News

US development of viable biofuel for the aviation industry has received further long-term support from the government this April. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation secretary Ray LaHood signed a five-year agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration, which was announced at the Advanced Biofuels Summit. The federal government and its partners hope to…
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Norwegian finance minister Sigbjørn Johnsen officially inaugurated a biorefinery demonstration plant at Borregaard’s production facility in Sarpsborg this April.The demo plant started preliminary operations last summer, followed by normal operations in the first quarter of 2013. The plant uses proprietary Borregaard technology and aims to produce cost-effective and sustainable lignin…
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Second generation feedstock business NexSteppe has launched its new sorghum hybrid products in the US and Brazil. The company hopes its sweet sorghum and high biomass hybrids will offer alternative solutions to advanced and cellulosic biofuels, biopower and biobased product producers. ‘Through a combination of directed conventional breeding, marker-assisted breeding and analytical…
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The sixth Biofuels International conference will take place on the 11th and 12th September this year in Antwerp, Belgium and you could potentially join the high level speaker list. By participating in the programme not only will you demonstrate your leadership role within the sector and raise your company's profile, but you can also play your part in the market's development and, more…
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European ethanol association ePure has responded to the draft report by European parliament member Corinne Lepage which focused on the European Commission’s (EC) proposal for a directive amending the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) and the directive of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED). ‘We see some constructive suggestions in Lepage's draft report but also some ideas that…
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SCS Global Services has announced the expansion of its biofuel certification services in south east Asia. The third-party environmental certification body will now conduct audits under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) programme, which will allow biofuel producers in south east Asia to meet the requirements for export into the European Union under its Renewable…
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) believes its country’s farmers will grow the most corn since 1936 as growers look to take advantage of high prices driven by last year’s drought. A forecast of 97.3 million acres of corn is set to be sown in 2013 to help boost dwindling supplies, while soyabean plantings have been placed at 77.1 million acres. Wheat crops will rise 1% to 56.4…
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UK-based bioethanol producer Ensus has ‘temporarily’ taken its 450 million gallon capacity facility offline for the second time since it started operations in 2010. In a statement the company says a ‘poor wheat harvest in the UK last year has had an adverse impact on the quality and price of the crop as a feedstock’ that is used within the plant. ‘Alongside that,…
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Spain-based sustainable technologies provider Abengoa has seen operations at a demo plant that uses its waste-to-biofuels technology begin. The facility, located in Salamanca, has capacity to treat 25,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste to produce around 1.5 million litres of bioethanol. The infrastructure of the plant has gone through more than 6,000 continuous hours of tests to validate the…
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Botlek Tank Terminal (BTT) has loaded the first train at its new loading/unloading station. The new station entered service on 2 April and loaded around 1,000 tonnes of biodiesel for export to a Bavaria-based refinery in Germany. The fuel was transferred from one of the storage tanks. In addition to Germany, the station will also be used to load and unload biodiesel going to and coming from…
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Full details of the sentence received by Jeffrey Gunselman, the man behind over $40 million (€31.2 million) worth of RIN fraud, have been revealed. The West Texas native has been sentenced to at least 15 years in prison and ordered to pay out $55 million in restitution by a federal judge. In a story followed by Biofuels International, Gunselman started a bogus biodiesel company named…
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A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) reveals that Brazil, if recent trends continue, will be unable to meet its domestic light vehicle demand for fuel as soon as 2017. The report states that demand could outstrip supply by as much as 9 to 12 billion litres per year by 2021, equivalent to 20% of Brazil’s demand, and that the country must either make substantial new…
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A study in Spain has pinpointed dinoflagellate microalgae as an ‘easy and profitable way’ of creating biodiesel. The research was led by scientists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council, and claims that the oft ignored type of marine algae is suitable for cultivation with biodiesel in mind. Over the course…
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