Other News

The European Biodiesel Board has applauded a decision, via a vote by the European Parliament’s environment committee this October, to stall a proposal to limit Europe’s use of food-based fuel crops. French MEP Corinne Lepagewas reportedly due to begin negotiations with EU states for a second-reading procedure of the bill. Below is a statement issued by the EBB: ‘The European…
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The RSB Services Foundation, the implementing entity of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), a global sustainability standard and certification system for biofuels and biomaterials production, has awarded Camelina Company España (CCE) its sustainability certification. CCE, a renewable fuels and chemicals group, pioneered the manufacturing and marketing of fuel and chemicals…
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ICM, a biorefinery technology provider, has announced a contract with Illionois-based Patriot Renewable Fuels upon the purchase of its selective milling technology (SMT). SMT is a value-added ICM platform technology investment which ICM claims increases ethanol yield, reduces viscosity and increases oil recovery for its customers. 'ICM's SMT platform technology is an investment that we…
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Research from the Public University of Navarre in Europe has reportedly shown that genetically modified tobacco plants are viable as raw material for producing biofuels. Ruth Sanz-Barrio, an agricultural engineer of the NUP/UPNA-Public University of Navarre and a researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology, has demonstrated the viability of using specific tobacco proteins (known as thioredoxins)…
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It is believed the Ukraine may not be able to rely on its molasses feedstock to produce enough bioethanol for 2014. Mykola Tychenko, a director at Ukrprodspilka, was quoted as saying the country’s molasses harvest forecast amounts to around 400,000-500,000 tonnes. ‘If all of this was used to produce bioethanol we’d only make 100,000 tonnes,’ he says, which would equate to…
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Market and technology company BDI-BioEnergy International has signed a contract with Croatian government representatives to kick-start a pioneering biodiesel pioneer project in the country. The project is set to establish the largest multi-feedstock biodiesel plant both in Croatia and south-east Europe and will cost approximately €20 million ($27 million). The total capacity of the plant has…
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University of Arizona (UA) researchers have been granted $8 million (€5.8 million) by the US Department of Energy to continue researching how to use algae to make biofuel, animal feed and plastics over the next four years. 'Our goal is to provide algal biofuel at a production cost equal to the cost of petroleum,' says Randy Ryan, assistant director of the Arizona Agricultural Experiment…
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Beta Renewables, a cellulosic biofuels business and part of the Mossi Ghisolfi Group, and Novozymes, a producer of industrial enzymes, marked the official opening in Northern Italy of the world’s largest advanced biofuels facility this October. Situated in fields outside the city of Crescentino, it is claimed to be ‘the first plant in the world’ to be designed and built to…
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Plant and crop improvement business Syngenta has signed a contract with Arkalon Ethanol in Kansas for the plant to start using corn which features its Enogen trait technology. Syngenta claims Enogen, a field-to-fuel system, will help deliver alpha amylase enzyme directly in corn grain thus saving the costs of adding liquid enzymes and improving process efficiency. The way Syngenta explains the…
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An award-winning University of Queensland researcher hopes to use a chemical found in lemons and other citrus fruits to produce clean, renewable jet fuel. Claudia Vickers, a senior researcher at the Systems and Synthetic Biology Group at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, is modifying baker's yeast to produce a synthetic form of the natural chemical…
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Maverick Biofuels, a provider of biofuels production technology, has been awarded three US patents for producing a mixed-alcohol fuel from synthesis gas (syngas) via a methanol intermediate. Maverick develops and commercialises technology for producing renewable clean transportation fuels and bio-based chemicals using combinations of proven technologies to produce high-value products by…
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SG Biofuels (SGB), an energy crop company has signed a mandate letter with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the debt financing of its 25,000 acre jatropha bioenergy project in Guatemala. The project cost is estimated at approximately $76 million (€56.1 million).  This enables IDB and SGB to proceed with financial, technical and environmental due diligence on a project that…
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In Thailand, the ministries of Commerce and Energy are reportedly set to cooperate to develop a strategy to promote the production of ethanol from cassava. Energy minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisarn is believed to have been tasked with overseeing the country’s production of cassava as an energy and food crop, with one objective being to prevent a price drop. Raktapongpaisarn has recently been…
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