News

Indiana, US-based Agresti, an ethanol-making venture, has signed an agreement with Vietnam’s Phuc Yen Co. to build and operate ethanol facilities in Vietnam. Agresti’s venture will produce ethanol from landfill waste in Vietnam using a gravity-pressure-vessel technology. Formerly known as Indiana Ethanol Power, Agresti plans to start building its first US project in Pike County, Kentucky in…
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US Laidlaw Energy Group, through its affiliate Laidlaw Berlin BioPower, has completed the acquisition of the former Fraser Paper pulp mill site in Berlin, New Hampshire. Laidlaw has been working on the site for the last two years to develop a 66 megawatt biomass-to-energy project. The company has also been working to line-up the requisite financing for the project. ‘The complex history of the…
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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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Indian state Gujarat’s Energy Development Agency (GEDA) has given approval to private groups for setting up biomass power plants in 25 districts of the state. The approvals amount to a combined generation of 317MW of energy. ‘The first of its kind power plant in the state that uses 300 tonnes of biomass a day such as fuel cotton stalks, sesame stalks and groundnut shells is proposed to come…
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Iowa State University has received a $2.37 million (€1.74 million) grant from the Iowa Power Fund to replace natural gas usage in ethanol plants with biomass gasification technology. The project will examine the production of ethanol from syngas. It will also study more efficient burners to use the syngas production from biomass gasification for thermal energy or for combined heat and power…
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President-elect Barack Obama has elaborated his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan with a target to further expand the US’ renewable energy sector. ‘To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient,’ Obama said on Saturday 3 January. Next…
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