by Kunal Bose (Business Standard)  Interview with Abinash Verma   —  Sugar prices at mill gate and retail outlets will remain at the levels seen in recent months, benefiting all stakeholders, says Abinash Verma, director-general of the Indian Sugar …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Brazil, the Brazilian Chamber of Foreign Trade has approved a recommendation to impose a 20 percent tariff on U.S. ethanol imports after a 600 million liter tariff rate quota, …

by Sophie Byron (Platts)  … As the 13th largest producer of sugar in the world, Colombia is sitting on a substantial natural resource. The production and processing of sugarcane as a feedstock is focused on a region …

by Marcelo Teixeira and José Roberto Gomes (Reuters)  An overhaul of Brazil’s biofuels policy in coming days, aimed at cutting the country’s carbon emissions, should boost demand for cleaner fuels, stabilize the volatile industry and accelerate …

by Audreyanna Thomas (Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc./Stabroek News)  The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) would like to provide some information which it is hoped would add to the current debate on ethanol production as a viable …

by Mario Parker and Fabiana Batista (Bloomberg)  Brazil weighing tariffs on imports made from U.S. grain; Hedge funds cut corn holdings, get less bearish on sugar  —  President Donald Trump’s America First rhetoric is doing no …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In January 2014, REG acquired LS9 for a purchase price of up to $61.5 million. Most of the old LS9 team, including the entire R&D leadership group, joined the newly named …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Terpenes may be the most unloved class of energy molecule of all time, if you compare R&D spending to potential. Even ARPA-E, the home of high-risk, high-reward government research into energy, …

(AgriMoney.com)  Sugar futures recovered from a one-year low amid ideas that their tumble has taken them to the “floor” of ethanol parity, where it becomes as lucrative for processors to turn cane into biofuel as …

by Sarantis Michalopoulos (EurActiv)   EU farmers are “very concerned” about the impact of the European Commission’s change of heart on biofuels, claiming the EU’s restrictive policy is putting thousands of rural jobs at risk.
Yet, the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The Digest had a well-received webinar on C5 and C6 sugars, featuring in-demand industry consultant David Dodds and Fluid Quip exec Jeffrey Robert — looking at transformative approaches to making sugars and …

(Hoosier Ag Today/NAFB News Service) U.S. Fuel Ethanol exports are up sharply in the current marketing year, thanks in part to tighter fuel supplies in Brazil, which are resulting in higher U.S. imports. The change …

by Anthony Boadle and Marcelo Teixeira  (Reuters)  Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi has asked Brazil’s foreign trade council to impose tariffs on ethanol imports following a surge in shipments from the United States, an official said on …

by Fabiana Batista (Bloomberg)  Buying of cheaper U.S. fuel made from corn surged in February; Price of local supply made from sugar plunged 20% by March 31  —  A few months ago, some ethanol traders in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  When USDA forecasts of corn ethanol exports to China dropped below 80 million gallons from 225 million last year — and Green Plains CEO Todd Becker issued a “zero exports …

(MoneyControl)  Amid demand from the industry to allow retail sugar prices to rise up to Rs 45/kg, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said the rates should be reasonable for consumers as the government has a …

by Paul Bryan (Biofuels Digest) Without a significant cost of CO2 emissions, biofuels will never gain enough market share to meaningfully reduce those emissions,” said Paul Bryan at ABLC Next in San Francisco. Agree, disagree? Former …

by Shoaib-ur-Rehman Siddiqui (Business Recorder)   State-controlled Brazilian oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA is considering lowering wholesale gasoline and diesel prices by year-end, which would be the first time since September 2015, O Globo newspaper …

by Jim Lane and Ron Cascone (Biofuels Digest/NEXANT)  Recently, we held a popular webinar on Renewables and the Advanced Bioeconomy with NEXANT principal Ron Cascone, for which you can see the slides here.
During the webinar, we received …

by Lais Thomaz* and Dan Quadros** (Advanced Biofuels USA) With diverse and dynamic programming involving agribusiness, food safety, nutrition, sustainability and bioenergy, the 2016 GAF achieved its mission to gather producers, companies and academia to discuss …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Leaf Resources Limited (ASX:LER) is focused on making sustainable products from plant biomass,  offering an advanced technology package for breaking down plant derived biomass to useful, sustainable, renewable and biodegradable products. …

by Lorenz Bauer (Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc./Biofuels Digest)  What’s up with C5 and C6 sugars? Given that a significant portion of the several billion dollars spent on renewable fuels spending involves these molecules, it is …

by David MacNeal (Ars Technica)  The facility smell? “That’s money,” Todd French says. “That’s what it smells like.” —  “By the time it gets here, David, it’s no longer my poop,” says microbiologist Todd French …

by Prerna Sharma (Nikkei Asian Review)  Global commodity markets are going through one of their worst phases, thanks to sluggish demand and supply gluts. Most agricultural commodities have touched all-time price lows — down 40% …

by Sriram Lakshman (The Hindu Business Line)  The move will decrease pollution and encourage a diversion in the sugar industry’s output away from sugar and towards ethanol  —  India can soon expect a policy on flexible-fuel …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Byogy has developed a catalytic platform that converts any source of ethanol, butanol, mixed alcohols, or related olefins, into full replacement, and cost competitive biofuels including gasoline, diesel and jet …

