News

Refineries in the Iowa, US, will begin full operations using feedstocks other than corn kernels. Iowa has two major cellulosic plants under construction that will use corn plant leaves, stalks and cobs to produce ethanol. Project Liberty, a plant in Emmetsburg built by Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based ethanol-maker POET and biotechnology company Royal DSM. The $250 million plant will produce 25…
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Lurgi, a member of the Air Liquide group of companies, has completed construction and start-up of an ethanol facility for Calgren Renewable Fuels. The Calgren plant is currently the only ethanol plant operating in the US state of California. Calgren and Lurgi worked together to design a plant that optimises the plant's energy efficiency, while producing value added co-products. The facility will…
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Project Liberty, the US's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, located in Emmetsburg, Iowa, has been officially opened. A joint venture of DSM and Poet, Project Liberty will convert 285,000 tonnes a year of biomass sourced from within a 45-mile radius of the plant into renewable fuel. Feedstocks will include baled corn cobs, leaves, husk and stalk. The plant has now officially…
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Poet-DSM has announced that the grand opening ceremony for its commercial-scale second generation ethanol plant, Project Liberty, will take place on 3 September. When it comes online, the Emmetsburg, Iowa-based plant will process 770 tonnes of corn cobs, leaves and husk to produce 20 million gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol. This annual production capacity will later be increased to 25…
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With indirect land use change (iLUC) dominating much of the conversation on biofuels for the past six years, the debate shows no signs of slowing down. Chris Malins, ‎fuels programme lead for the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), will conduct a webinar to explain what iLUC really is. The ICCT has published a guide that identifies the main six determinants of iLUC emissions…
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Salem-based Epic Aviation was among 11 oil and gas distribution companies to be awarded multimillion-dollar contracts this week by the Pentagon's Defence Logistics Agency. Epic, who supplies almost 300 fuelling points to the commercial and military aviation industry, will receive up to $12,002,258 (€9 million) to supply military aircraft with aviation turbine fuel. The US company has been…
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Mahtani Group has partnered with UK-based Sunbird Group to develop a $150 million (€112 million) bioethanol plant in the Luapula Province, Zambia. The plant will produce bioethanol and will use cassava as its by-product. The feedstock is widely grown in the province with most of it going to waste. The project is going to be 'the first to use cassava to extract bioethanol for fuel and that…
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All British Airways planes at London's City Airport should be fuelled with rubbish. New industrial plants will turn into liquid fuels organic scraps such as paper, food, and garden clippings. The first among these is GreenSky London, currently under construction, which will be able to process some 500,000 tonnes of waste annually and convert it into approximately 60,000 tonnes of jet fuel. The…
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North European Bio Tech Oy (NEB) is investing in a bioethanol plant on the Renforsin Ranta industrial estate in Kajaani, Finland. The plant, which has a production capacity of 10 million litres per year of bioethanol, will be leased to oil and bioproduct traders North European Oil Trade Oy (NEOT). St1 Biofuels Oy, which is responsible for design, permits and coordination and will be operating the…
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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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Renewable Energy Group (REG) plans to spend $15 million (€11.3 million) in the next 12 months on its Geismar facility. The biofuels plant, which makes diesel from animal fat, will soon be able to use an increased variety of feedstocks. Although the timescale is still unknown, REG's Geismar plant hasn't operated since October 2012.
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Boeing, Airbus and Embraer have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the development of drop-in aviation biofuels. Together, the team hopes to encourage governments and legislators, biofuel producers, and airlines to pursue the availability of sustainable new jet fuel sources to help reduce the aviation industry's carbon footprint. The aviation industry aims for neutral…
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ASTM International standard D7566, Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesised Hydrocarbons now includes renewable synthesised iso-paraffinic fuel. This recently approved revision adds the synthesised iso-paraffinic fuel to the ASTM D7566 annex, which will facilitate the use of the fuels in all international airlines. This standard ensures biobased fuel quality that is on par,…
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