News

The US's largest advanced biofuel company, Renewable Energy Group, announced in their initial public offering on January 18, 2012. The Iowa-based company then celebrated its offering at the NASDAQ, New York, in a closing bell ceremony which recognized shareholders, the board of directors, employees and client service providers. 'The biodiesel we produce is an important alternative as crude oil…
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Shandong-based furan resin and polymers specialists, Shengquan Group, has entered into a partnership with Novozymes, a world leader in bioinnovation. The agreement will enable Shengquan to use Novozymes' technology in order to begin commercial-scale production of cellulosic ethanol for solvents in June 2012. 'Shengquan has profound experience in chemical production and is a leading company in…
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A memorandum of understanding has been signed by Italian power company Enel to build a 1-5MW concentrated solar power and biomass bi-generation plant, which will produce electricity for the city of Rome. Italy's agency for new technologies, Enea, and Rome's local authority Roma Capitale, which will be backing the porject also signed the agreement. Enel will build and manage the Trebois plant as…
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San Carlos Bioenergy (SCBI) is putting delayed plans to expand their ethanol facility in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental into action. The expansion will see the company's ethanol production reach over 40 million litres per year, an increase of 10 million litres from its current annual production figures. Original plans were delayed after SCBI's initial expansion proposal in 2009 due to various…
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Biofuels solutions provider, Lincoln Energy Solutions (LES), is constructing new storage tanks at their facility in Belton, South Carolina. The tanks will increase the facility's ethanol storage capacity by 1.5 million gallons and its biodiesel capacity by 400,000 gallons. To meet the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, a 225,000-gallon water tank is also being constructed. The…
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Food production company Universal Robina’s board of directors has approved an ethanol development which will complement the company’s sugar business. The company says the development will allow the business to ‘maximise the productive usage of its resources’. The plant, which will be built in the Philippines, is expected to cost about P27 million (€480,000) is will…
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NASA has demonstrated a new way to grow algae, clean wastewater, capture CO₂ and then produce feedstock that can be used for biofuels production, without the need for water, fertiliser or land use. The algae cultivation system has been dubbed the Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA) and will be release for commercial use in May 2012. An OMEGA system on a smaller scale was built by NASA…
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Honeywell is to test its Green Jet Fuel under a programme that uses a biofeedstock that has been designed especially for biofuel production. Along with the National Research Council of Canada and Agrisoma Biosciences, test flights will be conducted in Canada along with in-flight emissions collection from an aircraft that will follow behind the plane. This will allow for the fuel’s…
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The local Department of Corrections has signed a deal with Biodiesel New Zealand so that it can supply the biofuels company with used cooking oil (UCO) from 18 of its prison kitchens across the country. Rather than being thrown into landfill, the New Zealand corrections department will supply about 5,000 litres a month of UCO to the biodiesel company so that it can continue to produce its Biogold…
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Boeing and All Nippon Airways have flown a 787 Dreamliner aircraft on biofuels from the Boeing Delivery Center in Everett, Washington, to Tokyo Haneda Airport. In the first ever biofuel flight crossing the Pacific ocean the plane flew on a mixture of biofuel derived from used cooking oil and conventional fuel, cutting about 30% of the CO₂ emissions usually produced. However, the companies say…
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Michigan State University (MSU) is to begin installing an anaerobic digester system which will use waste from the university’s farms and dining halls, generating power for some of the buildings on the campus. The MSU’s board of trustees has granted permission for work to begin on the project, which is expected to cost $5 million (€3.8 million), although should pay for itself…
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Following the success of the Qantas biofuel powered flight, Algae.Tec says that in the future most of the Australian biofuels could be derived from algae that is grown locally. The biofuel flight, which saw the plane fly between Sydney and Adelaide, was powered on cooking oil-derived biodiesel which was supplied by SkyNRG. However, Algae.Tec says it would be beneficially if the biofuels could be…
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Regus Advisors has invested in Algae International so that it can build its first $2 million algae to biofuel development in California. Regus, a private global investment banking firm, says the plant will be a large scale project will use CO₂, fuel cells, nitrates, phosphates, sunlight and algae to produce the biofuels. Regus’ president, Mervyn Price, explains: ‘This process…
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Canadian air carrier Porter Airlines is due to fly a commercial, biofuel-powered aircraft later this month, making it the nation's first carrier to do this. The flight comes after Porter's biofuel test flight, which took place in February earlier this year. Porter will operate one of its Bombardier Q400 turboprop airliners on a 50/50 blend of biojet and conventional fossil aviation…
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