News

The first compressed biomethane (CBM) re-fuelling facility in London, UK, has been set up to support a trial of a CBM-powered street cleansing vehicle. Following the launch earlier this year of a commercial trial of the vehicle in the London Borough of Camden Council, the group has now announced that the re-fuelling facility is ready. Gasrec, the UK's first producer of liquid biomethane…
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Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Germany have announced a new method of producing high efficiency and easily available biofuels from wood, grass and plants could soon be available. The researchers have devised a more effective method of breaking down the cellulose found in plants into sugar molecules, which can then be used to produce ethanol. The method uses an…
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Illinois-based renewable energy company Coskata plans to market cellulosic ethanol produced from its novel production process in China. Coskata intends to establish technology licensing and/or partnership agreements to bring the company's ethanol production process to China. Coskata has short- to medium-term goals that focus on developing relationships with potential suitors in China and the…
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Bulgarian biofuel producers have threatened to file a lawsuit against the Customs Agency after the agency said that it would impose an excise on pure biofuel products starting from October, the National Biofuels Association in Bulgaria has announced. Earlier in October, deputy finance minister Kiril Zhelev commented that biofuel producers will be obligated to pay excise duties until the European…
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California-based Cobalt Biofuels plans to build a pilot plant in the San Francisco Bay Area by next year. In early October the company closed $25 million (19.5 million Euro's) in its third round of funding. It plans to build a pilot plant producing tens of thousands of gallons of biobutanol a year. The commercial project will be located near sources of non-food materials, such as sweet…
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The US will fall short of the Renewable Fuels Standard, the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) warns. The country will only blend about 30 billion gallons of fuels like corn-based ethanol and advanced fuels into petrol by 2022, 17% short of the US mandate of 36 billion gallons by that year, the EIA forecasts. ‘The key risk factor is the rate of development of cellulosic…
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Cuba will install a modern biogas industrial plant in central Cienfuegos province in 2009. The plant will generate electricity using the excrement of pigs from the General Swine Complex in the town of Palmira, and forms the beginning of a national programme. It is estimated that only 50% of more than 700 biogas plants in the country are in operation, but efforts are being made for their…
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Chicago, US-based biofuel group Coskata is searching for a partner to set up a multi-million-dollar ethanol conversion plant in Victoria, Australia, capable of producing up to 200 million litres of the fuel a year for use in cars. The company is looking for sources of waste material in Australia that it could feed into the process. This includes food and garden scraps gathered from household…
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Clean technologies investment company Ludgate Environmental Fund has invested €3 million into agri.capital, a specialist developer, owner and operator of biogas plants in Germany. The investment has been structured as 8% preferred stock with detachable warrants and is part of a €10 million funding round into agri.capital with Valiance Special Situations Fund investing alongside…
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Japan Airlines (JAL) will be the first airline to conduct a demonstration flight using camelina-based biofuel, planned for 30 January 2009 at Haneda Airport, Tokyo. A blend of 50% biofuel and 50% traditional Jet-A jet (kerosene) fuel will be tested in one of the four Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines of a JAL-owned Boeing 747-300 aircraft. The biofuel component to be used will be a mixture of…
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The Canadian province of Alberta will implement renewable fuel standards as part of a provincial energy strategy. Beginning in 2010 Alberta will require regular fuel to contain 5% ethanol, and diesel to contain 2% renewable diesel. The blending requirements are in line with federal standards to reduce carbon emissions. The province has set aside CA$239 million (€140 million) to support the…
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Food for Progress programme has funded a biodiesel facility in Guatemala. The Biodiesel Mazat Agui facility in the country’s coastal region of Escuintla began operations this month. The Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University was also involved in establishing the cooperative biodiesel plant, which will use…
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New York-headquartered clean technology development company GreenShift has received a $38 million (€26 million) investment to produce biodiesel from corn oil extracted from ethanol plants. GreenShift will receive the investment in a new GreenShift joint venture subsidiary that will use the proceeds to build 12 corn oil extraction facilities and to expand the capacity of GreenShift's…
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