Bioethanol News

US ethanol exports were off to a strong start for the first quarter of the 2016/2017 marketing year and were at their highest levels over the past five years. Exports totaled 353.2 million gallons for the months of September, October, and November 2016, according to data recently released by the US Department of Agriculture’s Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS). Brazil, Canada, and…
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German bioethanol producer CropEnergies has criticised the European Commission’s (EC) revised renewable energy directive (RED) proposals. In the company’s third quarter forecast, CropEnergies chief executive Joachim Lutz said the EC could impair further progress, warning proposals to cut the amount of biofuels made from crops make no sense when it wants to increase alternative…
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The European renewable ethanol association (ePURE) has named Emmanuel Desplechin as its new secretary general effective immediately, replacing Robert Wright. Desplechin, who joined ePURE in 2013, had previously been the association’s director for government affairs, and has a long career in the ethanol sector. Prior to joining ePURE, Desplechin held public affairs positions with the Danish…
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Brazil-based oil company Petrobras has agreed to sell its 49% stake in the sugar and ethanol joint venture Nova Fronteira Bioenergia SA to partner São Martinho SA.  Petrobras will receive 24 million new São Martinho shares as payment for the stake. Petrobras said in the filing that it will attribute a $133 million (€127m) value to the deal.  The 24 million shares…
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A group of students from Philippines-based St Louis University have created alternative fuel derived from the taro plant, locally known as gabi. According to media reports in The Filipino Times, Joji Tateoka, John Cyril Paco, Gregory Jones Ochoada, John Paul Galong, and Keanu Verzosa received the Business and Idea Development Award 2016 in October 2016 from the Philippines Chamber of Commerce and…
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Petrobras Biocombustível has announced an agreement to sell its shares in Guarani, a Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer, to Tereos Participations, an arm of French group Tereos, for $202 million (€192m). According to Petrobras Biocombustível, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brazil-based oil company Petrobras, Guarani is the third largest sugar producer in Brazil. It operates…
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The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) has sent a petition to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requesting that it waives its 2016 cellulosic biofuels volumes “due to an inadequate domestic supply of such fuel”. According to the trade body that represents oil and high-tech American manufacturers, it wants the EPA to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard…
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The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), an agency run by the Philippines government, is urging players in the industry to invest more in power co-generation and production of bioethanol from sugarcane amid volatile sugar prices in the world market. SRA policy and planning manager Rosemarie Gumera said the agency is strengthening its product diversification by encouraging stakeholders to invest…
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Recent data from the US Department of Energy (DOE) shows that gasoline consumed in 25 states and the District of Columbia contained more than 10% ethanol on average in 2015, demonstrating that the so-called “E10 Blend Wall” continues to crumble. The national average ethanol blend rate was 9.91 percent according to the DOE data. According to the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), the…
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Indian process solutions company Praj has entered on Wednesday into a binding agreement for cost sharing with Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) to set up two bioethanol plants. These second-generation (2G) bioethanol plants – one to be located at Panipat, Haryana, and one at Dahej, Gujarat – will have capacity to produce 100,000 litres of ethanol per day. This is a progress milestone as per MoU…
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China is aiming to produce 4 million tonnes of ethanol by 2020, doubling output from the current level, even as it keeps tight control over the use of food grains to make the biofuel, according to a plan published by China’s National Energy Administration. According to Reuters, the world's largest energy consumer plans to raise the non-fossil fuel portion of primary energy consumption to…
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Oil giant Shell and Brazilian bioethanol company Cosan have reached an agreement to strengthen their sugarcane ethanol joint venture (JV), Raízen, in Brazil, through a change in its contractual structure. The partners have agreed to remove the mutual time-bound buyout options included in the original JV agreement, signed in June 2011, and in doing so have transformed Raízen from a…
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Spanish ethanol producer Abengoa is asking a US bankruptcy court to prevent legal action and future claims by creditors who are unsatisfied with a $10 billion (€9.4bn) debt restructuring plan. The Spanish company with a global renewable energy footprint put its US subsidiaries in Chapter 11 protection this year and filed for Chapter 15 protection from creditors of non-US businesses…
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Hungarian bioethanol producer Pannonia Ethanol has announced that it has successfully completed a €135 million credit facility agreement with a consortium of Hungarian banks. The facility will support expansion at the company’s Dunaföldvár, Hungary biorefinery, investment in new projects, cost reduction, additional jobs, and increases in both corn buying and animal feed…
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