A $115 million bionenergy research centre has opened at the University of Illinois in the US. The new Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation had its opening ceremony on the 1 February 2018. A collaboration between the University’s Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment, the facility... [Read More]

Contanda has officially withdrawn a permit application to handle and store crude oil at its Grays Harbor terminal in Washington, US. The storage and logistics service provider states that it now intends to pursue permits to expand the facility to handle and store a portfolio of cleaner fuels, including biodiesel, renewable diesel and ultra-low sulphur diesel. In 2013,... [Read More]

A partnership between Samsung Electronics and Rural Development Solutions is set to deliver 10,000 bioethanol stoves to households in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Situated on the outskirts of Kakuma town, in north-west Kenya’s Turkana County, the Kakuma refugee camp had a population of 185,154 registered refugees and asylum seekers at the start of 2018, states... [Read More]

The EU Commission has initiated an anti-subsidy investigation into whether Argentinian biodiesel exporters are benefitting from unfair subsidies. The move has been launched following a complaint in December from the European Biodiesel Board (EBB). In 2013, the EU set anti-dumping duties on Argentinian and Indonesian biodiesel of between 22 and 25.7%, claiming both countries... [Read More]

Newly published research explains for the first time how plants switch from photoprojection to photosynthesis when transitioning from darkness to daylight. The authors of the study, from the University of Sheffield, claim that the new insight could have a host of benefits, including for the biofuels industry. During photosynthesis, plant chloroplasts convert light into... [Read More]

The first biofuel powered flight from the US to Australia has been completed. Qantas announced last year that biofuels would be used on its QF96 route from Los Angeles to Melbourne. On 29 January, the first flight to be fuelled by biofuels departed from LAX. According to a statement, the 15 hour, trans-Pacific flight operated with approximately 24,000kg of blended biofuel,... [Read More]

600,000 tonnes of Argentinian biodiesel were sent to Europe between September 2017 and mid-January 2018, according to Reuters. The wire service cites Argentina’s main biofuel group, Carbio, for the figures. The surge in imports came after the EU lowered import duties on Argentinian biodiesel, Reuters reports. In September, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled... [Read More]

Researchers in Canada claim to have found a simpler, cleaner way to produce fuel from biowaste such as sewage. Currently, biowaste is converted into biofuel with a two-step process. Biomass is converted into a biocrude oil with a chemical and thermal process. The second stage is refining, where hydrogen is added under high pressure and heat, serving to remove contaminants... [Read More]

The model takes a holistic approach to emissions from second generation biorefineries, from production of feedstock, to refining and consumption. The goal is to give engineers a better idea of how to minimise greenhouse gases and make their refineries more economically viable. By incorporating multiple sources of data, Edgard Gnansounou, a professor at École Polytechnique... [Read More]

Indonesia introduced the case to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2014, a year after the anti-dumping taxes on Indonesia and Argentina were introduced. The EU’s taxes were a reaction to what they saw as the unfairly low prices (also known as ‘dumping’) of the two countries’ biofuel exports. According to Reuters, Indonesia and Argentina called... [Read More]

REINPLUS FIWADO Bunker and GoodFuels Marine have entered into a partnership, meaning GoodFuels marine advanced biofuels are now available at the port of Rotterdam. The partnership, which aims to make European inland shipping more sustainable, will also see GoodFuels Marine biofuels available along inland shipping routes in the Netherlands through the REINPLUS FIWADO Bunker... [Read More]

UPM Biofuels and the Zero Emission Resource Organisation have entered a collaboration to promote a ‘green shift’ in the transport and petrochemicals sectors. They aim to create a predictable, long term operating environment for sustainable, advanced biofuels. The cooperation also aims to enhance knowledge of sustainable fossil-free bioproducts, such as bioplastics,... [Read More]

LanzaTech will license TeselaGen’s cloud-based informatics solution to incorporate artificial intelligence capabilities into its design process. It’s hoped that the newly announced collaboration will extend waste-to-fuel specialists LanzaTech’s biological design platform, in turn accelerating the design process. "Automated biological design is an essential... [Read More]

Philadelphia Energy Solutions’ difficult financial condition presents a first for American renewable fuels policy: can the government collect RIN-related debt from a failing company? Legal experts are saying that the resolution of this case could have consequences for other refiners having difficulties with the EPA’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), according... [Read More]

US researchers have developed a ‘super strain’ of yeast that can efficiently ferment ethanol from pretreated pine – one of the most common tree species in the US. The scientists from the University of Georgia (UGA) claim that their research could help biofuels replace gasoline as a transportation fuel. Joy Doran-Peterson professor of microbiology at UGA,... [Read More]

The European Parliament’s decision to back a ban on the use of palm oil in biofuels has been labelled as “a crop apartheid” by Malaysia’s plantation minister, who has also described the move as a protectionist trade barrier, Reuters reports. On 17 January, the European Parliament announced its position on the revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED... [Read More]