News

Officials in Lawrenceville, Georgia, US, are considering a proposal to build three ethanol storage tanks at a railway property near the area. The manpower currently required in the process of transferring ethanol shipments from trains to tanker trucks could be lessened by constructing storage tanks. Lawrenceville has been a key part of transportation of ethanol across Georgia for the past three…
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Dutch dredging and marine contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster has reached an agreement with SkyNRG for the delivery of 250,000 litres of sustainable diesel to be used in a pilot project in the Netherlands involving a number of Boskalis trucks. The fuel is sourced from used cooking oil and blended with 70% conventional diesel. Boskalis says the pilot project 'is consistent' with its efforts to…
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In Brazil, BNDES, the country's national development bank, and the state research-financing agency FINEP are providing 1.48 billion reais ($618 million) to encourage agricultural innovation in its sugar-based ethanol industry. Reports say Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico & Social, as the development bank is officially known, and Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) will offer…
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Lignol Energy's subsidiary, Territory Biofuels, recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Milio International for the development of a joint venture for feedstock and marketing. The JV will see Milio fund up to 120,000 tonnes of feedstock per year and facilitate the marketing and sales of the production from Territory Biofuels' 140 million litre per year (37 MMgy) biodiesel plant in…
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Construction of a cellulosic ethanol plant in Iowa, US, is due to be finalised in the coming months and should be operating by June. Poet-DSM, a joint operation between US ethanol maker POET and Dutch food and chemicals group DSM, cost a reported $250 million (4181.7 million) and will produce 7-12 million gallons of ethanol this year using cobs and other corn stover. Its eventual annual…
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A biofuel initiative in India to mix pongemia oil with diesel has been stopped as the utility has to purchase fuel in the open market. The state-run Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has operated under the initiative for six years, but price hikes on bulk purchase of diesel meant it was incurring losses through purchasing on the open market and couldnot blend using public…
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United Petroleum says it is shutting down the Dalby biorefinery in Queensland, Australia, due to a lack of government support and a drop in demand for fuel-grade ethanol. According to a statement released by the company, the Australian government is 'no longer interested in subsidising the ethanol industry'. The biorefinery is currently closed for maintenance, a move influenced by high sorghum…
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Gasrec, a European supplier of liquefied gas fuel to the transport sector, has opened a dedicated bio-LNG filling station at Arla Foods’ (AF) new £150 million (€183.5 million) dairy in the UK, which is set to become the country’s first zero carbon dairy. The partnership is set to develop a strategy to introduce low emission bio-LNG fuel for AF’s heavy goods vehicle…
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US-based Renewable Energy Group has launched a new division which will sell petroleum-based heating oil and diesel fuel, and enable the company to offer more biofuel blends. REG Energy Services will sell heating oil and ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) at seven terminals throughout the northeastern US as well as its BioHeat branded blended heating fuel at an existing REG terminal…
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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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Australia-based Sterling Plantations has recently sold a biodiesel plant to Malaysian company Gentings Plantations (GP). The plant, reported to be worth around RM33 million (€7.3 million), is located in Sabah and represents the second facility of its kind to be purchased by GP. GP has a subsidiary named  ACGT, which is a business that focuses on developing genomics-based solutions to…
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Versalis, the chemical subsidiary of Eni, and Elevance Renewable Sciences, a producer of specialty chemicals from natural oils, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a strategic partnership to jointly develop and scale a new metathesis technology to produce biochemicals from vegetable oils. Under the new partnership, the two companies will jointly develop and scale new…
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A new report by Navigant Research has revealed a sharp rise in the consumption of biofuels across the global road transportation sector. The research body forecasts worldwide consumption in the sector will grow from more than the 32.4 billion gallons per year recorded in 2013 to more than 51.1 billion by 2022. ‘An increase in ethanol production capacity in the US and Brazil, and biodiesel…
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The Greenwood Tree Farm Fund (GTFF) has claimed to be the first short-rotation forest plantation in the world to earn certification under the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB). The RSB certification covers GTFF's cultivation, management and harvesting of coppiced poplar trees, used as biomass feedstock for the cellulosic ethanol industry or pelletised for direct combustion in biomass…
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