(Department of Energy/ARPA-E) ARPA-E Projects in 25 States Will Accelerate Innovation in Clean Energy Technologies, Increase America's Competitiveness and Create Jobs Arun Majumdar, Director of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), today announced 60 cutting-edge research projects aimed
sorghum
Back TO HOMEUT Center for Renewable Carbon Named as Lead Institution for $15 Million USDA Grant
(University of Tennessee) Center to coordinate woody biomass production and utilization studies The Center for Renewable Carbon, a program of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, has been named by the USDA as a recipient of one of five coordinated
September 30, 2011 Read Full Article
The (Next) Next-Gen Cellulosic Biofuels
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...Discussions about the 2016-2019 cellulosic biofuels fleet of manufacturing sites – what they will look like, and how they will change – are less common. Yet the second generation is where the big gallonage will
September 29, 2011 Read Full Article
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Major Investments to Spur Innovation and Job Creation in Research, Development and Production of Next Generation Biofuels
(US Department of Agriculture) Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced five major agricultural research projects today aimed at developing regional, renewable energy markets, generating rural jobs, and decreasing America's dependence on foreign oil. Altogether, the five-year program will deliver more than
September 28, 2011 Read Full Article
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Payments to Producers in 41 States to Expand the Production and Availability of Advanced Biofuels
(US Department of Agriculture) Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today (September 27, 2011) announced that USDA will make payments to more than 160 energy producers in 41 states to support and ensure the production and expansion of advanced biofuels. "Renewable energy production
September 28, 2011 Read Full Article
The End of Commodity Crops?
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...Earlier this week in California, Constellation Energy and Chromatin announced a memorandum of understanding to supply of renewable sorghum grown specifically for use as fuel, to two of Constellation’s California power plants. In anticipation of this, Chromatin
September 23, 2011 Read Full Article
Mascoma’s IPO: The 10-Minute Version
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Intrigued by cellulosic ethanol and a new product called MGT, in Mascoma’s IPO? ...Mascoma Corporation announced that it has filed an S-1 registration statement relating to a proposed $100 million initial public offering. The number of
September 20, 2011 Read Full Article
University of Illinois Students Receive BP Grant to Study Biomass Engineering Properties
(Biofuels Journal) Five undergraduate students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign received a $5,000 grant from British Petroleum to research the engineering properties of biomass. The students wrote the grant to develop a virtual database that will tell end users the properties
August 22, 2011 Read Full Article
New Sorghum Ideotypes to Meet the Increasing Demand of Biofuels
(IEA Bioenergy Task 39 Newsletter) Geopolitical tensions in some oil producing regions and the uncertainties surrounding the future availability of fossil fuels, as well as the urgent necessity to mitigate negative impacts on climate through reduced CO2 emissions, have created
July 06, 2011 Read Full Article
Southeast US Offers Huge Energy Crop Potential
by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The U.S. Southeast is ripe for energy crop development, according to several panelists who spoke during a session devoted to next-generation feedstock strategies June 28 at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo in
June 30, 2011 Read Full Article
Agrivida Teaches Biofuel Crops to Self-Destruct
by Martin LaMonica (CNET) ... Agrivida is using genetic engineering and other techniques from the biotech industry to create proteins with specific traits designed for rapid, and cheaper, biofuel production from sorghum, switchgrass, and corn stover, the residual material from corn harvesting. Company
May 23, 2011 Read Full Article
OpEd: A Diverse Biofuels Economy
by Tom Vilsack (USDA/The Daily Mail) ...Last year, the United States produced more than 13 billion gallons of ethanol with the bulk of it coming from the Midwest. But Congress set a national goal of using 36 billion gallons of
May 04, 2011 Read Full Article
Cadillac Sugars, Chevrolet Prices
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) A new generation of technologists aim high in value, low in cost, as the race for sugars to process into biofuels amps up a notch or three “You know, we hear numbers like this,” said Daphne
April 29, 2011 Read Full Article
Harvesting, Storage and Transfer Technology Update
by Maynard Herron and Bob Matousek (Kansas Alliance for Biorefining and Bioenergy) AGCO (Hesston, KS) received an award for biomass feedstock supply demonstration as a partial match of a $5 million renewable energy R & D grant
