News

The new pre-treatment unit passes first production tests required to supply BP Singapore under a three-year feedstock supply agreement.   Aemetis announced 25 April that its subsidiary Universal Biofuels has completed the production of high quality, distilled biodiesel from lower quality, high free fatty acid (FFA) waste feedstock using its recently constructed pre-treatment unit at a…
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Reuters is reporting that a refinery owned by billionaire and former Trump advisor Carl Icahn has received a waiver freeing it from its obligations under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). The waiver will allow the refinery to save millions of dollars on what would otherwise be used to blend biofuels into its products or buy renewable identification numbers (RINs) from those who do to…
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Eighteen senators have signed a letter calling for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt to allow 15% ethanol blends to be sold all year. The politicians asked for a timeline of the rulemaking process to clarify how the agency will permit E15 wholesale. They also asked to allow E15 to be sold while that process happens. Currently, the agency regulates the Reid vapour…
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Reuters is reporting that Poet has overtaken the grain merchant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in global fuel ethanol production. While both companies had production capacities around 1.8 billion gallons previously, Poet has grown its capacity to 1.9 billion and ADM has reduced to 1.6 billion. The wire service says that the change reflects the companies’ diverging strategies to address…
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The Advanced Biofuels Association (ABFA) has asked the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC to decide whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law by granting Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) waivers to an increasing number of small refineries. The petition specifically called for a review of the EPA’s “decision to modify the criteria or lower the threshold by which…
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April 20, Ireland’s Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment published a policy statement confirming its intention to increase the biofuel obligation to 10% from 1 January 2019 and to 11% in 2020. Ireland’s Biofuels Obligation Scheme requires suppliers of road transport fuel to ensure a certain proportion of the fuel that they place on the market is…
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Toyota has debuted a prototype of what it calls the world’s first hybrid flexible-fuel vehicle, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The flexible fuelled vehicle can be powered by both gasoline and ‘alternative fuels such as ethanol’. Key to the new vehicle, according to Toyota, is a new hybrid system that combines a combustion engine and an electrical powertrain. The new Hybrid FFV (flexible…
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Enerkem has produced a new high-performance biofuel that it claims could improve the octane rating of fuels sold on the market as well as reduce their carbon footprint. The innovation has been achieved in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US. The Canadian waste-to-biofuels and chemicals producer announced its latest innovation at the 255th American Chemical…
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The EU has removed anti-dumping duties on biodiesel imports from Indonesia, according to Reuters. It’s the latest development in what has been a long running controversy. Back in 2013, the European Union set import duties on biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia, claiming that both nations were ‘dumping’ the renewable fuel. The measures met legal challenges from both the…
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A new, £5 million project is set to develop the bioeconomy across Yorkshire, the Humber region and the Tees Valley in the north of England. Dubbed the THYME (Teesside, Hull and York - Mobilising Bioeconomy Knowledge Exchange) project, the three year initiative is being led by the University of York. It’s aiming to ‘build on’ expertise and innovation in the…
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The UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published its Energy Trends data for 2017. The report includes in depth statistics on the country’s biofuels industry. According to the report, overall biofuel consumption in transport was down 0.5% on the previous year, falling from 1,467 million litres to 1,460 million litres. However, year on year, biofuel…
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German renewable fuel producer Natural Energy West is to reduce its biodiesel output by 50%. According to Reuters, the company is making the cuts in response to surging biodiesel imports from Indonesia and Argentina to the EU. Reuters reports that the company will cut output ‘immediately and for an indefinite period’. Natural Energy West produces around 240,000 tonnes of biodiesel a…
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Following a four a month shut down period, Britain’s largest bioethanol plant has reopened. Vivergo’s facility in East Yorkshire is Europe’s second largest bioethanol facility. It shut down in November 2017, citing unfavourable trading conditions. According to the company, these unfavourable conditions were driven in part by the Government’s inaction on the future of…
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