by Luis Ferreira Alvarez (Council on Foreign Relations)  As Brazil’s Petrobras corruption investigation continues to roil its economy and politics, the ethanol sector is emerging as a clear beneficiary. New government policies are boosting ethanol …

by Shreya Jai & Deepak Patel (Business Standard)  CCI investigation finds proof of collusion in selling ethanol to oil marketing companies  —  The Ethanol Blending Programme of the Centre to cut its fuel import bill …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In the terrestrial world, oxygen is colorless, odorless, and try to get through an hour without some.  In the Bioeconomy Cinematic Universe, oxygen is harder than steel, heavier than a …

by Laís F. Thomaz* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  The effect of increased consumption of ethanol due to the reduction of state tax called ICMS (Tax over Merchandise and Services Circulation) has been the reason for celebration …

(CCTV-America)  Sugar prices are near record lows causing Brazilian companies to reduce their output in favor of a more profitable option: producing fuel.
Brazil has become a pioneer in using ethanol to power light vehicles. CCTV’s …

(Economic Times) …  This whole problem with oversupply, negative margins and industry having big losses is slowly transforming on the ground into an agrarian crisis and how this government will react to that and what …

by Chris Prentice and Niu Shuping  (Reuters)  Recent news from China makes depressing reading for commoditiesproducers, with a slowing economy, tumbling stock prices and a currency devaluation all signaling weaker demand.
There is one exception: the world’s …

by Olatomiwa Bifarin* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Around 770,000 BC, it was fire, at some point – wood, dung and coal, to the now-ominous fossil fuels. This is the evolution of energy, and today the evolution …

(Platts)  Argentinian ethanol producers are pressing the government to boost the blend in gasoline to 12% from 10%, an effort led by the struggling sugarcane sector, an industry source said Thursday.
…
With a glut of sugar …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Though challenges remain, particularly in affordable feedstock, the US National Research Council says “Despite impressive recent and projected growth, the manufacturing of chemicals using biological synthesis and engineering could expand …

(The Star) Mumias Sugar will start buying bagasse and molasses from rivals to feed its ethanol production plant, it said after reporting massive losses for the first half ended December 31.  Ethanol revenues decreased by 23 …

by Pamela Rockwell* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  It was fitting that the VIII annual ISO DATAGRO New York Sugar and Ethanol Conference took place in the Empire Room of the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.
The …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Corn producers, ethanol producers and crude oil refiners: locked in a rollercoaster of commodity prices, and a battle for market share and profits.   As the EPA readies to unleash its …

(Moneycontrol.com) Praj Industries has been on focus post reports suggesting that ethanol blending with petrol could become a reality soon. Praj, which provides technology and machinery for ethanol production, is likely to benefit from the move.
In …

(US Department of Agriculture)  The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is offering to sell its recently acquired sugar inventory for use as a feedstock for bio-energy production using …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In New York, in the wake of a $37 million Q1 loss in its sugar unit, Bunge CEO Soren Schroder, who took the reins of the company in June, announced …

(US Department of Agriculture/4-Traders)  September 30, 2013 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) today announced the results of the Sept. 18, 2013, Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP) offer. CCC purchased 136,026 short …

by Vivek Waghmode (Times of  India)   Farmer leaders on Tuesday stepped up their demand for permission to tillers to produce ethanol from sugarcane they produce and sell the byproducts.
“The Centre has permitted to blend only five per cent ethanol into …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …The financing of biofuels is founded, to put it as simply as possible, upon the economics of substitution. On the one hand, there’s the price of energy currently locked inside …

(Business Recorder)  The US government is close to buying surplus sugar to sell to ethanol producers at a loss, in an effort to bolster weak domestic sugar prices and avoid losing hundreds of millions of …

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

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Today, we could use a good five-cent renewable sugar, suitable for microorganisms that, from sucrose, make affordable renewable fuels and chemicals. The technologies of companies like Virent, Solazyme, LS9 and …

by Bernadette Tansey (Xconomy)  The South San Francisco company LS9 recently produced five tons of industrial chemicals from plant sugars at a Florida demonstration facility, a step toward proving that its genetically engineered microbes can manufacture carbon …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Guido Ghisolfi is a confident man. A chemical engineer by trade, at 55, he’s already spent three decades leading research and development (R&D) activities at Italy-based Mossi & Ghisolfi …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In California, Virdia, formerly HCL CleanTech, a leading developer of cellulosic sugars, today announced major company milestones, including a new brand and CEO, its latest funding round, and a $75 …

by Mike Bryan (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …Between 2006 and 2011, the price of sugar, while having numerous peaks and valleys, has risen from about 18 cents per pound to as high as 29 cents per …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …“The government rushed into investments, with no diligence,” says Codexis chief Alan Shaw. “They are just not industrialists, in my opinion.”
Two major announcements this week drive the point home in …

by Jayashree Bhosale & Madhvi Sally (Economic Times)  Sugar mills aren’t keen on selling ethanol to petroleum marketing companies this year because the byproduct fetches more money if sold to the alcohol industry.
The union government …