April 11, 2011 Read Full Article
Maize Farmers Lobby to Supply Biofuel Industry
by Stephanie Nieuwoudt (Interpress Service News Agency) South African maize farmers are pushing hard to change a government decision to exclude their crops as feedstock for bioethanol, in view of food security concerns. Shortly after the government unveiled its biofuel strategy last
March 14, 2011 Read Full Article
The Brew Barons: Masters of Advanced Fermentation, Driving the Redefinition of Biofuels: Pt 1
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...Is there enough energy, food, fiber and feed for all? Advances in industrial fermentation – a/k/a an incredulous “you’re making what? from what? using what? – will be the key to answering that question. The stars of this drama
March 01, 2011 Read Full Article
Vinod Khosla on Biofuel Feedstocks
by Vinod Khosla (GreenTechMedia) Imagination is in shortest supply when it comes to agronomic econometrics that extrapolate the past instead of inventing a new future. Part II: Feedstock. Feedstock cost, environmental impact and even its politics are critical variables. With each
February 06, 2011 Read Full Article
Chromatin’s Yield Machine: Is Instant Gene-Stacking a Game-Changer for Energy Crops?
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Illinois, Chromatin announced the successful first demonstration that genes can be assembled, stacked, and expressed in sugarcane using the company’s mini-chromosome technology. Now, what exactly is a gene stack and why should I care? Most
January 19, 2011 Read Full Article
Biomass May Hold Partial Solution to Global Energy Needs
by Cary Blake (Western Farm Press) A growing U.S. agricultural biomass industry can help meet the catapulting energy and fuel demands of a global population that the United Nations predicts could reach 9 billion by 2050. “We need to envision and implement
December 23, 2010 Read Full Article
BIOLYFE Newsletter Announces Preliminary Research Results of EU Second Generation Ethanol Production Project
(BIOLYFE) The BIOLYFE project aims at improving critical steps of the second generation bioethanol production process and at demonstrating the whole supply chain, from feedstock sourcing via fuel production to product utilisation. The main result will be the construction of an
December 21, 2010 Read Full Article
Agrivida Announces Collaboration with Syngenta Ventures to Deliver Low-Cost Sugars for Cellulosic Biofuels and Biochemicals
(Agrivida) Agrivida, Inc. announced a collaboration with Syngenta Ventures to develop advanced crop technology that will provide low-cost sugars for a variety of industrial applications. Under the terms of the agreement, Syngenta licenses to Agrivida access to crop technology and
December 17, 2010 Read Full Article
Growing Sorghum for Biofuel
(EurekAlert!/American Society of Agronomy) Iowa State researchers examine the efficiencies and environmental impacts of growing sorghum for ethanol Conversion of sorghum grass to ethanol has increased with the interest in renewable fuel sources. Researchers at Iowa State University examined 12 varieties of
November 11, 2010 Read Full Article
Ceres Publishes Best Practices on Energy Crop Production
(Ceres) Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. has published two new crop management guides that include the most current recommendations on the establishment, management and harvest of switchgrass and high-biomass sorghum. Energy grasses, which provide high yields of biomass that can be converted
October 06, 2010 Read Full Article
Southeast Missouri St. Official Says Sorghum May Replace Corn as Preferred Crop for Ethanol
(AP/KSPR) ...Wesley Mueller, Southeast professor of agriculture, said sorghum grown at the university farm in the future could produce 500 gallons of ethanol per acre. These figures rapidly outpace corn, which generally yields 235 gallons of ethanol per acre. READ
September 27, 2010 Read Full Article
Piper Jaffray Monthly Bio-Industrials Update: Energy Crop &
(Piper Jaffray) ...Energy crops are designed to use marginal land, or in the case of Brazil, extend the growing season. Sugarcane-ethanol facilities in Brazil typically run for 6-8 months due to the relatively long growing season of cane. Energy crops
September 10, 2010 Read Full Article
Locals Eyeing Sorghum for Fuel
by Kevin Welch (Amarillo Globe News) ...Agronomist Brent Bean with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service put three of the stalks in a press Thursday during the summer field day at the agriculture research complex at Bushland. The nearly 9-foot stalks
September 07, 2010 Read Full Article
Chromosome Designer Moves Into Biofuels
by Michael Kanellos (GreenTechMedia) Chromatin says sorghum is the ideal crop. The company, which designs chromosomes and tools for genetically modifying agricultural crops, has launched an effort to get into biofuels on its own. It has come up with an optimized pathway
August 26, 2010 Read Full Article
Study Asks, Can Bio-Fuel Crops Be Grown in Lubbock?
