Bioethanol News

Zimbabwe’s energy sector regulator plans to licence new ethanol producers to avoid dependency on single supplier Green Fuel (GF). Under the country’s mandatory blending policy, only GF can license or is accredited to trade the commodity for petrol blending purposes. The current law states that an ethanol producer for mandatory blending has to be in partnership with the State, and…
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Biochemtex and Beta Renewables signed a contract with Energochemica for the construction of a second generation ethanol plant in the Slovak Republic. The plant, which will be built in Strazske, Slovak Republic, will deliver 55,000 metric tonnes per year of cellulosic ethanol while using non-food biomass as its feedstock. The project begins immediately and the start-up of the plant is expected in…
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Ecuador's government is looking to expand local ethanol distribution throughout the country by 2017 to reduce gas emissions and fuel imports. The mix, which contains locally-produced sugarcane ethanol is expected to replace a type of petrol named extra, and will represent 45% of the national fuel market, after diesel and other types of petrol. The government anticipates private investments of…
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A fire has broken out at Abengoa Bioenergy's ethanol plant in Madison, Illinois, US. At approximately 9.45am on Tuesday 24th September, a fire broke out in a corn silo following an electrical shortage. Despite firefighters spending four hours containing the fire, there was no major damage. No one was injured.
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A stolen tanker crashed and leaked ethanol on Tuesday 24th September, in Autauga County, Alabama, US. The driver, who stole the tanker truck from Florida Rock and Tank Lines in Montgomery, Alabama, US, has now been identified. Shortly after 11 am, crews had started transferring ethanol to another tanker, after containing the leak. There were no reported injuries.
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A minor fire broke out earlier this week at Archer Daniels Midland's ethanol plant in Peoria, Illinois, US. At approximately 11.30 am on 22 September, an evaporator vessel that was down for repairs caught fire at the company's corn processing plant in Peoria. This then activated the sprinkler system, which contained the fire. There were no injuries and the plant is now back up and running.
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GranBio Investimentos, a Brazilian biotechnology company, has started production at its cellulosic ethanol plant in Alagoas, Brazil. The company invested $190 million (€149 million) in the facility, which is the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the southern hemisphere. The Bioflex 1 plant has the capacity to produce 82 million litres per year of ethanol from sugarcane waste.
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Green Fuel's ethanol plant in Chisumbanje, Zimbabwe, is reportedly discharging harmful waste matter. Zimbabwe's parliament has heard how the waste matter has reportedly caused some people to become partially blind, while others are developing feet sores. Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Mutsa Chasi, head of Environmental Management Agency (Ema)…
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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved permits for Archer Daniels Midland's ethanol plant. The permits enable the underground injection and storage of carbon dioxide emissions from an ethanol plant. Issued under the relatively new Underground Injection Control Program Class VI, the permits are expected to facilitate carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) activities. Plans call…
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Argentina's cooperatives association (Aca-Bio) has started work on a $130 million ethanol plant outside the city of Villa María. The plant will process 380,000 tonnes per year of corn, which will produce 125,000 cubic metres per year of biofuel. Excess steam will power a turbine that will then be used to power the plant. Operations will start in February. 
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The Lufthansa Group is operating its LH 190 flight from Frankfurt to Berlin Tegel using a 10% blend of the new biofuel component farnesane. This is the first scheduled flight in Europe to run on this sugar-based bio-kerosene fuel mix. A rig test at Lufthansa Technik's facility in Hamburg last year, as part of the EU's 'Blending Study' project preceded Lufthansa's flight. Lufthansa has also…
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Renewable energy technology provider INEOS Bio is restarting its new cellulosic ethanol plant in Florida after contamination forced it to decrease production considerably. The company has upgraded the facility's technology and is also finishing the installation of equipment to remove impurities from one of the plant's process streams. As a result, this contamination has disrupted production. The…
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DuPont Industrial Biosciences (DuPont) has selected Murex to market cellulosic ethanol produced from its 30 million gallon plant in Nevada, Iowa. Once completed, the facility will be the largest cellulosic ethanol plant in the world. The Nevada biorefinery will use all parts of the corn stover – the stalks, leaves and cobs. 'We are excited to work with an industry leader such as DuPont to…
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Germany's biofuel consumption was 2.9 million tonnes in the year to October, a drop of 8.9% compared with the first 10 months in 2012, reports the country's economics agency BAFA. Despite a 0.5% increase in total road fuel consumption, bringing the total to 43.75 million tonnes and blending rates dropping for all biofuel types, the overall consumption still fell. There was however a 9.5% increase…
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