For those of us working on bioenergy policy, 2014 began with a jolt. Only three weeks into the New Year and the European Commission delivered its vision of how the energy system should look in 2030. It...

The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation at the beginning of April to renew several expired tax provisions, known as ‘tax extenders’. These provide assistance for biodiesel, cellulosic...

Industry leaders are seeking out relevant policies that consider both competition and technology within the biofuels sector. Climate protection and resource conservation are the main drivers of focus in...

As the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will cease processing new petitions for renewable fuel pathways for approximately six months, the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO)...

The biofuels industry is at a crossroads. Policy uncertainty in Europe has undermined its business case, which is based on tax breaks and blending mandates and is now holding new investments back. The...

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal, for the first time, adjusts the 2014 overall biofuels volumes and advanced biofuels volumes based on criteria not clearly identified in the law....

With the duties imposed on Argentinian and Indonesian biodiesel last year and Malaysian production losing its ‘Form A’ status, European blenders are still struggling to find blend stocks for...

The second quarter of 2014 saw US spot biodiesel prices rise above their first quarter highs reached on 31 January. This can be attributed to a spike in the blender’s market amid a bitter cold period...

On 16 January this year, Coloradobased producer and marketer of premium renewable fuels Blue Sun Energy announced the implementation of enzymatic biodiesel processing technology at its refinery in St Joseph,...

If ever there was a sign that the ethanol industry was beginning to thrive once again, surely there’s none better than bringing a plant back after being shut down for five years? That is exactly...

If three cellulosic ethanol plants can start up and turn profits this year it will change not only the entire ethanol market, but the future of world energy consumption. Several companies are closer than...

The world market for paper has increased by 70% over the past 30 years. That is odd, considering companies today use recycled paper, employ paperless systems and, as for newspapers, digital editions means...

While the advanced biofuels industry is ready to bring innovation to the market, the biofuels sector in Europe still struggles with an uncertain regulatory environment. How policymakers address the challenges...

Many organic polymers and chemicals today are derived from fossil-based materials such as oil and gas. From a technical point of view almost all industrial materials made from fossil resources could be...

When attending conferences and reading trade magazines you might have noticed the lack of discussion around ethanol drying processes. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, improvements at the front...

Ethanol has a long tradition as a consumer chemical. Whether for energy, chemical or medical purposes, ethanol plays a vital role in the commodities market, so effective purification strategies for this...

One of the process steps for ethanol production is the removal of water from the biofuel. The removal of water to below 5 wt% with a simple distillation process is not possible due to the azeotropic behavior...

Recently a few microorganisms have been discovered that produce hydrocarbons. One of the most effective ways to search for other unusual metabolically active microorganisms, producing a wide diversity...

Molecular sieve dehydration units are a key technology in ethanol processing. This drying solution utilises pressure swing adsorption (PSA) systems to process the wet stream at its azeotropic composition...

With legislation and new initiatives to set binding minimum targets for the proportion of renewable fuels in conventional petrol and diesel, biofuel production is growing fast. For biofuel producers today,...

fraction of the cost As the ethanol industry matures and creeps closer to 15 billion gallons, the quest for better technologies, increased product diversification and enhanced margins is escalating. Distiller’s...

The utilisation of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) for the production of biofuels and chemicals is important as technologies need to meet the global energy demand, reducing dependency on fossil oil-based...

Preparations for a new wood-based renewable diesel to enter the market have been underway since 2012. Production is finally due to begin this summer at a plant in Lappeenranta, Finland, following the successful...

The idea of biofuels from waste coffee grounds (WCG) was percolated when Qingshi Tu, a graduate assistant at the University of Cincinnati (UC) school of Energy, Environmental, Biological and Medical Engineering...

In recent years, synthetic biology has shown tantalising promise as an engineering tool to develop renewable biofuels. But the pace of progress has been slowed by cottage industry methods for producing...

There is excitement within bio-based industries about platform chemicals, like levulinic acid, lactic acid or biosuccinic acid, which can be used both in a large range of downstream applications and have...