by James Clark (KCBD) A new study done in Lubbock and other parts of Texas will look at growing crops for use as bio-fuels. The Texas Ag Extension in Lubbock and five other cities will do the study that looks
August 10, 2010 Read Full Article
Zimbabwe: Chiefs Embrace Ethanol Project
by Lorraine Mandebvu (All Africa) Traditional leaders have embraced the US$600 million Chisumbanje ethanol project which they believe will bring much-needed development to the area. Speaking at a meeting of traditional leaders with Arda officials last weekend, Chief Tobias Hliziyo Garawa said the
June 29, 2010 Read Full Article
ICM to Begin Construction on Pilot Cellulosic Ethanol Plant
(ICM) , Inc. is pleased to announce that it has signed a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to receive $25 million to fund the construction and operation of its cellulosic ethanol pilot and demonstration facility in St.
June 15, 2010 Read Full Article
Cellulosic Ethanol Future of Sorghum
by Cary Blake (Delta Farm Press) The long-term growth of the U.S. sorghum industry depends in part with scientists unraveling paths to produce cellulosic ethanol economically. “We are very excited about the future of energy (forage — whole plant) sorghum as the
May 11, 2010 Read Full Article
Forage Sorghum Shows Promise as Energy Crop
In their continuing effort to evaluate crops that can serve as biofuel feedstocks as well as cover crops (and that can fit into crop rotations in Pennsylvania and the Northeast) researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have found
April 12, 2010 Read Full Article
Cellulosic Ethanol and Sorghum Expansion
by Cary Blake (Western Farm Press) The long-term growth of the U.S. sorghum industry lies in part with scientists unraveling paths to economically produce cellulosic ethanol. “We are very excited about the future of energy (forage-whole plant) sorghum as the cellulosic
April 09, 2010 Read Full Article
Company Promotes In-Field Production of “Sorganol”
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) An Iowa inventor and entrepreneur is promoting a harvester he developed that can produce ethanol from sweet sorghum right in the field. Lee McClune of Knoxville, Iowa invented the SORGANOL® Process (PatPend) and Sor-Cane Harvester after studying
April 05, 2010 Read Full Article
Sorghum's Gaining Momentum, Farmers & Policy-Makers Say
by Dave Mowtiz (AgricultureOnline) Grain sorghum is gaining the attention of eastern Corn Belt farmers in an area dominated by corn, soybeans and wheat, reports a category winner of the National Sorghum Producers Association's yield contest. Chris Robinson, who farmers in
March 18, 2010 Read Full Article
Myriant Technologies LLC Selected for $50 Million Award for Succinic Acid Biorefinery Project
Myriant Technologies LLC (as successor to BioEnergy International), a leading biotech developer and manufacturer of renewable biochemicals, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to receive up to $50 million for its planned biobased Succinic Acid facility
December 07, 2009 Read Full Article
Gulf Alternative Energy Announces Process to Increase Sugar Production Efficiency
Gulf Alternative Energy has developed a new cellulose processing technology. Gulf's new machine processes common feedstocks, such as sorghum, switchgrass and agricultural waste into a very fine powder. Lab tests show that this powder processes into sugars for ethanol much