Energy – Advanced BioFuels USA

Department of Energy to Provide $75 Million for Bioenergy Crops Research

(U.S. Department of Energy) Funding Will Increase Bioenergy Crop Sustainability and Resistance to Environmental Stress — Today (January 10, 2020), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide up to $75 million over five years for research to develop sustainable bioenergy crops tolerant of environmental stress and resilient

January 15, 2020 Read Full Article

How to Make It Easier to Turn Plant Waste into Biofuels

by Todd Bates (Rutgers University/Phys.Org) Researchers have developed a new process that could make it much cheaper to produce biofuels such as ethanol from plant waste and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Their approach, featuring an ammonia-salt based solvent that rapidly turns plant fibers into sugars needed to make ethanol, works

January 14, 2020 Read Full Article

U.S. Department of Energy Launches Energy Storage Grand Challenge

(U.S. Department of Energy) Today, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette announced the launch of the Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in energy storage. The Grand Challenge builds on the $158 million Advanced

January 10, 2020 Read Full Article

Corrosion Calamities: The Digest’s 2020 Multi-Slide Guide to Corrosion Resistant Materials for Bio-Oil

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Biomass liquefaction technology and bio-oil storage has enough challenges to deal with so being able to identify corrosion-resistant, cost-effective structural materials so that materials issues isn’t one of those challenges, can come a long way to help successful commercialization. Jim Keiser and his team from Oak

January 10, 2020 Read Full Article

10 Reasons Why Algae Are Interesting: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Non-Isocyanate Polyurethanes for Carbon Capture Reuse and Sequestration

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Algae is a wondrous thing…and here are 10 reasons why. But that’s not all! What about polyurethanes? Fully renewable polyurethanes from unsaturated lipids and protein-derived amine cross linkers? Check out this Slide-Guide from NREL’s Philip Pienkos presentation at ABLC NEXT in San Francisco where he shares

January 8, 2020 Read Full Article

Notice of Intent to Issue a Vehicle Technologies Funding Opportunity

(U.S. Department of Energy) The U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office has published a notice of intent to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled “Fiscal Year 2020 Advanced Vehicle Technologies Research FOA.” The FOA will support a broad portfolio of advanced vehicle technologies that can strengthen national security, enable

January 7, 2020 Read Full Article

Microalgae Applications and Cultivation: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to mBio’s Algae Biomass

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) From microalgae applications that include adding value to feed, shrimp larvae culturing, bioplastics and anti-bacterial constituents and other applications, do you know about the latest in algae cultivation technologies? Check out what this team from MicroBio Engineering and Cal Poly State University shared during this

January 6, 2020 Read Full Article

The RFA 2020 Out-In List

(Renewable Fuels Association) RFAEditor’s Note: In keeping with a long-standing RFA holiday tradition, our very own Senior Strategic Advisor offers his views on what is on the way “out” as we turn our calendars to 2020 and what will be “in” as the new year begins. The 2020 Out-In List — 2019

January 3, 2020 Read Full Article

Microbes to Materials: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Lygos’ Sugar Conversion

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) By taking a low pH yeast platform and adding in some BioFab and software, machine learning and artificial intelligence, you get new materials development, said Eric Steen from Lygos during his presentation at ABLC NEXT in San Francisco. Check out this slide guide to get

January 3, 2020 Read Full Article

Cutting Edge Funding: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Debt and Equity Financing Mechanisms for Bioeconomy Projects

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Money, money, money – a growing bioeconomy needs lots of it. But with so many challenges like a lack of certainty in government programs or a perceived lack of funds at the company and project levels, what are the solutions? Mark Riedy, Partner at Kilpatrick Townsend shared

January 2, 2020 Read Full Article

InnovationXLab Biomanufacturing Summit — January 28-29, 2020 — Berkeley, CA

The Department of Energy (DOE) invests billions of dollars per year in its National Laboratory system, a global leader in scientific research. OTT designed the InnovationXLab series in collaboration with the Labs to expand the commercial impact of the substantial investment in the National Lab innovation portfolio. The InnovationXLab Biomanufacturing Summit is an exclusive event aimed

