News

European waste-based biodiesel producer Petrotec has announced its figures for the first nine months of 2012. Overall revenues by the end of September were recorded at €123.6 million ($157.5 million) slightly down on the €130.3 million. Generated sales in the third quarter were registered at €46.5 million, down from €55.5 million, but a positive cash flow of €4.1 million…
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The foundation stone of UPM’s Finland-based biorefinery in Lappeenranta has been laid. UPM claim the120 million litres a year facility will be ‘the world’s first biorefinery to produce wood-based biodiesel’ and this announcement means the project is running on schedule. ‘Our €150 million investment into Lappeenranta proves this is UPM’s spearhead project…
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Australia-based Mission NewEnergy has revealed its subsidiary Mission Biofuels (MB) has been served with a winding up petition. The petition against the Malaysian biofuels producer has been served by the contractor for its second proposed biodiesel refinery, KNM Process Systems. It states that KNM is in dispute with MB over a sum of $16.1 million (€12.7 million) for goods delivered and work…
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Germany-based biotechnology company Direvo is set to commercialise its new conversion process of non-food feedstocks into fuels and chemicals. Its BluCon platform is the result of an intensive research programme to identify microorganisms viable to cheaply produce chemicals and fuels from carbohydrates created from non-food biomass, so-called second generation biomass conversion. ‘After two…
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Cargill, a US-based agribusiness business, will be closing one of its two biodiesel plants in Germany. The 120,000 tonne capacity per year facility has stopped production because of what Cargill calls an ‘overcapacity’ in the European green fuels sector. The plant is a joint venture with German agricultural co-op Agravis. The recent announcement by the European Commission to reduce…
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US-based transportation fuels producer Kior has begun production at its first commercial facility in Mississippi. It is believed the plant, once running at full capacity within the next 12 months, will be able to produce almost 50 million litres of petrol and diesel per year. Kior will be using a mixture of biomass, like non-food crops and woodwaste, as part of the manufacturing process. Despite…
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Engineering and technology provider Praj Industries is to move into India as it further explores second generation biofuels. A 10 million litres a year demonstration commercial plant represents a continuation of Praj’s lignocellulose to ethanol programme as it seeks ways to produce ethanol from non-food based feedstock. Praj will use the plant to demonstrate technical and commercial…
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Renewable chemicals and fuels company Amyris has recorded declining financial results for the third quarter ending September 2012. Aggregate revenues for the quarter were posted at $19.1 million (€15 million) versus $36.3 million in the same quarter 2011. The company puts the decline in revenue down to the planned transition out of the ethanol and ethanol-blended gasoline business, which is…
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US-based biofuel and logistics company Eco-Energy has signed a partnership with Copersucar, the largest sugar and ethanol trader in Brazil. By binding their global supply capacity of 2.6 billion gallons the move creates the largest ethanol trader in the world. ‘With this partnership, we become a truly global company in the biofuel market, expanding our scale of operation to the two main…
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Vopak has been awarded the first multisite International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) for a number of its storage terminals. The company certified its first terminal in Rotterdam on 13 December 2011. ‘Rotterdam is the biofuels hub of Europe,’ Maurice Houben, Vopak’s sales and marketing manager for global vegoils and biofuels,’ explains. ‘Many…
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The Pakistani government is to implement several new plants with the aim of creating a total of 304MW of electricity from city waste. Many projects are already underway, with an aggregate capacity of 57MW, and the subsequent facilities will create a further 247MW via agricultural, industrial and biogas waste products.  A senior government official stated that agricultural waste projects were…
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Greenergy has announced plans to penetrate the fuel industry in Canada. From the second quarter of next year, the UK-based supplier of petrol and diesel will begin supplying fossil and biofuels to south western Ontario. Greenergy's first supply location in Canada will be Vopak's Hamilton terminal. From here it will supply E10 petrol, ethanol and ULSD. A number of terminal improvements are to be…
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Ethanol plant design and management company ICM has had to lay off 25 employees in Colwich, US in response to what it calls slowing growth in the ethanol industry. The company now employs 275 people, down from the 671 it had back in early 2008. In a statement e-mailed to various press outlets, ICM CEO Dave Vander Griend stated the company is focused on retrofitting existing plants and introducing…
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Several projects in Japan on the go since 2008 are perfecting the use a technology that could utilise sago to produce ethanol. President of Bio-Energy Corporation Hideo Noda claims this research on producing bioethanol production from cellulosic materials has been carried out successfully. ‘In our project, a hydro-thermal pre-treatment without adding sulfuric acid had been introduced and…
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