News

The five railroad trains at Disneyland in the US began running on biodiesel made with waste vegetable oil from the resort’s restaurants and hotels on 28 January. Park officials tried a soyabean-based biodiesel starting in 2007 on the trains that circle a one-mile perimeter of the park. The project was abandoned in November 2008 following issues with storage underground. Officials conceived…
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Gas made from waste food or sewage could heat half of the UK’s homes, a study by Ernst and Young on behalf of utility firm National Grid finds. Biodegradable waste could be used to make biomethane which would be piped into the gas grid, and would help achieve targets to source 15% of all energy from renewable sources by 2020. Biogas, which is already being produced and injected into gas grids…
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Japan Airlines completed a 90-minute flight powered by fuel with a 50% biodiesel blend on 30 January. The flight is the first to use camelina oil, which made up 84% of the biofuel blend. The remainder was less than 16% jatropha oil and the rest algae oil. The camelina blend was used in the No. 3 engine made by Pratt & Whitney. The Boeing 747-300 aircraft took off from Haneda Airport in…
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UK-based food waste recycler Prosper de Mulder (PDM) has announced plans to spend £110 million (€123 million) over the next three years on waste to energy plants. The company will construct five new food waste-to-energy plants using both biomass and anaerobic digestion (AD) technology. PDM will secure 17,000 tonnes a year of waste from UK supermarket Sainsbury's 283 nationwide stores by…
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California-headquartered Sirona Fuels has acquired producer Blue Sky Biofuels. Blue Sky Biofuels’ Oakland, California-based biodiesel refinery is permitted for 15 million gallons a year and is currently producing ASTM-spec biodiesel from recycled cooking oil. Sirona has implemented plans for the rapid expansion of its used cooking oil collection business, and by the end of 2009 expects to…
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The UK’s Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA) has released figures showing major fuel suppliers are continuing to fail government targets to supply biofuels that meet environmental standards. Nine companies are performing below their targets, including BP, which managed to report just 4% of its biofuels as meeting standards recognised by the Agency. Esso, Chevron, Murco, Prax and Topaz have failed to…
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A biodiesel project in Tanzania is looking at manufacturing biofuel using the oil from the nuts of the Croton tree. The Africa Biofuel and Emission Reduction project will take place in Tanzania's northwestern Kagera region where the Croton tree grows in abundance. The initiative is to replace up to 10% of Tanzania's oil requirements by 2018 through the production and sale of cheaper…
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Pennsylvania-based Lake Erie Biofuels is considering construction of a pipeline that would carry its biofuels products to Lake Erie's port facilities as an alternative to railroad cars. Raymond Schreckengost executive director of the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority says the company is now transporting about 1.5 million to 2 million gallons of biofuels a month by railroad cars to…
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Second generation ethanol company Verenium has announced plans to build its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Highlands County, Florida. The company has entered into long-term agreements with Florida agri-business Lykes Bros to provide the agricultural biomass for conversion to fuel. Verenium also announced that the Highlands Ethanol project has been awarded a $7 million…
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The decision by the German government to raise taxes on biofuels and to reduce blending rates in fossil fuels will mean more biodiesel plants in the country will face closure, a German biofuels industry association says. Europe’s largest biodiesel industry has been operating at under 60% of its 5 million tonne a year capacity, Johannes Lackmann, CEO of German biofuels industry association VDB,…
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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded cellulosic ethanol producer Range Fuels a conditional commitment for an $80 million (€62 million) loan guarantee for the development and construction of its commercial cellulosic ethanol plant near Soperton, Georgia. Range Fuels was awarded this loan guarantee in part because they are working toward the development of commercially…
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US meat processing company JBS-Swift has announced it will open a biogas generation facility next to its Grand Island, Nebraska, beef packing plant in April. The beef packing plant slaughters 6,000 cattle each day. The operation, which will be owned and managed by Microgy, a subsidiary of Swift partner Environmental Power, is expected to generate 235,000 MMBtu of power a year, the equivalent of…
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Mississippi Investment Petroleum has announced plans to build a third-generation biodiesel refinery at the Port of Aberdeen, Mississippi, in the US. The Madison-based company began preparing the site in late 2008, with 90% of the US manufactured refinery equipment being custom fabricated for the site. The project will be completed in three phases. The first phase of the project is expected to…
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