News

Germany's sugar farmers are targeting sales to the bioethanol industry to shift a large crop this season. Germany is forecast to produce 3.6 million tonnes of refined sugar from its 2008/09 crop, in excess of the country's European Union sugar production quota of 2.7 million tonnes, which has been cut as part of EU reforms to curb farming subsidies. The bioethanol market is a growing…
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Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras expects to export 605 million litres of ethanol in 2008. Petrobras downstream director Paulo Roberto Costa says that 505 million litres will be shipped to the US, with the remaining 100 million litres sailing to Japan. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of ethanol and second largest producer after the US. The country’s large sugarcane market…
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US Green Energy Technology (GET) and the Philippines-based biotechnology firm Secura International (SIC) have signed an agreement to construct a $30 million (€23.7 million) biodiesel plant using malunggay oil as feedstock. Malunggay is a versatile plant that can grow anywhere, except in rice-growing, flooded areas. It is suitable for rainfall of less than 1,000 millimeters a year and needs…
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Malaysia’s government has approved 91 biodiesel production licences with a total capacity of 10.2 million tonnes of biodiesel. Deputy minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities senator A. Kohilan Pillay says that to further promote the use of renewable and sustainable forms of energy on 30 October the government approved the mandatory blending of 5% palm methyl ester with petroleum…
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Espoo, Finland-based VTT Technical Research Center, the largest applied research organisation in Northern Europe, has launched a three-year project to produce biodiesel from waste generated by a Vietnamese fish processing plant. VTT is working with organisations in France, Germany, the UK and Vietnam on the project known as ENERFISH to construct a biodiesel facility next to the Hiep Thanh…
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The federal government is raising the target for the amount of ethanol used in the US petrol supply to 11.1 billion gallons. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set its 2009 Renewable Fuels Standard at 10.21%, equating to 11.1 billion gallons of ethanol. The 2008 RFS was 7.76%, or an approximate 9 billion gallons. The US Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 formed a…
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Agribusiness US Sugar has entered into an agreement with Illinois-based renewable energy company Coskata to explore building a 100 million gallon a year cellulosic ethanol facility in Clewiston, Florida. The facility would be the world's largest second generation ethanol facility. It would convert left-over sugarcane material into ethanol, and would help Florida meet its aggressive second…
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Dominican Republic-based W2E Resources will construct a plant to produce ethanol and electricity, transforming solid waste, including sugarcane bagasse, at a cost of around US$200 million (€158.5 million). The company is undertaking the environmental impact study and engineering of the final draft, with construction expected to begin early next year, and around 24 months for the plant's…
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Cambodia opened its first ethanol factory to generate biofuel from cassava flour on Monday 17 November. The plant has a capacity of 36,000 tonnes a year. ‘This factory will become the market place of cassava product for local farmers,’ Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen comments. The project, with $40 million (€31.5 million) investment from MH Bio-energy Group of South Korea, has already…
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Ethanol producer VeraSun Energy expects to report a Q3 net loss of approximately $464 million (€367.6 million). The figure is more than four times the number quoted in an earlier announcement that accelerated the company's fall into bankruptcy protection. The second largest US producer, with about 13% of the nation's ethanol capacity, filed for bankruptcy protection in early…
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US-based White Mountain Group is expected to inject US$16 million (€12.6 million) worth of investment into Australian Biodiesel Group (ABG) in exchange for 51% of ABG's issued share capital. White Mountain will provide US$6.2 million to install a new processing and refining plant to be located on current ABG premises. Another US$3 million will go to securing a technology licence for the…
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Germany-based biofuel producer Verbio has reported higher profits with the aid of growing biodiesel exports, but made losses on bioethanol. ‘About 40% of biodiesel production was exported, largely to east Europe,’ the company says, adding that Germany's increased taxes on biofuels resulted in a large cut in sales by all producers inside Germany. It estimated sales by all producers of…
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Carotech, one of Malaysia’s largest producers of palm methyl ester, has signed a RM200 million (€43.9 million) contract with Trafigura Beheer, Amsterdam, for the export of its refined and distilled palm biodiesel to the US and Europe. ‘Trafigura has been our customer since 2007 and this agreement is important to us as it would take up more than 50% of our capacity and provide certainty to…
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