January 2, 2020 Read Full Article

Biofuel Company Anticipates February Start

By Ron Warnick (Quay County Sun) The president of a Tucumcari biofuels company said he anticipates construction will begin in February to convert a closed ethanol plant on the city’s north side into a methane-gas plant that will create 40 jobs for a one-year period. Robert Hockaday, president of Tucumcari Bio-Energy,

January 2, 2020 Read Full Article

Predicting How Microbial Neighbors Influence Each Other

(U.S. Department of Energy) A new microbial network inference method reliably predicts interactions that depend on neighboring organisms. — The Science Microbes in the soil form networks, which in turn make up larger communities. As the environment changes, so do the microbes and their relationships. For scientists to design or control

December 31, 2019 Read Full Article

Carbon Recycling: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to LanzaTech’s CarbonSmart

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) LanzaTech is turning our global carbon crisis into a feedstock opportunity with the potential to displace 30% of crude oil use today and reduce global CO2 emissions by 10%. By recycling carbon from industrial off-gases; syngas generated from any biomass resource (e.g. municipal solid waste (MSW),

December 31, 2019 Read Full Article

Autothermal Pyrolysis: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Rethinking Thermochemical Processing

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Iowa State University is working on fast pyrolysis, and Robert Brown, Director of the university’s Bioeconomy Institute looks at how their work is making us rethink thermochemical processing. By looking at autothermal pyrolysis, and more, Brown shared this presentation at ABLC NEXT in San Francisco. READ

December 27, 2019 Read Full Article

Yay or Nay for EPA? RFS Volumes out for 2020, Biodiesel for 2021 – What’s the Reaction from Industry?

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) … Should Santa bring coal for EPA’s stocking this year? Do the biofuels and agriculture industries think the EPA just put coal in their stocking? Is it thumbs up or thumbs down from biofuel industry advocates on last week’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency renewable

December 23, 2019 Read Full Article

Department of Energy Announces $20 Million in Funding to Develop Feedstock Monitoring and Carbon Storage Technology

(U.S. Department of Energy) Today (December 19, 2019), the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced up to $20 million in funding to develop technologies to quantify feedstock-related emissions at the field level. The Systems for Monitoring and Analytics for Renewable Transportation Fuels from Agricultural Resources and

December 20, 2019 Read Full Article

EIA Product Highlight: Plant-Level Biodiesel Production Capacity (First Annual Report)

(U.S. Department of Energy) Earlier this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its first annual U.S. Biodiesel Plant Production Capacity Report. The report includes the total biodiesel production capacity for all operating plants in both million gallons per year (gal/y) and barrels per day (b/d) as of January 1, 2019. The names

December 20, 2019 Read Full Article

Research Yields Potential Bioblendstock for Diesel Fuel

(National Renewable Energy Laboratory/Phys.Org) The NREL scientists, along with colleagues at Yale University, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, are part of the Department of Energy’s Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative. Co-Optima’s research focuses on improving fuel economy and vehicle performance while also reducing emissions. “If

December 19, 2019 Read Full Article

Neutrons Optimize High Efficiency Catalyst for Greener Approach to Biofuel Synthesis

(U.S. Department of Energy/Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Science Daily) Researchers used neutron scattering in the development of a catalyst that converts biomass into liquid fuel with remarkably high efficiency and provides new possibilities for manufacturing renewable energy-related materials. Researchers led by the University of Manchester have designed a catalyst that converts

December 17, 2019 Read Full Article

Conversion Technologies: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to BETO’s Carbon-Based Fuels and Co-Products

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Why is working with biomass so challenging? Jonathan Male, Director at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) set out to answer that question at ABLC NEXT in San Francisco. Check out his illuminating presentation on how BETO is exploring various strategies to reduce

December 17, 2019 Read Full Article

Biofuel Producers Make Gains in Efficiency, Productivity

(Argonne National Laboratory/Ethanol Producer Magazine) The nation’s biofuel producers have made significant gains in both energy efficiency and water conservation in recent years, according to a report released by the U.S Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. The findings were derived from a recent survey of commercial-scale dry-mill facilities spread throughout the country,

