News

The mandate was increased 1 March after the country’s National Energy Policy Council approved the measure at the end of 2017. Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy anticipates that the new blend will see demand for biodiesel grow by 1 billion litres in 2018.  This introduction of B10 (a 10% blend of biodiesel with conventional fossil fuel) coincides with the soybean harvest to…
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The oil and gas company and its partner Synthetic Genomics has advanced to testing naturally occurring algae strains in California. The test will inform how the project scales up the technology in the commercial phase. The companies announced 6 March that their biofuels project has proceeded to the next stage: outdoor field tests of algae in contained ponds. The tests are meant to provide data to…
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The Energy Information Administration (EIA) in the US is anticipating consistent growth in ethanol production and consumption through 2019 thanks to mandated production under the Renewable Fuel Standard and stable corn prices. In its newest Short-Term Energy Outlook, the EIA is projecting continued growth in ethanol production and limited export growth through 2019, with the average…
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The CO2 has been contracted by Airgas USA. The company will liquefy the gas at a nearby facility that is expected to begin operation by the end of 2018. The US-based biofuel producer Pacific Ethanol has reached an agreement with Airgas USA to sell it CO2 out of its Stockton, California plant. Airgas USA, a supplier of gases, welding equipment and supplies, and safety products, plans to construct…
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The companies ICM and The Andersons are planning to build a combined heat and power plant in Colwich, Kansas and intend the facility to be ‘the most advanced ethanol plant in the world’. The venture, dubbed ELEMENT is meant to see the construction of a plant capable of offsetting over 70% of natural gas requirements and up to 80% of electricity demand. ELEMENT will use ICM’s…
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The Growing Renewable Energy through Existing and New Environmentally Responsible (GREENER) Fuels Act is the most recent proposal to reform the long-contested Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Talks have been going on for some time about the RFS. Now the minority Democratic Party has introduced a bill into the House and Senate to amend the programme. The changes would see madates for first…
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UPM has joined forces with Norwegian packaging company Elopak and chemical producer Dow to convert its renewable naphtha into cartons. Alongside renewable diesel, the Finnish company’s UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery produces naphtha, an excellent raw material for bioplastics. The naphtha can be converted into renewable resins which can be used in the packaging industry. According to a…
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Stakeholders in the US biodiesel industry have called for the biodiesel tax credit to be extended until 2018 “as soon as possible”. The call comes in a letter from the US National Biodiesel Board, addressed to a range of high-ranking US politicians including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Democrat House Leader Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Tens of thousands…
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The US biofuels industry has slammed the decision to relieve the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery of roughly half of its $350 million (€283 million) in outstanding Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance obligations. On 12 March, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Carlyle Group backed Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) came to the agreement that the troubled refiner would…
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A representative from the US biodiesel industry has testified before the Ways and Means Subcommittee on the need to renew the biodiesel blender’s tax incentive through to at least 2018. Cal Meyer, CEO of Ag Processing, was acting as witness for the National Biodiesel Board (of which Ag Processing is a member). As well as urging Congress to renew the blender’s credit, he advocated…
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Biofuels are crucial to improving the US energy outlook, according to an expert from ethanol trade association Growth Energy. Chris Bliley, Growth Energy’s vice-president of regulatory affairs, says that the forecasts in the recently released US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2018 demonstrate a clear need for US biofuels. “Blending more…
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The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) based out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) is moving from the development of crop-based ethanol to creating fuels and chemicals that are fungible with their petroleum-based equivalents. The change was announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas by the centre’s…
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A consortium of companies, including Canadian advanced biofuel producer Enerkem, have signed a project development agreement for an advanced waste-to-chemistry facility in Rotterdam. According to a statement, the new facility will be the first of its kind in Europe. It will provide a sustainable alternative solution for non-recyclable waste, allowing plastics and other mixed wastes to be…
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