News

Zero-cost materials such as water hyacinth and grass have the potential can yield a high percentage of biofuel, Indian researchers have discovered. Research conducted by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITK) indicates that pore-scale phenomena can be used to increase the yield of fermentable sugars and bioethanol from hemicellulose. Water hyacinth, a free-floating and…
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US bioethanol producer Poet has filed a lawsuit in US District Court of Sioux Falls alleging that the Sioux Falls-based company Nelson Engineering has misappropriated Poet’s trade secrets. The lawsuit is captioned “POET, LLC and POET Research, Inc. v. Nelson Engineering and Jerry Baker,” Case No. CIV 17-4029. The trade secret in question is known at Poet as “Delayed…
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A new study may have found a solution to the negative effects biofuel production can have on food production. The use of sequential cropping – one crop sown after another has been harvested – may be able to provide foodstock for biofuel production without adversely affecting food production, according to the study by Ecofys. Support for the biofuels industry has suffered recently due…
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Carrefour has taken a big step in its biomethane initiative, opening its first bioNGV service station. The new facility will play a part in allowing the French multinational retailer to expand its fleet of vehicles running on biomethane. By the end of 2017, Carrefour aims to have nine bioNGV service stations throughout France, enabling 200 lorries to make clean, silent deliveries to 250 urban…
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India’s first integrated bio-refinery for renewable fuels and chemicals has been inaugurated by the country’s minister for road transport, highways and shipping, Nitin Gadkari. Implemented by Indian process and project engineering company Praj Industries, the new facility will play a vital role in accelerating the country’s ethanol blending program. The new advanced bio-refinery…
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A designer and a biofuels scientist from the Netherlands have teamed up to build a motorcycle powered by algae. Peter Mooij researches biofuel production with microalgae. The scientist, who completed his PHD in biotechnology at Delft University of Technology in 2016, has developed a method to grow algae for oil production in salt water. Inspired by this, Mooij’s friend Ritsert Mans decided…
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Biodiesel and bioethanol use is declining in the German oil industry, according to official mineral oil data published by the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control for the first quarter of 2017. Even though German diesel consumption rose by 7.4% to 9.3 million tonnes by March, the share of biodiesel fell by 7% to around 500,000 tonnes. The bioethanol share also fell by 4.4% compared with…
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Dubai based Neutral Fuels is set to use crowd funding platform Eureeca to expand production and meet the ever growing demand for clean, green biofuels. It is believed to be the first time a biofuels company has raised capital in this way.   The company, the first and one of the largest in the region, is looking to build on six years of profitable growth. Neutral Fuels co-founder…
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The National Biodiesel Board Fair Trade Coalition has filed a new allegation with the US Department of Commerce claiming that “critical circumstances” exist regarding biodiesel imports to the US from Argentina. In US antidumping and countervailing duties laws, “critical circumstances” provision allows for the imposition of duties on imports prior to preliminary…
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The UK government’s decision to ban petrol and diesel cars by 2040 risks “handcuffing” the country to an “unrealistic policy”, according to renewable energy expert Devin Walker. Significantly, Walker also notes that in some circumstances the manufacture of electric cars themselves can actually produce even more harmful emissions which need to be taken into account…
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Through ‘bold leadership’, airports can accelerate the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) in the aviation industry, according to a newly published report. The new study, a collaboration between the Carbon War Room, Sky NRG and Port of Seattle, confirms the financial viability of supplying advanced biofuels to all airlines at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport…
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The US National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has formally called for higher volumes of advanced biofuels and biomass based diesel in the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard RFS for 2018 and 2019. “NBB is extremely concerned with the proposed rule’s unprecedented cut to the advanced biofuel volume and freeze in the biomass-based diesel…
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US-based biofuels producer Cargill has announced plans to produce a $90 million (€75 million), “state-of-the-art” biodiesel plant in Wichita, Kansas. Set to open in January 2019, the new biodiesel facility will produce 60 million gallons of biodiesel annually. “This new facility will enable Wichita to be a competitive supplier in the biofuels market, bringing value to the…
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US advanced biofuels company Gevo has announced that it will be partnering with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) on a project to fine-tune the composition of the catalyst used in Gevo's proprietary ethanol-to-olefins (ETO) process, in order to improve performance and accelerate scale-up…
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