December 13, 2019 Read Full Article

Caribou Biofuels, Research Foundation for SUNY Sign Agreement

(Caribou Biofuels/Biomass Magazine) Caribou Biofuels Inc., a company that develops hardware and systems to cost-effectively process biomass, has entered into an agreement with the Research Foundation for SUNY, on behalf of SUNY Cobleskill, to develop and commercialize a rotary gasifier that turns combustible waste into biofuel and a soil supplement. The

December 13, 2019 Read Full Article

Department of Energy Announces 2019 U.S. Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Awardees

(U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E)) The U.S. C3E Awards recognize mid-career women who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and accomplishments in clean energy. C3E Ambassadors select the winners and these remarkable Awardees are recognized for their work at the C3E Symposium each year. Personal narratives and advice from C3E Award

December 12, 2019 Read Full Article

DE-FOA-0002244: Notice of Intent: Bottle: Bio-Optimized Technologies to Keep Thermoplastics out of Landills and the Environment

(U.S. Department of Energy) The Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “BOTTLE: Bio-Optimized Technologies to Keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment.” This FOA, jointly funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and Advanced Manufacturing

December 11, 2019 Read Full Article

DE-FOA-0002202: Notice of Intent: FY20 Bioenergy Technologies Office Multi-Topic Funding Opportunity Announcement

(U.S. Department of Energy) The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “FY20 Bioenergy Technologies Multi-Topic FOA”. BETO develops technologies that convert domestic biomass and waste resources into fuels, products, and power to

December 11, 2019 Read Full Article

Department of Energy Launches Plastics Innovation Challenge

(U.S. Department of Energy) On November 21, 2019, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced the launch of the Plastics Innovation Challenge, a comprehensive U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program to accelerate innovations in energy-efficient plastics recycling technologies. Plastics are used in thousands of products essential to modern life, but

December 11, 2019 Read Full Article

On the Road to Success from Research to Product: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Cyclotron Road

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Cyclotron Road is a partnership between the non-profit Activate.org and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to empower scientists to advance their technologies from concept to first product through a fellowship program. It’s a home for hard tech innovators. Companies like Opus 12, MicroByre, Visolis, CinderBio, and others had

December 10, 2019 Read Full Article

Choices at the Pump: Convenience Matters Dives into What It Will Take to Add E15 to Your Fuel Lineup.

(National Association of Convenience Stores) On this week’s episode of Convenience Matters, “Increasing Fuel Options for Consumers,” NACS hosts John Eichberger, executive director for the Fuels Institute, and Donovan Woods, director of operations for the Fuels Institute, discuss the future of liquid fuels with Kristi Moriarty, senior engineer at the National

December 5, 2019 Read Full Article

Argonne Collaboration Shows Benefits of Better Corn Residue Management Strategies

(U.S. Department of Energy) As the global population swells, boosting the demand for both food and energy, land management has never been more important. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are conducting pivotal research that will help keep soil healthy now and into the future.

December 4, 2019 Read Full Article

Engineered Strains for Fermentation: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to n-Butanol from Biomass and CO2

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) $2.25/gal or less than $3/gge (gallon gasoline equivalent) sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? That is one of the goals of a project that is working on developing engineered clostridial strains and a fermentation process that can directly utilize cellulose and fix CO2 for n-butanol production from

December 4, 2019 Read Full Article

Biofuels Could Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 96%

by Steve Hanley (Clean Technica) There is nothing inherently wrong with internal combustion engines. The problem is the fuels we use to run them emit billions of tons of greenhouse gases every year, gases which cause the Earth to get hotter. The byproducts from burning gasoline or diesel fuel account for

December 4, 2019 Read Full Article

More than 11,700 Comments Filed on EPA’s SRE Proposal

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The public comment period of U.S. EPA’s supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking that addresses the agency’s plan to reallocate future Renewable Fuel Standard volumes lost to small refinery exemptions (SREs) closed Nov. 29. More than 11,700 comments were filed on the proposal, according to data

December 3, 2019 Read Full Article

Wanted – Stronger Microbial Strains: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to NREL’s Biological Sugar Upgrades

