Other News

US-based Adkins Energy has been awarded a $500,000 (€371,945) Rural Energy for America Programme (REAP) grant to begin construction on a $4.5 million biodiesel plant on the east side of its Illinois campus. The 2 million gallon facility is expected to begin production in spring 2014. The company’s ethanol arm currently produces 1.5 million gallons of distillers corn oil a year, which…
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Ecopetrol reports it has been awarded a patent from the Colombian Superintendence of Industry and Trade for a technology which makes it possible generate biofuels by refining vegetable oils and heavy oil fractions (such as gas oils) in a single process. The development, called Process for hydrotreating vegetable oil mixed with heavy oil fractions is the third patent related to biofuels that the…
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Boeing and GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes are to work together to speed the research, development and approval of new sources of sustainable aviation biofuel in Brazil. Their collaboration will support GOL's plans to use this lower-carbon jet fuel on more flights during upcoming major sporting events, including the 2014 football World Cup, and also will benefit long-term development of a new…
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A grant has been awarded by the Western Australian government to help expand a renewable fuels programme. The Ashburton Aboriginal Corporation (AAC) will put the AU$25,000 (€17,600) into its AshOil programme, which uses used cooking oil to produce about 15,000 litres of biodiesel each week. It is believed AAC currently supplies mining company Rio Tinto with 50,000 litres of the fuel a month.
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A report from a technical committee of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is, according to non-governmental organisations, under-estimating the amount of greenhouse gas emitted by palm oil grown on tropical peatlands by nearly 50%. The low emissions estimate stems from a technical committee on wetlands of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories of the IPCC which…
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The waste-to-biofuels plant to be built in Sofia, Bulgaria is now scheduled to begin construction in early 2014. Plans are reportedly to be drawn up by Greek company Aktor-Helektor, which won the construction tender in April, in December as final contracts are due to be signed off this month. It is hoped the plant will treat over three quarters of the capital’s waste to produce the fuel.…
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Sugar producer Roxas has sold 31% of its 66% share in Roxas Holdings to Hong Kong-based First Pacific PHP2.23 billion (€37.8 million). Pedro Roxas, executive chairman of Roxas, says the move ‘ends the group’s long search for a strategic partner and will accelerate our plan to be the dominant sugar company in the Philippines’. The move reportedly paves the way for the…
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded nearly $10 million (€7.3 million) to a consortium, led by Colorado State University (CSU), to study the challenges limiting the use of insect-killed trees as a sustainable feedstock for bioenergy and renewable fuels. CSU researchers, together with other scientists from universities, government and private industry in the region, created the…
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Imperium Renewables will move ahead with plans to expand its business at the US Port of Grays Harbour despite the Shoreline Hearings Board’s decision to require additional permitting work. Imperium Terminal Services submitted permit applications for the construction of new storage tanks, rail infrastructure and office space over 10 acres within the port and adjacent to its existing…
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Tank Storage Asia, taking place on 10 and 11 December 2013 at Singapore Expo, has secured its best ever conference line up. Over 20 leading authorities in the Asian bulk liquid storage sector will deliver sessions on the critical issues spanning the whole region - from the Middle East to China and New Zealand. On the first day of the Tank Storage Asia conference, Nurul Darni, Asia biofuels editor…
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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its proposed figures for the amount of renewable fuels to be blended into petrol and diesel via the Renewable Fuels Standard. Amid industry speculation that volumes required would be a lot lower than previously thought, the following figures were released on 15 November: Cellulosic ethanol - 17 million gallonsBiomass-based diesel –…
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An initiative for the development of sustainable jet fuels has been announced, bringing together key players in the Nordic aviation sector. The Nordic Initiative for Sustainable Aviation (NISA) is made up of airports, airlines and their industry federations, and aviation authorities. Airbus and Boeing have been named as supporters of the initiative, as well as the International Air…
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GE Aviation (GE) has announced it has signed an agreement to buy cellulosic biofuel to broaden its fuel sources for jet engine testing. As of 2016, the Washington DC-based D'Arcinoff Group will supply at least 500,000 gallons of the fuel annually for GE's main testing facility in Ohio. The 10-year agreement contains options for GE to order up to 10 million gallons of synthetic…
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