News

The European Parliament Environment Committee has approved draft legislation which will limit the contribution of first generation biofuels toward EU green transport targets. The Committee’s vote on proposals to deal with possible greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from indirect land use change (ILUC) took place on 11 July. The potential 5.5% cap on transport from all land-based…
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Biodiesel of Las Vegas has become the first producer in Nevada, US to earn a BQ-9000 certification from the country’s National Biodiesel Board. The certification is a voluntary programme hosted by the National Biodiesel Accreditation Programme for producers of BQ-9000 biodiesel. It combines the ASTM D6751 quality standard with a quality systems programme that focuses on things like…
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Forty-eight companies have joined forces with the European Commission this July to set up a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for bio-based industries. The PPP brings together €3.8 billion ($4.9 million) with an aim to advance the bioeconomy in Europe. The European pulp and paper industry is one strategic partner in this PPP, with 13 of the 48 member companies from the sector as well as the…
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According to local news reports, five plantation companies in Malaysia have signed a biomass joint venture cluster agreement to benefit the state of Sabah. The biomass project borne from this agreement, a concept from the Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), aims at aggregating sufficient volumes of biomass for a variety of downstream processing activities by allowing palm oil providers come…
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An enzyme which is found in leaf-cutter ant colonies could hold a key to unlocking biofuel production, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin, US. The researchers’ interest piqued after observing the ants converting plant biomass into food for energy. ‘As leaf-cutter ants are prodigious consumers of plant biomass, we hypothesized that the microbes they cultivate in…
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Renewable products business Amyris and fuel brand Total completed a new demonstration flight at the Paris Air Show using a technology that converts plant sugars into renewable jet fuel. The Airbus A321 aircraft, powered by two Snecma CFM56 jet engines, flew from Toulouse to Paris on the fuel blend and represented the second flight from this project after an Embraer E195 jet flew a year…
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Sustainable products company UPM  and US cellulosic sugar producer Renmatix have signed a non-exclusive joint development agreement in the area of biochemicals. Under its terms, both companies will further develop Renmatix’s water-based process to convert woody biomass into low-cost sugar intermediates for subsequent downstream processing into biochemicals.‘Access to second…
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A report by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has put ethanol production down 1.2% to put overall output to its lowest level in three weeks. It shows that output fell in the second of those weeks, put at 873,000 barrels a day, the first consecutive declines since early March. Inventories, however, did increase 2.9% to 16.5 million barrels and represents the biggest gain since last…
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Technip, a France-based project management and engineering company, has won a multi-million euro front end contract to build a second generation biomass-to-liquid (BtL) plant in Finland. The €5 million ($6.6 million) contract was awarded by Forest BtL and the facility will be built on Ajos island. It aims to produce approximately 140,000 tonnes of biodiesel and naphtha via wood and…
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US-based Genscape, the first approved Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) QAP provider, is now obtained further EPA approval for biofuels produced at foreign facilities and imported into the country. This means foreign biofuel producers can now obtain Genscape-certified QAP RINs to improve marketability and hopefully increase buyer confidence. ‘We know our certification programme…
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A move to block the sale of E15 blended petrol in the US has been quashed by the US Supreme Court this June. The court rejected a challenge by the American Petroleum Institute (API), the chief lobbying group for the oil industry, that the blend was unsafe for consumption in cars and motorcycles built pre-2001. Bob Greco, a senior API official, claimed the use of E15 ‘could leave millions of…
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US-based Red Rock Biofuels has won a multi-million dollar contract to produce biofuels for the US military. The company was one of four to have private investments matched by funds from the Defence Production Act under the Advanced Biofuels Production Project. This project is hoped to produce military-grade fuels under $4 (€3) a gallon within three years. RRB’s government award will by…
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Dutch company Firmtec, which provides vegetable oil processing systems, is set to deliver what it calls the ‘first ever plant capable of producing 100% green biodiesel’. The facility will be owned and operated by Indonesian company Waterland and will make the biodiesel via enzymes and ethanol, using oil from the Camelina sativa plant. The biodiesel plant will be based in Bali and aims…
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