News

In North Carolina, US, the city of Charlotte’s first biomass power plant is due to be complete by 31 December. The North Carolina Utilities Commission has approved a $12 million (€8.87 million) 3.2MW proposed facility by Orbit Energy Filings with the commission that Orbit intends to sell the energy produced, a total of 23 gigawatt-hours annually, to Duke Energy for the next 20…
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A new anaerobic digestion (AD) facility in Suffolk, UK, will convert business food waste into bioenergy to heat homes and power cars. The facility which will be the first of its kind to generate renewable energy for the gas grid, will be sited on land owned by Southwold-based independent brewery Adnams, which will use the facility to recycle its brewery waste. Food waste will be sourced from…
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The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January has meant a desperate lack of sanitation facilities but now Brazilian group Viva Rio is turning human excrement into biogas for use as fuel. The Kay Nou camp in Port-au-Prince is one of many to have flourished in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince since the earthquake. The camps are absorbing many of the estimated 1 million people made…
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Vancouver-based Fortress Paper will buy a disused pulp mill in Quebec and spend $153 million (€111 million) to reopen it as a biomass plant. A 25MW power plant fed by waste from its operations and from an extensive local network of chip and other biomass suppliers is expected to begin supplying electricity by late 2012. The company further plans to begin production of dissolving grade…
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Bioenergy International expo & conference is organised by leading publication Biofuels International (BI) magazine, and here Jan Stambasky (JS), executive board member of the European Biogas Association, provides an insight into what he will be speaking about at the event in Prague, Czech Republic, on 5-6 May. Founded just a year ago the association is growing fast, echoing the development…
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Vietnam state president Nguyen Minh Triet attended a ceremony for the construction of an ethanol plant in Minh Hung commune, Bu Dang district, the southern province of Binh Phuoc. The $81 million (€60 million) ethanol plant, which has the capacity to produce 100 million litres of ethanol annually, will utilise 240,000 tonnes of dried cassava. The company hopes that around 15,000 households…
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Shipping giants Maersk and Lloyd’s Register are joining forces with the Dutch government and other specialist contractors to test the performance of a mix of biodiesel in marine engines in a number of trials. The trials will test for possible difficulties that could be encountered by the liners. Processed from renewable sources that can be grown in temperate climates, fatty acid methyl esters…
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Legal charges have been brought against the European Union’s executive as documents linked to biofuels and their detrimental effect on the environment have been kept under wraps. The four environmental groups responsible for the suing say that these reports will add to a growing portfolio of evidence damning biofuels. The groups, ClientEarth, Transport and Environment, the European…
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Petrobras Biocombustiveis, the biofuel subsidiary created by Brazil's state-run energy company Petrobras, has experienced losses of BLR 92 million (€38.1 million)in the fiscal year ended 31 December 2009. The company's first year in operations went poorly. Its three biodiesel plants, with 326 million litres a year combined capacity, went on stream late in Q2 2009 to a market of…
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The Australian Government will make changes to the country's Renewable Energy Target plan. Starting in January 2011, the existing scheme will include two parts – the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET). These revised arrangements will deliver on the Government’s 20% by 2020 Renewable Energy Target (RET) and are expected to…
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According to Bio Base Europe the first crop of genetically modified poplar plants will be converted into ethanol in a Flemish-Dutch pilot installation. The poplars were planted in May 2009 in an outside field in Ghent, Belgium. The crop has now been harvested and is ready to be converted into ethanol at the Bio Base Europe pilot plant. Located in Ghent, the plant converts agricultural…
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The state of Iowa, US, has been awarded funding from The Department of Agriculture to help develop biofuels and replace fossil fuels. US senator Chuck Grassley claimed that the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels would distribute the sum of $1.6 million (€1.2 million) to the state. Grassley said it was highly encouraging to witness The Department of Agriculture and biofuel companies in…
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Wisconsin, US-based wind farm operator We Energies is looking to build a biomass plant. The company has filed an application with state regulators to build a $255 million (€185 million) biomass power plant near Wausau. The project would supply steam to Domtar’s paper mill in Rothschild and create up to 150 jobs. The 50MW power plant would generate enough power to supply 40,000 typical…
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