(VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland/Biomass Magazine)  EU-funded project COMSYN aims to develop a production concept for competitive biobased fuels by means of a compact gasification and synthesis process. The target reduction of the biofuel …

by Sierk de Jong, Kay Antonissen, Ric Hoefnagels, Laura Lonza, Michael Wang, André Faaij and Martin Junginger (Biotechnology for Biofuels)  The introduction of renewable jet fuel (RJF) is considered an important emission mitigation measure for the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  One of the more striking outcomes from the DOE Bioeconomy 2017 conference in Washington DC was confirmation of the demise of Joule Unlimited. “We had a lot of prospects last …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In the UK, Velocys CEO David Pummell said that “Our new strategy is for Velocys to be at the heart of building plants that convert woody biomass to high specification …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In late 2015, we reported Red Rock Biofuels will produce approximately three million gallons of low-carbon, renewable jet fuel per year (at that time, from 2017 through 2024) for FedEx Express, a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The value of cellulosic fuels has reached $4.33 per gallon in the California market. That’s real-world, today, including the energy and the low-carbon attributes, and not based on speculation. The …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The Soletair process, developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology, is using carbon dioxide and solar power to produce renewable fuels and chemicals and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … In the latest news, the Soletair process, developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology, is using carbon dioxide and solar power to produce renewable …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Velocys enables modular gas-to-liquids and biomass-to-liquids plants to convert unconventional, remote and problem gas and waste biomass into valuable, drop-in liquid fuels.
After 15 years and some $300 million in investment, …

by John Fialka (E&E News/Climatewire)  In May 2016, investigators from the Government Accountability Office assembled a panel of 19 experts in Washington to explore what had happened to a program to develop a commercial market …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In June 2011, the Secretaries of Agriculture, Energy, and Navy signed MOU to commit $510M (up to $170M from each agency) to produce hydrocarbon jet and diesel biofuels in the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Velocys enables modular gas-to-liquids and biomass-to-liquids plants to convert unconventional, remote and problem gas and waste biomass into valuable, drop-in liquid fuels.
After 15 years and some $300 million in investment, …

by Dina Bacovsky, Andrea Sonnleitner (Task39 Newsletter)  …  Domestic FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) production in 2014 was 292,009 tonnes based on rapeseed (72%), used cooking oil (19%), animal fat (8%) and fatty acids (1%). The feedstock …

by  Brooks Hays (UPI)  Chemical engineer Jae Sung Lee said the research will offer a “new opportunity for recycling CO2 into valuable fuels and chemicals.”  —  Researchers have developed a new way to turn captured …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Colorado, Gevo has entered into a heads of agreement with Lufthansa to supply Gevo’s alcohol-to-jet fuel from its first commercial hydrocarbon facility, intended to be built in Luverne, MN. …

(Environmental Research and Education Foundation) Using a first-of-its-kind Life-Cycle Assessment model of biofuel production using MSW, this report includes an assessment of the environmental impacts associated with MSW conversion via landfill gas-to-energy, waste-to-energy, and gasification/Fischer-Tropsch. How …

(Netzwerk Biotreibstoffe)  A recent JRC (Joint Research Center) report finds that fuels like liquefied natural gas (LNG) and methanol are the most promising alternatives to drive decarbonisation of the shipping sector and ultimately contribute to …

by Irshad Ahmed (Lee Enterprises)  … I believe cellulosic ethanol is here to stay for the long haul and it is finally exhibiting real potential to establish a critical-mass commercial base alongside the corn-ethanol industry. Its commercial …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Remember how natural gas was the no-brainer of all time. Gas-to-Liquids was the rage, and a gold rush of companies popped up such as Siluria Technologies, Calysta, and Mango Materials. …

(Gas & Electricity)  By now, most are familiar with biodiesel. It is a cost-effective and more environmentally friendly alternative to conventional petroleum-based diesel fuels when used in the correct applications.
…
However, there are limitations when compared …

by Gerald Kutney  (Lee Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  … From the time of the caveman until the early Industrial Revolution, biofuels – namely wood and the advanced biofuel of the day, charcoal – reigned supreme.  Both fossil fuels and …

by Committee on Propulsion and Energy Systems to Reduce Commercial Aviation Carbon Emissions; Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board; Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies Press) The primary …

(Federal Aviation Administration)  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has played an integral role in development, testing and recent approval of a new alternative, environmentally-friendly, bio-based jet fuel, bringing the total number of these approved products …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  This week, we held a well-attended webinar on the boom on in Renewable diesel. Here below is a slide deck presented on the day, from Will Thurmond, President of Emerging Markets Online — …