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Microbial strains convert lignocellulosic sugars to fuel precursors, but Jeff Linger from National Renewable Energy Laboratory gave this illuminating presentation at the DOE’s BETO 2019 Project Peer Review that details how they are looking to develop and optimize hybrid biological routes to be coupled with

December 3, 2019 Read Full Article

The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Hydrogen Fuel Cell Aircraft

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As Hüseyin Turan Arat of İskenderun Technical University and Meryem Gizem Sürer observed in a recent paper, “With the increasing world population and the energy consumption, the aviation industry has led the technology and researches to alternative and/or renewable energy sources depending on the risk of

December 2, 2019 Read Full Article

Pathway to Fuels: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Bio-Syngas and Fatty Alcohols

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Did you know that Dow and LanzaTechpreviously validated syngas conversion to fatty alcohols via the +1 pathway (LeuABCD) in Clostridium? There is a project underway now to develop a new bio-syngas fermentation process using engineered bacteria for production of intermediate (C6-C14) fatty alcohols leveraging robust chemical

November 29, 2019 Read Full Article

BECCS to the Future: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to ARPA’s Methane Fuel

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) If you missed ABLC NEXT in San Francisco, let’s go back to the future and look at BECCS – Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage – and examine the challenges, how it is fueled by methane and what methane pyrolysis can do, how we can go

November 29, 2019 Read Full Article

Verdict’s in for Vertimass: Yep, It’s Commercially Viable

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) From California the jury’s come in for Vertimass. We received word of a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, which summarizes key attributes of Vertimass’ unique technology for the conversion of alcohols into hydrocarbons which are compatible

November 27, 2019 Read Full Article

LanzaTech Moves Forward on Sustainable Aviation Scale Up in the USA and Japan

(LanzaTech) Carbon recycling pioneer, LanzaTech, continues to make strides in scaling up its alcohol to jet (ATJ) platform. Commercialization of the ATJ process has been years in the making, starting with the partnership between LanzaTech and the U.S Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. PNNL developed a unique catalytic process to

November 26, 2019 Read Full Article

TEA Tornado Plot, Technical Hurdles, and Driving Down MFSP: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to NREL’s Algal Biomass

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The commercialization of algae has several challenges, but Lieve M. Laurens from National Renewable Energy Laboratory gave this illuminating presentation at the DOE’s BETO 2019 Project Peer Review that details how they are trying to reduce the cost of algal biofuels by increasing intrinsic algal biomass

November 26, 2019 Read Full Article

Oh So Sweet! Amyris’s Look at Farnesene Production from Sugars: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to MegaBio and Farnesene

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Amyris is working on a MegaBio goal. Mega because it’s a big goal – develop a fully integrated and scalable process to produce farnesene from cellulosic sugars at $2 per liter in the U.S. Quinn Mitrovich from Amyris gave this illuminating presentation at the DOE’s BETO 2019

November 25, 2019 Read Full Article

“The Thing to Remember Is that It’s Agriculture.” Manta’s New Way to Think about Algal Biofuel

by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) Not only is the Manta Biofuel system a way to grow, harvest and process algae into oil that can be used for heating or powering heavy duty engines or ocean-going vessels, or as a feedstock for refineries; Dr. Ryan Powell sees the Manta Biofuel

November 16, 2019 Read Full Article

EPA Small Refinery Exemptions in the Renewable Fuel Standard Explained

(U.S. Department of Energy Energy Information Administration) … The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates the amount of renewable fuels refineres must blend into the U.S. transportation fuel supply. As part of the RFS program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can grant annual waivers to some petroleum refineries, called small refinery exemptions (SREs), which

November 15, 2019 Read Full Article

Department of Energy Announces 2019 U.S. Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Awardees

(C3E Awards) Tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will recognize nine accomplished women for their achievements and leadership in clean energy as part of the U.S Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Initiative. The winners of the 2019 U.S. C3E awards, which will take place at the Eighth Annual U.S. C3E Women

November 13, 2019 Read Full Article

Court Dismisses ABFA’s Petition for Review of EPA SRE Methodology

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Nov. 12 dismissed a petition for review filed by the Advanced Biofuels Association challenging the U.S. EPA’s methodology for granting small refinery exemptions (SREs). The court’s judgement, however, provides a clearer legal pathway for current

