News

Airline Boeing and Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (CACC) has opened a biofuels demonstration plant that will turn waste cooking oil, or gutter oil as it known in China, into sustainable aviation biofuel. The plant has a production capacity of 160 gallons per day and estimates suggest that 1.8 billion litres of aviation fuel may be produced per year in China from gutter oil. Hangzhou Energy…
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State-run agricultural research firm Embrapa states Brazil can increase planted areas for bioenergy sixfold without removing rainforest. Manoel Texeira Souza, general manager, Embrapa, said at BNamericas' 11th Southern Cone Energy Summit that as much as 50 million hectares were available for future growth. 'If we can transfer 20% or 30% of that land into new [plantations] we will exceed our…
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Renewable Energy Group (REG) has completed upgrades to its 30 million gallon biorefinery in Newton, Iowa, US. The plant can now produce an even higher purity biomass-based diesel from a variety of raw materials. REG started work on the $13.2 million (€11 million) project in February and completed it in November, four months ahead of schedule and on budget. A further $2.6 million was invested…
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US-based Heliae, a developer of advanced algae production technologies, commenced operations at its first commercial facility in Arizona late last year. Using its Volaris-brand platform, the commercial facility will initially operate at 33% of its capacity to produce high-value algae products for nutraceutical and personal care products but biofuels represents another business avenue for…
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China New Energy (CNE) has been awarded a contract by Jilin-based New Tian Long Alcohol (NTLA) to provide technology and services for a new second generation biorefinery. The multi-phase contract, with phase one expected to last two years, is said to be worth CNY10 million (€1.2 million). The biorefinery is expected to have a capacity of 50,000 tonnes a year. Phase one of the project…
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Results of a third-party peer-reviewed life cycle assessment (LCA), entitled Greenhouse Gas and Energy Life Cycle Assessment of Pine Chemicals Derived from Crude Tall Oil and Their Substitutes, has found diverting crude tall oil (CTO) into biofuel production throughout Europe will not have a significant effect in either reducing carbon emissions nor fossil fuel consumption. CTO is a sustainable…
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White Energy's plant is once again producing ethanol, after nine months out of action last year following a harsh drought. The ethanol plant is now functioning and looking to increase in size for future production. 'We have changed management teams, and the new team better understands that the production of ethanol is a biological process rather than a mechanical process,' Don Gales, White Energy…
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Iowa's Senate unanimously approved a bill to extend tax credits for renewable fuels. After achieving a 48-0 decision yesterday, the bill will now move to the House. If passed, the bill will extend all renewable fuel tax credits in Iowa until 2020, increase the tax credit for E15 and add advanced biofuel biobutanol to the state's renewable fuels. An amendment to the bill also extends tax credits…
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Springboard Biodiesel, a clean-technology manufacturer, launches a fully automated, zero-waste biodiesel production plant in Chico, California, designed for low-cost production of multiple feedstocks. The model processing facility, which will open on 1 May and is capable of producing up to 1,500 gallons per day, processes locally collected UCO feedstock and converts it into ASTM-grade B-100…
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Wolfgang Vogel, chairman of Union zur Förderung der Oel- und Proteinpflanzen - Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP), is urging the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction quota be increased from 3% to 4.5%. In a letter to Barbara Hendricks, German federal minister for the environment, Vogel also demanded that the obligation to reduce GHG emissions planned for 2017 be brought…
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Ennovor Group, a European biodiesel producer, has earned the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) sustainability certification for its biodiesel produced from used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME). The company uses an online 'digital chain of custody' record for every consignment of biofuel it trades. It focuses on converting natural and recovered oil and fats, such as used cooking oil…
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Alaska Airlines is using new flight procedures as a result of the agency's Greener Skies initiative, a regional rollout of the FAA's Next Generation Air Transportation System in Seattle, currently in its second phase. The primary objective of the first phase of the programme, which began in 2010, was to develop and implement two Area Navigation (RNAV) arrivals and six Required Navigation…
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A multi-billion naira ethanol plant has opened at Igbesa, Ogun State, Africa. Allied Atlantic Distilleries is the first ever cassava-based ethanol plant to produce extra neutral alcohol in Africa (ENA). The ethanol facility was built as a result of a government-backed initiative to supply raw material to a number of distillers and industries. Along with ethanol, the plant will produce carbon…
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Thailand's military government is studying a plan to use rotten rice from state stocks to produce ethanol. The government is estimated to have lost as much as 400 billion baht (€9.2 billion) in buying and storing 18 million tonnes of rice from farmers at higher-than-market prices in the programme that lasted from October 2011 to February 2014. 'We just launched the idea to ethanol producers…
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