the technology and lead to high-quality …
by Billy Gunn (TheTownTalk.com) …Not quite one year ago, Louisiana Economic Development chief Stephen Moret and local economic development officials announced that Sundrop Fuels would locate its biofuels plant at a site off Interstate 49 …
(RTI) RTI International began construction last week on a new 3,000-square-foot energy technology development facility on RTI’s main campus in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
The facility will house a biomass pyrolysis reactor to further extend RTI’s biofuels …
by Andrew Herndon (Bloomberg BusinessWeek) Gevo Inc. (GEVO), Syntroleum Corp. and Solazyme Inc. (SZYM) may be among a “small set” of biofuel producers vying for supply contracts from the U.S. Defense Department, the world’s largest consumer of …
(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 …
(Bioenergy Deployment Consortium/MarketWire) BDC held its 2012 Fall Symposium in Alpena, MI on September 18 & 19, capping the event with a tour of the new cellulosic ethanol plant owned by American Process Inc. (API), …
by Kari Lydersen (Midwestern Energy News) Purdue University associate professor Richard Meilan is striving to develop a poplar tree that grows more quickly and can be more easily converted to biofuel than the average member of the genus …
by Paul Morden (Sarnia Observer) Woodland Biofuels’ $12-million Sarnia demonstration plant is up and could be producing ethanol from wood waste by the end of the year, says president Greg Nuttall.
The newly-built facility is located …
by John Crane (GoDanRiver.com) The CEO of a company that wants to build commercial refinery that would convert feedstock hopes to locate at Gretna Industrial Park.
The town of Gretna and Ken Moss, CEO of Piedmont …
(MarketWire) Hydrocarbon-like fuels and chemicals to come from agricultural and forest biomass
With funding from Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, the Biorefining Conversions Network aims to become a hub for bioeconomy investments and a world class centre …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Canada, Ensyn Corporation and Fibria Celulose announced the creation of a strategic alliance between the two companies. This alliance includes the establishment of an equally-owned joint venture for the production of …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) A new drop-in, low-cost, high-octane fuel molecule? How does that work, and why, and when? How does it change the energy independence equation? Today, the Digest visits Incitor to find …