November 13, 2019 Read Full Article

Biofuel Producers Make Significant Gains in Efficiency, Productivity and Conservation, Argonne Survey Shows

(U.S. Department of Energy Newswise) Survey results conclude that there have been significant improvements in energy efficiency and water conservation. — The nation’s biofuel producers have made significant gains in both energy efficiency and water conservation in recent years, according to a report released by the U.S Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National

November 13, 2019 Read Full Article

UCSB Chemical Engineer Looks at Microbes Found in Herbivores’ Guts to Turn Plant Waste into Fuel

by Soe Han Tha (Santa Barbara News Press) Households and businesses typically regard as waste the parts of plants that cannot be consumed, whether that be stems, roots, inedible leaves. What if this waste could be used as fuel or other commodity chemicals? A research group led by UCSB professor of chemical

November 8, 2019 Read Full Article

Are Ancient Bugs the Key to Storing Wind and Solar?

by Stephen Lacey (GreenTechMedia) In this special podcast episode: We tour NREL’s new bioreactor that creates renewable methane from microorganisms, hydrogen and CO2. NREL and SoCalGas are finally running their novel power-to-gas system. — As grids get saturated with wind and solar electricity, there’s increasing pressure to find new ways to

November 6, 2019 Read Full Article

SOFAST It’s Scary!: The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Arthrospira/Spirulina Algae Strains

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Streamlined Optimization of Filamentous Arthrospira/SpirulinaTraits (SOFAST) is looking at algae in a whole new way. Lumen Bioscience in particular has been working on a unique, patented technology to genetically enhance Arthrospira for improved growth and biomass composition for biofuels and bioproducts. Damian Carrieri from Lumen Bioscience gave

November 6, 2019 Read Full Article

Argonne National Laboratory Releases 2019 GREET Model

by Matt Thompson (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The Argonne National Laboratory’s 2019 GREET (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation) models include changes and updates to carbon calculations for land use change from the production of biofuels, as well as the use of an open-source database of soil organic carbon.

November 5, 2019 Read Full Article

Rural Leaders Ask President Trump to Uphold Biofuel Promise

(Renewable Fuels Association) A broad coalition of biofuel and farm advocates today sent a letter to the White House calling on President Trump to fix a flawed proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency, which “fails in its mission to reinvigorate farm economies and reopen biofuel plants across America’s heartland.” The letter

November 5, 2019 Read Full Article

ABLCNext Top 10 Takeaways – What Was the Industry Buzzing about in San Francisco?

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) At ABLC Next last week, there was lots of buzz and tons of discussion about all sorts of things, but what were the key takeaways? Let’s start with Sustainable Aviation Fuels, CRISPR, new food, the law, and more. In today’s Digest, find out what the

November 5, 2019 Read Full Article

The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to Hydrogen Fuel Cell Aircraft

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As Hüseyin Turan Arat of İskenderun Technical University and Meryem Gizem Sürer observed in a recent paper, “With the increasing world population and the energy consumption, the aviation industry has led the technology and researches to alternative and/or renewable energy sources depending on the risk of

November 4, 2019 Read Full Article

EPA Refinery Exemptions Reduced Renewable Fuel Blending Requirements in 2018

(U.S. Energy Information Administration) On August 9, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it had granted 31 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Small Refinery Exemptions (SRE) for the 2018 compliance year, or 4 fewer than were approved for the 2017 compliance year. As of October 2019, two SRE applications

November 4, 2019 Read Full Article

The Bioeconomy Initiative: Implementation Framework Published by Interagency Collaboration under the Biomass Research and Development Board

(Biomass Research and Development (BR&D) Board) Created through the Biomass Research and Development Act of 2000, the Biomass Research and Development (BR&D) Board facilitates coordination among federal government agencies that affect the research and development of biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower. Since 2013, the BR&D Board has worked to shape an interagency

November 1, 2019 Read Full Article

Energy and Water Sustainability in the U.S. Biofuel Industry

by May Wu (Argonne National Laboratory) The progress of technology development for conventional and advanced biofuel production processes in the U.S. has been reviewed by several groups over the last two decades (Warner et al. 2017; Mueller and Kwik 2013; Wu et al. 2009; Wu 2008; Shapouri and Gallagher 2005).

