News

DuPont's $500 million (€391 million) bet on producing ethanol from corn crop waste will pay off as companies add to demand for renewable chemicals and fuels. The US chemical company is investing in building a biorefinery in Nevada, Iowa, on research and development for enzymes to break down corn waste into ethanol. DuPont will supply cellulosic ethanol to Procter & Gamble's Tide…
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Ecuador's government is looking to expand local ethanol distribution throughout the country by 2017 to reduce gas emissions and fuel imports. The mix, which contains locally-produced sugarcane ethanol is expected to replace a type of petrol named extra, and will represent 45% of the national fuel market, after diesel and other types of petrol. The government anticipates private investments of…
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The management team at Green Fuel's Chisumbanje ethanol plant plans to introduce E20 fuel blending in April 2015, providing it receives necessary investment. 'There is the need to plan and synchronise production, milling, purification and other processes across the value chain,' said Basil Nyabadza, board chairman, ARDA, adding that by April next year, the plant will be able to produce E20. Last…
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Biochemtex and Beta Renewables signed a contract with Energochemica for the construction of a second generation ethanol plant in the Slovak Republic. The plant, which will be built in Strazske, Slovak Republic, will deliver 55,000 metric tonnes per year of cellulosic ethanol while using non-food biomass as its feedstock. The project begins immediately and the start-up of the plant is expected in…
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Four of the top terminal operators in Germany: Vopak, Simon Storage, Oiltanking and Tanquid will all be coming together on the 19-20 November in Hamburg to discuss the country's bulk liquid storage market. Germany has the third largest storage capacity in Europe, but with the storage market in backwardation, refineries closing and strong competition, terminals need to work hard to stay profitable…
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will give a $91 million (€72 million) loan guarantee to help Cool Planet Energy Systems build a new biofuel plant in Louisiana. The facility will be built at the Port of Alexandria, Louisiana, and will produce renewable fuels and biochar, a bioenergy by-product. Pine chips will be converted into high octane petrol and aromatic blendstocks. Cool…
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Argentina's cooperatives association (Aca-Bio) has started work on a $130 million ethanol plant outside the city of Villa María. The plant will process 380,000 tonnes per year of corn, which will produce 125,000 cubic metres per year of biofuel. Excess steam will power a turbine that will then be used to power the plant. Operations will start in February. 
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Zimbabwe’s energy sector regulator plans to licence new ethanol producers to avoid dependency on single supplier Green Fuel (GF). Under the country’s mandatory blending policy, only GF can license or is accredited to trade the commodity for petrol blending purposes. The current law states that an ethanol producer for mandatory blending has to be in partnership with the State, and…
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EU authorities has given the go ahead for Airbus' new long-haul A350 plane to start flying. Deliveries of the next-generation aircraft will be sent to its first client Qatar Airways shortly. The new A350 plane has been manufactured to help the European airline catch up with Boeing's efforts to create long-haul, fuel-efficient planes. Using light composite materials, the A350-900 reduces fuel…
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Cellulosic ethanol production could help create up to 9 million cellulosic D3 renewable identification numbers (RINs) in 2014, if active plants reach full capacity, suggests Genscape. Data and market specialist Genscape has released its white paper, Outlook for 2014 cellulosic production and D3 RINs, which looks at the current state of biofuels. In the paper, the company says that if full…
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The US Department of Energy (DOE) is expected to spend up to $25 million (€19.8 million) on improving algae production and development. The Department is working on reducing the costs of algae biofuel down below $5-per-gallon equivalent in petrol by 2019 by improving current technologies. If that doesn't seem very ambitious compare that to the state of play without innovation, which comes…
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Crop company Agrisoma Biosciences has finished the first closing of its Series A financing round, expected to total $8 million through 2014. Cycle Capital Management led the financing round, which included participation of BDC Venture Capital, one of Agrisoma's current equity investors. Certified sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), Carinata is the world's first…
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International aviation group Lufthansa and sustainable energy specialists JatroSolutions have signed an MoU to make the production of jatropha commercially viable. Lufthansa will help the start-up company set up a raw materials supply chain to ensure the provision of biosynthetic fuel derived from the jatropha plant. Joachim Buse, VP, Aviation Biofuel at Lufthansa, says: 'In order to secure the…
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The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has filed comments with the European Commission (EC) challenging blocked US biodiesel exports to Europe. Since 2009, the EC has prevented biodiesel exports trading from US to Europe, a move that the NBB calls 'unfair'. NBB urges the EC to allow duties on US biodiesel imports to expire this year planned, arguing that global trade for biodiesel has changed…
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