(Tyton/Digital Journal)  Tyton BioEnergy Systems announced today a major technological advancement in the production of sustainable jet fuel. Tyton filed a patent application for a new method and system of converting oil extracted from plant …

by Almuth Ernsting (Independent Science News) … The disastrous experience with Fischer-Tropsch biofuels is just one part of a much larger failure of cellulosic and algal biofuels, on which billions of dollars of public subsidies have been …

by Kapil Lokare (Lee Enterprises/Renewable Energy World)  As renewables are moving from niche to mainstream, the industry is facing a paradigm shift in cost, quality, complexity, and scale ­— creating opportunities to develop new and different …

(Joule/BusinessWire) Major milestones include acquisition of Red Rock Biofuels, expanded partner relationships, continued strong technology development backed by strong financing partners  —  Joule, the pioneer of drop-in liquid fuels from recycled CO2, announced today that it …

by Michael Holman (Lux Research)  In 2015, Lux Research analysts profiled 1,189 companies across 20 different emerging technologies. As the year end approaches, we polled the analyst team to select the top 10 companies we …

(Joule/Red Rock Biofuels/BusinessWire) Joule, the pioneer of liquid fuels from recycled CO2, and Red Rock Biofuels, a leading developer of renewable jet and diesel fuel bio-refineries, today announced their intent to merge. Red Rock adds …

by Thierry Dubois (AIN Online)  Biofuels for aviation are still facing multiple challenges, the greatest being finding ways to make production economical, according to a report jointly released in September by the French Académie des …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  … The Energy Department’s Bioenergy Technologies Office is working together with industry to develop and test integrated biorefineries—facilities capable of efficiently converting plant and waste material into affordable biofuels, biopower and other products. These projects …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Four new technologies approach scaled operations, all with one element in common – Velocys technology on the back-end.  Why Velocys, why now? The Digest investigates.
In Oklahoma, Southeast Oregon, Eastern Ohio, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Fulcrum BioEnergy has developed a “game-changing process for converting municipal solid waste that would otherwise be landfilled, into renewable transportation fuels including syncrude, jet fuel and diesel”. The company has …

(Southeast Partnership for Integrated Biomass Supply Systems)  The meeting presentations are now available for download on the IBSS website:
IBSS 2015 Annual Meeting Presentations
IBSS 2015 Annual Meeting Posters
READ MORE
 

by Erin Voegele (Biomass Magazine)  In late July, the U.S. Government Accountability Office published a report focused on U.S. Department of Defense investments in alternative fuels. The report notes that while the DOE has purchased …

(Red Rock Biofuels LLC)  Red Rock Biofuels LLC, a pioneer in renewable biofuels, announced today that it will produce approximately three million gallons of low-carbon, renewable jet fuel per year for FedEx Express, a subsidiary …

(BioPower Operations Corporation)  BioPower Operations Corporation (OTCQB: BOPO) (“BioPower” or the “Company”) announced today (June 30, 2015) that its wholly-owned subsidiary Green3Power Operations Inc. (G3P) has won the award to build a $175 Million renewable …

(BioPower Operations Corp./Biomass Magazine)  BioPower Operations Corp. has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Green3Power Operations Inc. (G3P) has won an award to build a $175 million renewable energy facility that will convert waste into …

(United Airlines/PR Newswire)  Airline has opportunity to purchase at least 90 million gallons of sustainable aviation biofuel a year — Single largest investment by a U.S. airline in alternative fuels
United Airlines today announced an historic $30 …

(US Department of Agriculture/Ohio State University)  The long term goal of this project is to commercialize an integrated anaerobic digestion system (iADs) that promises cost competitive bioenergy and biofuels production from lignocellulosic biomass. The specific …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  What’s the latest with such projects such as Frontline BioEnergy, Myriant, POET-DSM, INEOS Bio, Sapphire Energy, Abengoa, Haldor Topsoe, UOP. ZeaChem, Mercurius, and American Process, among others?
In Washington this June …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  An effort is underway in the UK to classify, within the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, “novel low carbon fuels” made by companies such as LanzaTech, Joule, Solar Jet, Velocys, Sunfire, …

(Green Car Congress)  The US Defense Logistics Agency-Energy (DLA-Energy) has posted the Rocky Mountain/West Coast/Offshore (RMW) solicitation (SPE600-15-R-0711) on behalf of the US Navy for fuel deliveries from 1 October 2015 to 30 September 2016. …

