News

The global white biotechnology market is expected to reach $487.08 billion (€442.5bn) by 2024, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.2% with biofuels spearheading the market. According to the new report by Grand View Research, rising awareness and emphasis for the adoption of greener and environment-friendly technologies in various end-use industries is expected to drive the market…
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Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has offered more than $26 million (€23.6m) to buy Abengoa SA's cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas, according to documents filed late Wednesday in bankruptcy court. A report in Reuters, Shell's initial bid on Abengoa's bankrupt biofuels asset marks the oil major's latest push into renewable fuels as the US government is getting its over decade-old biofuels policy…
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In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a new way to turn CO2 into ethanol. The finding involves nanofabrication and catalysis science, using an electrochemical process that produces tiny spikes of carbon and copper to transform greenhouse gas into biofuel.  “We discovered somewhat…
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The European Commission’s (EC) decision to phase out first-generation biofuels was based on “public opinion” instead of scientific facts, an EU official is quoted as admitting. According to the EurActive news site, EU director of renewables, research, and energy efficiency Marie Donnelly explained the reasoning behind the decision at a conference on 12 October. She is quoted as…
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US scientists have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. The newly engineered “super yeast” could boost the economics of making ethanol, specialty biofuels, and bioproducts, researchers from the University of Wisconsin­–Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research…
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An illegal ethanol warehouse in Harare, Zimbabwe, went up in flames on Sunday afternoon, leaving eight people, including three firemen, critically injured. The firemen are currently being treated in a hospital in Harare, but officials say they’re considering flying them to South Africa to receive special treatment due to the severity of their injuries. Michael Chideme, the Harare city…
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US exports of feed grains in all forms in 2015/2016 increased by more than 300,000 tonnes from the previous marketing year, US Department of Agriculture data shows. Totalling at 100.5 million tonnes, the export products include US corn, sorghum, barley, distillers’ dried grains with solubles (DDGS), corn gluten feed (CGF), corn gluten meal (CGM), ethanol as measured in corn equivalents,…
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The North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBC), aided by a $1.87 million (€1.7m) federal grant, has embarked on a three-year project to study the production of sorghum as biomass for fuel and high-value chemicals in the Mid-Atlantic region. The project, involving scientists at land-grant universities in two Southeast US states and numerous industry partners, is enabled by the grant to…
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Scottish Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) has announced over £3 million (€3.3m) of investment across six synthetic biology projects, including a biofuels/biochemicals manufacturer. Twist Bioscience with University of Edinburgh was granted £500,000 to engineer yeast strains for fuels and pharmaceuticals. With its expertise in DNA, Twist Bioscience will be…
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German biofuel producer CropEnergies increased its ethanol output in the first half of the 2016/17 financial year, despite falling revenues. Bioethanol production at CropEnergies increased from 422,000m3 to 450,000 m3 in H1 2016/17, with the production of food and animal products correspondingly increasing. The rise in production volumes resulted from a higher capacity utilisation mainly due to…
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A joint investment between UK’s BBSRC and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) in Brazil has been made to support collaborations between UK and Brazilian scientists in advanced biofuels research. The funding – £3.5 million (€3.9m) from BBSRC with equivalent funding of £1.5 million from FAPESP – has been awarded to two partnerships between the UK and…
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US biofuels producer High Plains Bioenergy, a subsidiary of Seaboard Foods, has officially opened its newest biodiesel production plant, HPB-St. Joe Biodiesel, located in St. Joseph, Missouri. The plant will use vegetable oils as the primary feedstock to produce up to 28 million gpy of biodiesel, and it marks High Plains Bioenergy's second venture into the biofuels market. “The addition of…
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The Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio has signed legislation that will increase the amount of biodiesel in the city’s heating oil supply to 20%. The bill, which passed by a 47-3 vote in September, will increase the biodiesel percentage from the current 2% level to 5% by 1 October, 2017, and eventually up to 20% by 2034. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) estimates that the increase from a 2%…
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