The Council of the EU has adopted its position on a directive promoting the use of renewable energy across the Union. The announcement could have significant ramifications for the continent’s biofuels industry, and has already sparked controversy. Environment and energy ministers in the Council have agreed renewable energy targets for 2030 ahead of negotiations in... [Read More]

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has joined with other associations, calling for a retroactive renewal of biodiesel tax credits and tax breaks. The 19 December letters call for “retroactive, multi-year extension of the biodiesel tax incentive” and a “seamless, multi‐year extension of the tax extenders” respectively. As the Republican Congress... [Read More]

Although renewables accounted for the vast majority of new EU power capacity in 2016, there are signs that the transition away from fossil fuels has lost some momentum in the past two years. Biofuels makes up the bulk of renewable energy use in the transport sector, according to newly released European Environment Agency (EEA) figures. Progress in that sector as a whole... [Read More]

Canola grown in Australia is eligible to enter the EU market as an environmentally-friendly biodiesel feedstock, opening up a potential $1 billion export market for Australian farmers of the crop. The European Commission has confirmed that the Australian canola meets the EU’s strict new feedstock requirements for biodiesel. Stringent EU greenhouse gas reduction targets... [Read More]

Biofuel start-up Celtic Renewables has secured planning permission from Falkirk Council in Scotland to build a commercial scale demonstrator plant. Once completed, the new facility will produce over half a million litres of biofuel a year, according to a statement from Celtic Renewables. The two acre-site in Grangemouth will produce biobutanol, an advanced biofuel made... [Read More]

A (CDN) $76.8 million (€50.7 million) industrial scale advanced biofuel demonstration plant will be constructed at a former pulp mill in Tofte, Norway. The new facility is apparently a step towards the creation of a commercial scale project. Danish-Canadian clean-fuel company Steeper Energy is partnering with Silva Green Fuel, a Norwegian-Swedish joint venture, on... [Read More]

In a press release, Catherine McKenna MP gave the framework for the legislation and talked about greater demand for biofuels. The move is a first step in increasing green fuel consumption. The framework will allow legislators and experts to work out the final form of the regulations, which will increase the use of cleaner fuels across the economy. This is Canada’s... [Read More]

The price of US renewable fuel credits has plummeted, hitting a two month low according to Reuters. Efforts by the White House to mediate talks between the oil and corn industries over the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) are said to be behind the fall in prices. The RFS requires refiners to blend increasing amounts of biofuel into the US fuel supply. Under the RFS programme,... [Read More]

Washington University in St Lois wants to use a specialised strain of bacteria to turn a by-product of paper production into sustainable fuel. The project has received $9.3 million from the US Department of Energy as to develop more forms of biofuel that are not dependent on feedstock that competes with food production. The project intends to develop a fuel that can fully... [Read More]

Researchers have gained insights that could be used to improve enzyme performance in breaking down biomass and converting waste plant matter into renewable fuels and products. The scientists from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), have studied how glycosylation – the natural attachment of sugars to proteins –... [Read More]

The Vietnamese Government announced the move to E5 in June, with the current 92 RON (research octane number) gasoline coming off the market in the new year. E5 is 5% ethanol blended with 95% gasoline. Businesses have complained that they are not prepared for the change to E5, according to a government statetement, and some consumers fear how the blend will perform in their... [Read More]

Republican senators from the corn-producing Mid-West and Oil-producing South are split over the value of the mandate. Ultimately, it comes to who pays and who is paid. On 1 December, Texas Governor Greg Abbott wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt asking for a year-long waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standard, which sets the ethanol mandate.... [Read More]

Researchers have carried out systematic analysis of the latest scientific evidence on indirect land use change (ILUC) greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of biofuels and bioliquids. Experts from the Biomass Department of CENER (National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain) have coordinated the project, which was initiated by the European Commission Directorate-General... [Read More]

An innovative gene editing technique could allow algae to produce ‘vast’ quantities of renewable fuels, new research claims. The method, developed by scientists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, could lead to cheap ways of producing fuels, medicine, and products to be used in the cosmetics, food and plastics industries. Using CRISPR molecules, which... [Read More]

BP Biofuels and Copersucar have agreed to a new joint venture to own and operate a major ethanol storage terminal in Brazil. According to a statement from BP, the aim of the new terminal is to ‘better and flexibly’ connect ethanol production with the country’s main fuels markets. Copersucar is a leading sugar and ethanol trader, with the ‘largest... [Read More]

Closure of the UK’s largest ethanol plant in the face of government inaction on policies signals the severity of an increasingly competitive ethanol marketplace. The price of ethanol commodities futures has fallen significantly this year, from $1.603 to $1.356 as of 6 December, a fall of almost 0.25. Vivergo said in a statement that these low prices and the UK government’s... [Read More]