Europe’s renewable energy policy needs more of a “realistic mix of renewable energy solutions” and needs to move away from depending on oil if it wants to achieve its goal of decarbonising EU transport, according to speakers at a recent debate. Experts from the ethanol industry and the energy sector attended the POLITICO conference -   Decarbonising... [Read More]

UK-based gas-to-liquids (GTL) company Velocys has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ThermoChem Recovery International (TRI), establishing a strategic alliance. TRI will be Velocys’ preferred supplier of gasification systems for its biomass-to-liquids (BTL) plants. The agreement will see the alliance partners rapidly deploy an integrated... [Read More]

A Hawaii renewable energy company is planning to export biofuels to a South Korean company that supplies electricity to the island nation. According to West Hawaii Today, Hawaii-based Lamplighter Energy in Hawaii will announce the agreement with Hanbo Energy Korea at the state Capitol next week Tuesday (31 January, 2017). Lamplighter CEO Andre De Rosa said the company... [Read More]

Rachel Gantz, communications director at the Renewable Fuels Association, gives her outlook for the year ahead. The industry experienced record demand for ethanol in 2016 and we expect that to continue into 2017. We expect ethanol demand to be driven by a host of factors, both domestically and abroad. Thanks to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fully implementing the... [Read More]

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2017 biofuels programme faces a temporary halt as President Trump’s regulatory freeze kicks in this week (25 January, 2017). US regulators will delay implementation of this year's biofuels requirements along with 29 other regulations finalised in the last weeks of Barack Obama's presidency, according to a government... [Read More]

Chemicals giant DuPont has reported strong fourth-quarter results. The company swung to a fourth-quarter profit though sales slipped as it attempts to solidify its merger with Dow Chemical. The company earned $265 million ( €246m), or 30 cents per share, compared with a loss last year. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 51 cents per share, which... [Read More]

US consumers saw a record of almost 2.9 billion gallons of biodiesel and renewable diesel in 2016, outpacing the previous record by almost 40%, according to figures released by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Also for the first time ever, the monthly market topped 300 million gallons, with December’s numbers coming in at 362 million gallons. “We... [Read More]

St1, a Finnish energy company, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ubon Bio Ethanol to launch a pilot project of the production of bioethanol from cassava waste, with the aim of setting up a joint venture for ethanol production in Thailand. Thailand is a forerunner in use of renewable energy. The country uses over 3 million litres of ethanol per day as... [Read More]

Renewable diesel company Neste has produced 10,000 litres of renewable diesel from waste produced from ham fat. It took the waste fat from 40,000 Finnish households last Christmas. The households donated the waste fat from their Christmas hams to the charity campaign "Kinkkutemppu" which literally translates into Ham Trick. In a statement, Neste said it donates the value... [Read More]

Oman has tremendous potential to be a leading exporter of energy based on renewable sources, an industry expert has said. David Rooney, director of sustainable energy research at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast spoke at an event on renewable energy and biofuels organised by the Independent Learning Centre at SQU, according... [Read More]

The Australian state of Queensland is continuing work to protect motorists from confusion at petrol pumps through reforms to legislation governing fuel price boards. Minister for Energy, Biofuels and Water Supply Mark Bailey said the Palaszczuk Government was determined to end the confusion motorists face when filling their cars with petrol. “Following the Fuel Price... [Read More]

California-based synthetic biology specialist Synthetic Genomics and oil giant ExxonMobil announced that they have extended their agreement to conduct joint research into advanced algae biofuels after making significant progress in understanding algae genetics, growth characteristics and increasing oil production. ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics have been jointly... [Read More]

A UK sustainable energy company is the first ever to have successfully converted actual landfill gas into usable diesel fuel with no fossil fuel additives, during recent trials. Renovare Fuels, which has its headquarters in London, claims to have developed technology to produce middle distillate hydrocarbons with a selectivity of 55%.  The bi-products of flue gas... [Read More]

The closing session of the National Biodiesel Conference & Expo provided an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year while also taking a peek at how America’s Advanced Biofuel will fuel the country’s future in 2017 and beyond. “There were a number of milestones reached in 2016 that will have a significant and very positive impact... [Read More]

UK-based Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) has secured funding of £896,000 (€1m) for state of the art equipment to be installed within the industrial biotechnology and biorefinery facilities at Wilton, UK.  The targeted investment of £538K from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is matched with £358K of UK Catapult funding to stimulate... [Read More]

Europeans overwhelmingly support the use of conventional biofuels made from crops and believe EU policy should encourage it, according to an EU-wide opinion survey released today (23 January, 2017). More than 69% of Europeans surveyed say conventional biofuels should be encouraged, while just 15% think they should not, according to the EuroPulse poll of 11,283 respondents... [Read More]