Bioethanol News

The Danish biotech company Novozymes has announced the launch of a new enzyme for ethanol producers who want to reduce their use of chemicals without sacrificing yield. Liquozyme LpH is an alpha-amylase effective at low pH that thins the mash by breaking down starch into shorter dextrin chains. A more fluid mash ensures more efficient operational performance for ethanol producers running their…
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Hippo Valley Estates, a sugar producer based in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe, has announced it has reached an ethanol production capacity of 41 million litres per month and is now applying for a licence to supply the local market. Zimbabwe requires a monthly supply of 50 million litres of petro, of which 7,5 million litres is ethanol under the country’s E15 blending mandate. Hippo Valley is looking…
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  The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) will lead a $13.5 million (€12 million) multi-institutional research effort to improve sorghum as a sustainable source for biofuel production. Funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the five-year grant takes a comprehensive approach to better understand how plants and microbes interact and to learn which sorghum germplasm grows better…
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Scientists have mutated variants of a certain fungus to double the production of endoxylanase enzymes, which are used in bioethanol production. The discovery comes as part of a hunt for more cost effective methods to convert biomass into ethanol, particularly in the form of easier production of enzymes used to fire the conversion process. These enzymatic catalysts are commonly produced by using…
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The Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung prompts the country’s relevant agencies to undertake measures to boost the production and consumption of E5 and E10 ethanol-blended petrol. The Southeast Asian country has had an implementation plan in effect since 2012 to promote environmental protection and national energy security, but progress has been slow as consumers have not been…
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US ethanol production hit a 16-week low last week, according to US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data analysed by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). In the past week, ethanol production averaged at 948,000 barrels per day, equalling 39.82 million gallons a day. These numbers are down 4,000 barrels a day from the week before and the lowest in 16 weeks overall. The four-week average…
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Enerkem, a Canadian waste-to-biofuels and chemicals producer, has raised CAD152.6 million (€103.7 million) in financing.  Simultaneously, the company announced it has initiated the production of biomethanol from non-recyclable household garbage at the Enerkem Alberta Biofuels facility in Edmonton, Canada. ‘I must say a huge thank you to our financial partners,…
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Germany produced 370,484 tonnes of bioethanol in the first half (H1) of 2015, a 5.2% increase year-on-year, the German Bioethanol Industry Association (BDBe) data reveals. However, while production grew, demand for bioethanol declined by 3.7% to 562,459 tonnes. Food crops were the most used feedstock for bioethanol production with 63.4%. There was also a 21.1% rise from last year in the use of…
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The US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that 21 states will receive grants through the Biofuel Infrastructure Partnership (BIP) programme to add infrastructure needed to supply more renewable fuel to US drivers. Since announcing the programme in May 2015, the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) has received applications requesting over $130…
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Biofuel production in Brazil grew by 28% in the January-May 2015 period when compared to the same time frame last year, according to the Brazilian TV channel NBR. In July, the consumption of hydrous ethanol, used in Brazil as a standalone biofuel for flex-fuel vehicles, reached a record high of 1.55 billion litres sold. The Brazilian government has taken steps to stimulate the production of…
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The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) has released data showing that global food prices have experienced the steepest monthly drop since 2008. According to the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA), the decline in food prices has coincided with a period of record ethanol production expansion, reaching a high of 94 billion litres in 2014 from 83.5 billion litres in 2012, a…
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Oakland Biofuels is looking to launch a new cellulosic ethanol production technology in Mid-Wales, UK, using bracken as a feedstock. The facility will be the first of its kind in Europe to use the new technology in conjunction with bracken. Jeremy Oakley, director of Oakland Biofuels, says the company has been looking for alternative uses for bracken already for some years, with the main focus…
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MBI, a US-based biotech company, has been granted a patent (patent no. 9,102,964) for its Afex biomass pre-treatment technology by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The Afex technology enables energy producers to utilise the nearly 2 billion tonnes of biomass left on the fields annually after the harvest of crops such as corn, wheat, and rice and turn it into feedstock for cellulosic biofuels…
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Poplars may soon be harvested as a new source of biofuels in the US Pacific Northwest. The Advanced Hardwood Biofuels (AHB) Northwest Project is hoping to build the world's first biorefinery for trees. Other trees often grown for harvest, such as Douglas fir and red cedar take 50 years to grow, while poplar will typically ready for harvest in just 3 years. Tree farmer Joe Novak got the idea to…
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