The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has filed comments with the European Commission (EC) challenging blocked US biodiesel exports to Europe. Since 2009, the EC has prevented biodiesel exports trading from US to Europe, a move that the NBB calls 'unfair'. NBB urges the EC to allow duties on US biodiesel imports to expire this year planned, arguing that global trade for biodiesel... [Read More]

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved permits for Archer Daniels Midland's ethanol plant. The permits enable the underground injection and storage of carbon dioxide emissions from an ethanol plant. Issued under the relatively new Underground Injection Control Program Class VI, the permits are expected to facilitate carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)... [Read More]

KazMunayGas Trading has lost its court case against Austrian oil company OMV Petrom. The product and supplies company will have to pay over $70 million (€56 million) to Romanian tax administration agency ANAF, for contentious biodiesel imports from Canada originating in the US. This sum was awarded for recovering losses generated by the OLAF investigation and the... [Read More]

Green Fuel's ethanol plant in Chisumbanje, Zimbabwe, is reportedly discharging harmful waste matter. Zimbabwe's parliament has heard how the waste matter has reportedly caused some people to become partially blind, while others are developing feet sores. Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Mutsa Chasi, head of Environmental... [Read More]

A minor fire broke out earlier this week at Archer Daniels Midland's ethanol plant in Peoria, Illinois, US. At approximately 11.30 am on 22 September, an evaporator vessel that was down for repairs caught fire at the company's corn processing plant in Peoria. This then activated the sprinkler system, which contained the fire. There were no injuries and the plant is now... [Read More]

GranBio Investimentos, a Brazilian biotechnology company, has started production at its cellulosic ethanol plant in Alagoas, Brazil. The company invested $190 million (€149 million) in the facility, which is the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the southern hemisphere. The Bioflex 1 plant has the capacity to produce 82 million litres per year of... [Read More]

Elevance Renewable Sciences, a specialty chemicals company based in Illinois, the US, will partner with Malaysia's Genting Plantations, through its subsidiary Genting Integrated Biorefinery, to build a 240,000-tonne factory at POIC Lahad Datu. The factory, which will be the first in Malaysia, is thought to lead to new technologies in the area and a cluster of biorefineries... [Read More]

Colorado-based Red Rock Biofuels will supply biofuel to Southwest Airlines and to the military starting in 2016. The airline has agreed to buy three million gallons of low-carbon jet fuel per year from advanced renewable provider Red Rock Biofuels. The fuel will be manufactured at a plant, soon to be constructed, in Lakeview, Oregon, US. The $200 million plant will convert... [Read More]

A stolen tanker crashed and leaked ethanol on Tuesday 24th September, in Autauga County, Alabama, US. The driver, who stole the tanker truck from Florida Rock and Tank Lines in Montgomery, Alabama, US, has now been identified. Shortly after 11 am, crews had started transferring ethanol to another tanker, after containing the leak. There were no reported injuries.... [Read More]

A fire has broken out at Abengoa Bioenergy's ethanol plant in Madison, Illinois, US. At approximately 9.45am on Tuesday 24th September, a fire broke out in a corn silo following an electrical shortage. Despite firefighters spending four hours containing the fire, there was no major damage. No one was injured.... [Read More]

The EPA's failure to finalise the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rules will create an increase in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that is equal to placing 4.4 million additional cars on US roads. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has issued a white paper, 'Estimating greenhouse gas emissions from proposed changes to the renewable fuel standard through 2022',... [Read More]

SPA Renewables, an emerging company that specialises in the collection and processing of Used Cooking Oil into biodiesel, is installing an 8,000 tonnes per year biodiesel plant in Corinth, Greece. IncBio, a Portuguese engineering company, which provides fully automated industrial ultrasonic biodiesel plants, has signed a contract with SPA Renewables to supply the plant. The... [Read More]

On 23 September, Finnair used sustainable biofuel to operate its Airbus A330 flight from Helsinki to New York. SkyNRG Nordic, a joint venture between SkyNRG and Statoil Aviation, provided the biofuel mixture, which was partly manufactured from cooking oil recycled from restaurants. At present, aviation biofuels costs more than double the price of conventionally produced... [Read More]

Sales of commercial and passenger vehicles, particularly flex-fuel vehicles that allow end users to choose customised biofuel-fossil fuel blends have increased. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Strategic Analysis of the Global Automotive Biofuels Market, has found that the market generated revenues of $94.61 billion (€73.63 billion) in 2013 and estimates this... [Read More]

Swiss Jatropower, a developer of Jatropha curcas seeds and associated agronomic technologies, has acquired a large majority of Quinvita’s assets. Quinvita grew these activities over a period of seven years through their breeding programme and agronomic evaluations and experiments in several Asian, African and Latin American countries and scientific collaboration... [Read More]

The European renewable ethanol association, ePURE, has appointed Robert Wright as its new secretary general. Wright will start this position immediately. Wright has over 20 years' experience working in European Union public policy and public affairs and has previously worked for the EU Commission and in the energy and high technology sectors. 'I am delighted to be joining... [Read More]