South Korea's TN Energy has entered into an agreement with Lao State Fuel to set up a joint venture (JV) to produce Power Gasoline-branded bioethanol fuel. The JV, to be called Lao K-tech, will be established later this year and it will be located at Dongphosy village in Hadxaifong district, Vientiane, Laos. In the first year, the companies will work together to survey... [Read More]

US biofuels producer Renewable Energy Group has reported a fourth-quarter loss of $95.6 million (€87m), after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. Net income was $69.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, the company reported. Nevertheless, the biodiesel producer posted revenue of $387.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. For the year, the... [Read More]

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered a form of bioconversion that could be used to convert waste gases to biodiesel for transportation. The 'Integrated bioprocess for conversion of gaseous substrates to liquids' report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, describes the process of converting... [Read More]

Spanish renewable energy company Abengoa Bioenergy has secured an emergency bankruptcy loan that will allow the company to operate and pay wages while it attempts to reorganise. According to a Reuters report, the company has received a $7 million loan to pay bills while it attempts to restructure its operation after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week. The company... [Read More]

The world's first research facility to grow both food and fuel just opened in the United Arab Emirates. Located on a two-hectare site in Abu Dhabi, the desert facility uses coastal seawater irrigation to raise fish and shrimp for food, while growing salt-tolerant plants that can be harvested to create biofuel. The facility, operated by Masdar Institute of Science and Technology,... [Read More]

A federal judge in Texas, US, has sentenced the owner of several biodiesel companies to 10 years imprisonment and to pay $138 million (€125m) in restitution for high-profile biofuels fraud. Philip Joseph Rivkin, who is also known as Felipe Poitan Arriaga, pleaded guilty to creating and selling more than 60 million fake biodiesel credits since 2009 under the name of... [Read More]

Florida-based biofuel developer Benchmark Renewable Energy (BRE) is planning to develop a large-scale bioethanol operation in Jamaica. According to BRE, once completed the plant will have a production capacity of 10 million gpy of ethanol, with an additional 3MW of electricity produced for the local grid. The required investment for the plant is expected to be approximately... [Read More]

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB) has alerted EU and national member state authorities of trade distortions in the EU internal market caused by Polish biodiesel. According to the EBB, biodiesel products exported from Poland at “unfair” low price levels are breaching EU and national laws, causing tremors in the marketplace. The organisation claims it has received... [Read More]

New records were set in 2015 for US ethanol production and blending, with more than 14 billion gallons of ethanol produced, says the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to the EIA data, US ethanol producers churned out 14.81 billion gallons of ethanol in 2015, while refiners and blenders integrated an unprecedented 13.69 billion gallons into... [Read More]

Novozymes CEO Peder Holk Nielsen has called for the EU to introduce a blending mandate for advanced biofuels by 2030 to help decarbonise the transport sector. The chief executive of the biotech specialist made the announcement at an energy security conference which took place at the European Parliament in Brussels on 25 February, 2016. He urged the EU to promote advanced... [Read More]

Algal biofuel production is not living up to expectations, hindered by high key resource demand, technical difficulties, and high costs, a new study finds. According to a review by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), despite high expectations and extensive research and investment, technological options are still in developing stages and key resources for... [Read More]

A group of environmental groups in the UK are calling on the next Mayor of London to commit to making the capital's buses run on clean fuel. The NGOs, including Greenpeace, WWF, RSPB and the National Trust, have drawn together 20 policy suggestions to improve London's environment and will publish them today to mark the start of Greener London Week. Suggestions include... [Read More]

Spanish renewable energy business Abengoa has announced that its US bioenergy unit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company made the announcement on Wednesday (24 February). According to news agency Reuters, the firm's US bioenergy unit has current liabilities worth $10bn. The filings do not include Abengoa's corn ethanol plants in Mount Vernon, Indiana, and Madison,... [Read More]

Scientists from the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown for the first time that an enzyme can be tweaked to reduce lignin in plants. According to Berkeley Lab, its technique could help lower the cost of converting biomass into carbon-neutral fuels to power cars and other sustainably developed bio-products. Lignin... [Read More]

JP Energy Partners, a US-based biofuels terminal operator, has initiated the expansion of its existing rail facilities at its North Little Rock refined products terminal, located in Arkansas, to allow for unit train deliveries of ethanol. The upgrades will materially improve the terminal's ethanol offloading efficiency and capacity, allowing for offloading of up to 108... [Read More]

Africa has become the new frontier for innovative non-food crop based biofuels' projects, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report, 'Second-Generation Biofuel Markets: State of Play, Trade and Developing Country Perspectives', says that these initiatives are mainly taking place in Eastern and Southern Africa... [Read More]