(Total) The BioTfueL project focuses on producing second-generation biodiesel and bio-jet fuel via thermochemical conversion. Total is working with five partners to bring the process to commercial-scale production.
In the BioTfueL project, Total is working with five …

by Tim Sklar (Biofuels Digest)  Looking to turn vicious project financing cycles into virtuous cycles?  This case study in developing a small-scale Bio-LNG plant offers cautionary tales and a way forward.
In July 2014, Biofuels Digest …

(Red Rock Biofuels) Red Rock Biofuels LLC, a pioneer in renewable biofuels, today unveiled a strategic partnership with Flagship Ventures that sets the stage for the construction of its first commercial scale refinery in Lakeview, OR. …

Author, Dan Quadros, in Auburn, Alabama.

by Danilo Gusmão de Quadros* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  After two days (February 2-3, 2015) in “Sweet Home Alabama” at Auburn University, we got overwhelmed with the most recent discoveries of …

by Wally Tyner (The Conversation/Purdue University)  … One challenge to commercializing biofuel made from non-food sources — called cellulosic biofuels — has been cost.
Unlike ethanol made from corn, cellulosic biofuels are made from the inedible parts …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Oil prices continue to show incredible volatility. $106 in June, $50 today. Which biofuels ventures have the pro-formas to make money in a tough market? The Digest investigates.
…
Avello Bioenergy
Cost: $57.50 per …

(Airbus/Biomass Magazine) Airbus Group Inc. continues its commitment to promote innovation and advance environmentally-friendly aviation initiatives by supporting development of sustainable fuels with the potential of reducing lifecycle carbon emissions. Airbus Group has signed a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Sklar & Associates is a South Carolina based consulting firm now specializing in Biofuels project development. … S&A is actively engaged in development of a biorefinery converting 360,000 dry tons per …

by Benét J. Wilson (BusinessJournalism.org)  Right now, oil prices are down, but nobody expects them to stay there. That is why Airlines for America, the trade organization for the largest U.S. carriers, says its members …

(Dallas Morning News)  Southwest Airlines announced Wednesday that it plans to buy some biofuels made from waste wood for use in its San Francisco Bay airports beginning in two years.
To use Southwest’s phrasing, it is …

(Fulcrum BioEnergy/PRNewswire) — Cathay Pacific Airways announced today that it is the first airline investor in Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc. (“Fulcrum”), a US-based sustainable biofuel developer, as part of the airline’s biofuel strategy and to help …

(Velocys plc)  Velocys plc (VLS.L), the technology innovator for smaller scale gas-to-liquids (GTL), is pleased to announce that it has entered a joint venture (JV) with Waste Management, NRG Energy (NRG), and Ventech Engineers International …

by Tim Sklar (Biofuels Digest)  Anyone that has followed the evolution of processes that are used to make fuels out of waste recognizes that the permutations and combinations of processes that can be used has …

(Navigant Research)  Viewed as a game changer in the race to commercialize advanced biofuels, aviation and marine biofuels represent a very significant opportunity for emerging producers in the advanced biofuels industry. Demand for advanced biofuels …

(American Council On Renewable Energy)  Today (June 2, 2014), the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) announced that it has submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) which sought stakeholder input regarding the biofuel pathways …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  From Washington, the Navy’s Director of Operational Energy, Chris Tindal, advises the Digest:
“As of two weeks ago, the Navy has fully approved MILSPECs for JP-5, JP-8, and F-76 for the …

(Solena Fuels)  Solena Fuels in partnership with British Airways has committed to building the world’s first facility to convert landfill waste into jet fuel. This comes just two weeks before the global aviation community joins …

by Tim Sklar (Biofuels Digest) Part 1 … It seems that many of the companies providing new biofuels technologies do not fully understanding the competitive environment that they must navigate. As a consequence they fail to …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  First plant go/no-go expected in 2014; target: Oklahoma.  Future expansion in North America, UK, China.
In Oklahoma, Velocys, Waste Management, NRG Energy, and Ventech Engineers International announced a joint venture to …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Reminiscent of 2009′s Summer of Algae, when those technologies were coming out of the woodwork, we appear to be in the Hydrogen Spring.  Every time we write about them, more …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … “You will never have enough affordable hydrogen.”   Perhaps that is the attractor in the news from little-known Solarvest Bioenergy, when they announced  third party confirmation of their bio-hydrogen expression system following the …

