DuPont Industrial Biosciences has launched a new fermentation system to help ethanol producers improve their yields and decrease sugar levels in their product. The DuPont Synerxia system, introduced at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, increases yields by up to 2%, while lowering total sugar levels at drop by up to 25%. The system includes Synerxia... [Read More]

Privately held US technology company Greenyug intends to build an industrial scale ethyl acetate manufacturing facility and has formed a subsidiary, Prairie Catalytic, that will own and operate the plant. The chemical plant is to be located adjacent to Archer Daniels Midland Co.'s (ADM) wet mill corn processing facilities in Columbus, Nebraska. Prairie Catalytic has executed... [Read More]

US ethanol producer Green Plains and Jefferson Gulf Coast Energy Partners, a subsidiary of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors, have formed a joint venture to construct and operate a fuels terminal. To be located at Jefferson's existing Beaumont, Texas, terminal, the 50/50 JV is expected to invest approximately $55 million (€48.5m) in its Phase I... [Read More]

Malaysia is preparing to roll out B10 biodiesel to its national fuel supply, but the decision is causing controversy between the country’s automotive industry and biodiesel producers. B10 biodiesel, containing 10% biofuel, will be implemented in the Southeast Asian county this June as part of the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities’ biodiesel... [Read More]

The US Grains Council (USGC) and its domestic industry partners, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), Growth Energy, and the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA’s FAS), have engaged their South Korean counterparts to promote US ethanol exports. A workshop was hosted last week by the FAS in Seoul, South Korea, to give an outlook... [Read More]

In Brazil, 646.6 million litres of biodiesel have been contracted under the Brazilian Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels’ (ANP) 49th biodiesel auction. ANP also reports that the entire volume carries the Social Fuel Stamp, a certificate part of Brazil’s National Programme of Biodiesel Production and Use, that provides tax incentives to biodiesel... [Read More]

Scientists from ten institutions worldwide are challenging the notion that growing bioenergy crops hinders food production, which they see as harmful to new projects Traditionally in the “food v. fuel” debate, bioenergy crops have been blamed for food shortages as the land used for growing them could have been instead harnessed for food production. But a new... [Read More]

Greentech Biofuels, an Irish firm specialising in green energy solutions, has teamed up with Saint Etienne Metropole and Ondaine Agro in order to bring biofuel-powered floodlights to one of the stadiums hosting Euro 2016. The three organisations will join forces to produce large amounts of biodiesel, which will be used to keep the floodlights at Stade Geoffroy Guichard... [Read More]

A team of three Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-D) students have come up with a prototype called FAME One to convert waste cooking oil into biodiesel. The invention, which outwardly resembles a washing machine, is not only eco-friendly but also affordable, which open doors for its use in rural setups to convert oil seeds into diesel. “We read somewhere... [Read More]

Struggling Spanish renewable energy company Abengoa has received $350 million (€312m) worth of bids for its four ethanol plants in the US Midwest. Abengoa is seeking to get rid of its four plants – located in Mt. Vernon, Indiana; Madison, Illinois; and Ravenna and York, Nebraska – as part of its global restructuring due to the company’s multibillion-dollar... [Read More]

Japanese car giant Nissan Motor Co. is researching and developing what it calls a solid oxide fuel-cell (SOFC)-powered system that runs on bio-ethanol electric power. The new system – a world first for automotive use – features an e-Bio Fuel-Cell with an SOFC power generator. The e-Bio Fuel Cell generates electricity through the SOFC (power generator) using... [Read More]

US-based biotechnology company White Dog Labs has unveiled a new process that eliminates the emission of CO2, a potent greenhouse gas, during fermentation and instead shifts the carbon to added ethanol production, boosting fermentation yields by around 50%. The by-products are distillers grains, corn oil (if extracted from the grains) and water. According to... [Read More]

More than two thirds of the palm oil used in Germany is sustainably certified, according to German biofuels industry group VDB (Verband der Deutschen Biokraftstoffindustrie. Around 1.5 million tonnes of palm oil has been used in Germany in 2013, according to the trade body. A total of 68% of this palm oil is sustainably certified. OVID Association, a trade body for the... [Read More]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has annulled the European Union’s (EU) countrywide 9.5% anti-dumping duty on all ethanol imported from the United States. The duty had been in place since February 2013. US-based Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy announced that they welcomed the decision, which was made on 9 June. The ECJ ruled that the five-year... [Read More]

Scientists have identified new steps in the way plants produce cellulose, which may help avoid having to choose between growing crops for food or fuel. Cellulose is the component of plant cell walls that provide strength and forms insoluble fibre in the human diet. According to a report on the phys.org website, the findings could lead to improved production of cellulose... [Read More]

Biofuels heavyweights attended a public meeting to discuss the US’ Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposals to revise the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in Kansas, US. EPA’s recent proposal calls on refiners to blend 14.8 billion gallons of conventional biofuels in 2017, slightly below the 15-billion-gallon level envisioned by the US Congress... [Read More]