November 1, 2019 Read Full Article

How Lithium Could Be Calif.’s Next ‘Gold Rush’

by David Ferris and David Iaconangelo (E&E News) … EnergySource, based in San Diego, is making an expensive gamble that it can be the first to tap a vast reserve of lithium here that has frustrated engineers for decades. Lithium has always been valuable, but the arrival of electric vehicles

October 31, 2019 Read Full Article

Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee Announces Open Meetings — November 19-20, 2019 — Washington, DC

(U.S. Department of Energy/Federal Register) Purpose of Meeting: To develop advice and guidance that promotes research and development leading to the production of biobased fuels and biobased products. Tentative Agenda will include thefollowing: • Update on USDA Biomass R&D Activities • Update on DOE Biomass R&D Activities • Presentations from

October 31, 2019 Read Full Article

Vertimass Selected by U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technology Office to Receive Up to $1.4 Million Award to Optimize Renewable Jet Fuel

(Vertimass/PR Newswire) Vertimass to optimize renewable jet fuel blendstocks to maximize energy content and reduce emissions — Vertimass LLC announced today that Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy will receive a cost-shared award of up to $1.4 million to optimize jet fuel

October 31, 2019 Read Full Article

Just Announced at ABLCNEXT 2019: Energy Department Announces $14M Investment in Demonstration-Scale Integrated Biorefineries

(Department of Energy)Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Selection for EERE Project Development for Pilot and Demonstration Scale Manufacturing of Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biopower — Today, the Energy Department announced a $14 million investment in demonstration-scale integrated biorefineries. This investment, a continuation of a Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 FOA selection, is being negotiated

October 31, 2019 Read Full Article

USDA, DOE Sign Major MOU to Promote Rural Energy, Advance Rural Communities, Domestic Manufacturing.

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Washington, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary Donald “DJ” LaVoy and U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes today (October 24, 2019) announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the two departments to promote rural energy and the development of technologies

October 25, 2019 Read Full Article

New Court Documents Detail Rampant EPA Abuse of Small Refinery Exemption Program

(Renewable Fuels Association) Newly available court documents assert that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inappropriately granted Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance exemptions to certain small refineries that did not even qualify for the waivers, and that there was division within the Trump administration about its new approach to small refinery hardship

October 23, 2019 Read Full Article

UPDATED — Trump Lays RFS Egg and Perdue Hatches It

by Jim Wiesemeyer (Pro Farmer) President Donald Trump today said a plan to recalculate biofuel-blending requirements to offset waivers exempting refineries from the mandates is approved, done and ready to sign and that the deal is “going to be terrific for the small refiners” that have “been hurt for a long

October 22, 2019 Read Full Article

OP-ED: Achieving Carbon Emission Reductions with Biofuels

by Pat Gruber (GEVO/American Energy Society) It’s a gaping hole in most conversations about fuel: what do we do about liquid transportation fuels? No matter how quickly we try to electrify our transportation sector, gasoline isn’t going away. Diesel isn’t going away. Jet fuel certainly isn’t going away. Even the most ambitious

October 21, 2019 Read Full Article

Phase Genomics Lands DOE Grant as Pest-Detecting Tech for Algae Wins Support

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Washington state, Phase Genomics will receive $325,000 as part of the $73 million Department of Energy (DOE) Office Efficiency and Renewable Energy funding. Phase Genomics’ proximity-ligation metagenomic technology will be leveraged to sequence the genomes of new microorganisms to help detect and manage microbial pests in

October 21, 2019 Read Full Article

Climate Change, Advanced Biofuels and Clean Diesel

(Diesel Technology Forum) When Rudolph Diesel patented his engine over a century ago, it was designed to operate on vegetable oils. Today, most diesel engines are still capable of operating on high quality fuels derived from vegetable oils. Whether it is biodiesel or renewable diesel fuel, the use of high