(MarketWatch/KiOR)  KiOR, Inc., provided today (December 23, 2013) an update on the operations at its Columbus, Mississippi, facility.
KiOR expects that, given current and anticipated operations through the remainder of the year, the Columbus facility will …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Qantas, Shell, AISAF, SkyNRG, Solena and others collaborate on on an illuminating supply chain analysis of sustainable aviation fuels.    Which one is technically ready, but feedstock-starved? Which one has …

by C Shivakumar  (New India Express)  The 5,000 tonnes of garbage generated in the city per day has the potential to be converted to 12 crore litre of aviation fuel and 4.5 crore litre of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the US Department of Energy announced that 15 breakthrough energy projects will receive approximately $34 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) via the REMOTE program (Reducing …

by Ben Messenger (Waste Management World)  Washington County, Maryland is pursuing a project that will develop a refused derived fuel (RDF) facility to process municipal solid waste, followed by a waste gasification facility that will …

by Patrick J. Kiger and Marianne Lavelle  (National Geographic)  … KiOR’s breakthrough is one part of a wide-ranging effort by a number of companies and government-supported researchers to develop and perfect “drop-in” biofuels—fuels so similar to …

by Thomas Anderson (TG Daily)  According to the new research results of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, lignocellulosic biomass can be used in the production of high-quality biofuels for the price of less than one …

Technip was awarded by Forest BtL Oy a contract, worth approximately €5 million, for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) of a new second generation biomass-to-liquid* (BTL) plant to be built on Ajos island, Finland. …

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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A numbers of readers responding to “Biofuels from a raging fireball” (Friday’s Top Story, on research work with the raging fireball, Pyrococchus furiosus, to make biofuels and renewable chemicals from …

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 Richard C. Baliban, Josephine A. Elia, Christodoulos A. Floudas, Xin Xiao, Zhijian Zhang , Jie Li , Hongbin Cao, Jiong Ma §, Yong Qiao, and Xuteng Hu (Industrial Engineering and Chemistry Research)  Duckweed biomass is …

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 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 Aino Siirala (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Richard L. Altman, Executive director of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI),  gave a presentation to DOE Biomass 2012.
CAAFI is a coalition of airlines, aircraft and engine manufacturers, …

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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  While companies pursue alternatives to Fischer-Tropsch technologies, Velocys is seeking to make F-T work economically with micro-reactors.
In last week’s Digest, Robert Rapier aptly stated the challenge in front of XTL technologies – …

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 …

(IFP Energies Nouvelles)  The numerous research programmes looking at new-generation biofuels that were initiated over the last ten years are now starting to bear fruit. Although no plants are producing and
marketing biofuels yet, the large-scale, industrial …

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 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)  …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 …

(Green Car Congress)  A team from the Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences reports on a pilot-scale biomass-gasification-reforming system with optimized catalyst to produce …

(RAND Corporation)  If the U.S. military increases its use of alternative fuels, there will be no direct benefit to the nation’s armed forces, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Any benefits from investment in alternative fuels …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …(S)team reformation, a process by which gasified biomass is converted into a useful balance of hydrogen and carbon monoxide … itself has struggled with high costs associated with the high temperatures …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …a lot of strong commentary from the readership on the potential for Fischer-Tropsch technologies. And brought out some very strong feelings about waste.
On F-T, one reader wrote:   “Expansion of FT? …

by Luke Geiver  (Biorefining Magazine)  The work of ThermoChem Recovery International has already changed the future for one small Wisconsin community.
A small town in the woods of Wisconsin, fresh off the bankruptcy and closing of …

by Dan Burciaga (President & CEO, TRI)  Burciaga discusses TRI’s proprietary steam reforming gasification system, and its applicability to the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and renewable power. TRI’s biorefineries are feedstock-flexible, controlled to maximize thermal efficiency, …

HCL CleanTech, a US-Israeli biofuels technology development company, has selected Southern Research Institute in North Carolina as the hosting site and operator of its first pilot plant to produce low cost fermentable sugars, high-quality lignin …

by Joshua Kagan (GreenTechMedia) This week’s announcement that the Air Force successfully tested a A-10C Thunderbolt “Warthog” plane on a 50:50 blend of petroleum jet fuel and camelina-based biofuel has brought the two disparate ways …

·  Fuels Focus Day! Take part in this series of workshops to enhance your knowledge about a particular area of defense that is receiving a lot of attention
·  Representation from all branches of the services …

by  Gerard Wynn  (Reuters)   British Airways will start sourcing a small portion of its jet fuel from municipal waste from 2014, under a deal with U.S.-based biofuel company Solena Group, the two companies announced on …

Advanced biofuel producers announced the formation of the Low Carbon Synthetic Fuels Association (LCSFA), with members including TRI, Rentech Inc., Velocys, CHOREN, Flambeau River Biofuels/Johnson Timber, AP Fuels and World GTL. The LCSFA was formed …