The Indian government has increased the prices of jet fuel and non-subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Rs 16.5 (€0.2) a cylinder. This rise comes after an increase in global oil prices due to the ongoing troubles in Iraq, and directly follows the surge in petrol prices by Rs 1.69 a litre and diesel prices by 50 paise a litre. Oil marketing companies are currently... [Read More]

The US Supreme Court has declined to take up a challenge to the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeal's September 2013 ruling on California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). That ruling found that the LCFS programme is constitutional, overturning a previous ruling stating that it violates interstate commerce laws. In March, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth... [Read More]

The country's first commercial biofuels-powered flight, operated by British Midland International (BMI) between Karlstad and Frankfurt and by Nextjet between Karlstad and Stockholm, has left Sweden.  Opened on the 26 June, Karlstad Airport has become the first airport in Europe to install a fixed storage tank facility for aviation biofuel. 'We hope that this Karlstad... [Read More]

A marine engine recently launched in the UK hopes to run on 100% biodiesel fuel. In compliance with IMO 2 emissions rules, AGCO Power in Finland builds the heavy duty engines, which are then sold in the UK by Mermaid Marine. The Citius series engines are available in four and six cylinder versions, between 130 and 410 horsepower. 'The fuel – either 100% biodiesel... [Read More]

The Ministry of Energy has recently announced the shortlisted companies, including Shell, BP and PTT, for a joint venture contract distributing jet fuel. The ministry invited tenders interested in forming a joint venture for fuel distribution in Mingaladon Township, Myanmar (Burma). A total of 23 bidders submitted their respective proposals, where the ministry then made... [Read More]

Alaska Airlines is using new flight procedures as a result of the agency's Greener Skies initiative, a regional rollout of the FAA's Next Generation Air Transportation System in Seattle, currently in its second phase. The primary objective of the first phase of the programme, which began in 2010, was to develop and implement two Area Navigation (RNAV) arrivals and six... [Read More]

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released a notice detailing contract proposals for its Advanced Biofuel Payment Programme. According to the NOCP, the programme, which gives payments to producers to support and expand advanced biofuels production, has $15 million (€11 million) available for the fiscal year 2014. The programme rules state that the number... [Read More]

A Houston federal grand jury has indicted the owner and CEO of two biodiesel companies with renewable identification number (RIN) fraud, in a scheme that allegedly made him over $29 million (€21 million). The 68-count against Philip Joseph Rivkin, includes allegations of wire fraud, mail fraud, Clean Air Act false statements and money laundering. 'The indictment... [Read More]

Canada's biofuel support programmes have been 'a dismal failure,' with costs outweighing benefits by a three-to-one margin, according to a  study released by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Between the years of 2008 to 2012, the study's authors estimate the biofuels policies to have cost between $3 (€2.20) and $3.50 (€2.60) for every dollar of social and... [Read More]

Finland-based UPM is building a biorefinery in Lappeenranta, Finland that will produce renewable diesel, known as BioVerno.  The facility will be the world’s first commercial scale wood-based biorefinery when operations begin this summer. It will produce approximately 100,000 tonnes of renewable UPM BioVerno diesel each year, covering a quarter of Finland’s... [Read More]

Isuzu Motors and Euglena will team up to develop a new kind of biodiesel using algae. The companies are looking to develop a type of fuel that can be used on its own unlike existing kinds that need to be mixed with light oil. ‘As long as we use light oil for diesel engines, emissions of carbon dioxide are inevitable,’ says Susumu Hosoi, president... [Read More]

Celtic Renewables, an Edinburgh-based biofuels company, has signed an agreement with Belgium's Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant to start testing its process to turn whisky by-products into biofuel that can power vehicles. After receiving a further €1.5 million in funding, Celtic Renewables will be the first company to trial biobutanol technology at the biotechnology pilot... [Read More]

The Northeast biodiesel plant has received a $540,000 (€397,000) grant from the state Department of Energy Resources. Construction of the $3.5 million plant began ten years ago and is now nearing completion. With a further $350,000 of investment, Lynn Benander, president of Co-op Power Energy Cooperative, expects construction of the cooking-grease-to-diesel-fuel... [Read More]

Neste Oil and Renewable Algae Energy (RAE), a US-based algae biomass producer, have signed a commercial algae oil off-take agreement. Traffic fuels refiner and marketer, Neste Oil, is researching algae oil as one of the alternative feedstocks for producing NEXBTL renewable diesel. Implementation of the agreement will require RAE to increase its algae oil production capacity... [Read More]

Zimbabwe's government has scrapped plans to increase the mandatory threshold for ethanol blending and will maintain the current levels, as a result of the disappointing sugarcane output. Initially, the government planned to increase the mandatory blending of petrol with ethanol to 20% by April this year from the current E15, reporting this would save $72 million (€53... [Read More]

US ethanol outputs have hit a record high as plants prepare for the increasing seasonal demand and positive margins. With weak corn prices and increasing crude oil values to reinforce this demand, last week saw plants produce on average 972,000 barrels a day, 28,000 barrels a day more than the previous week – the highest ever figure since records began. The weak... [Read More]