Other News

Small and medium enterprises in north west Europe can apply for Innovation Coupons to help them assess the feasibility of taking a bio-based idea or technology to industrial production. The  coupon scheme is being launched by Bio Base NWE, a new €6.2 million ($8.1 million) project funded under the INTERREF IVB NWE framework programme. A coupon, each worth up to €10,000, can be used…
Read More »

The European Commission has approved millions of Euros in aid for a biorefinery research programme. The Genesys programme will benefit from €39.8 million ($51.2 million) granted by the French government to the PIVERT IEED, an institute working in the field of low carbon energy. Genesys will aim to use oilseed and lignocellulosic biomass to produce heat and power primarily, but also…
Read More »

A US-based producer of chemical products is to jointly construct an ethanol plant in Indonesia this year. Working with state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina, Celanese will help build the facility as part of an overall ethanol project worth around $2.5 billion (€1.9 billion). A location for the facility is still being decided but ‘Palembang or Bontang’ were revealed by…
Read More »

The UK’s first bio-LNG filling station was launched by the under secretary for the Department of Transport this May. The station, located in Daventry and built by Gasrec, is capable of fuelling up to 250 HGVs a day in the first phase from three bio-LNG dispensers. A second phase will increase that capacity to up to 700 vehicles. The used bio-LNG is Gasrec’s blend of liquefied natural…
Read More »

EU cabinet ministers have been receiving ‘catastrophic warnings’ from biofuels associations and companies in regard to European Commission (EC) proposals surrounding indirect greenhouse gas emissions caused by fuel crops. It has been reported by news service EurActiv that as many as three e-mails an hour were being sent in and that minutes of a cabinet coordination meeting had…
Read More »

GEM fuel, a blend of petrol, bioethanol and biomethanol is to be used during the FIA Junior World Rally Championship this year. GEM has been made via a partnership between Abengoa, Methanex, BioMCN, Eurol and the Methanol institute and will be managed by sustainable race fuels supplier GUUTS. ‘The FIA has a strategy to develop solutions to reduce the environmental footprint of mobility in…
Read More »

A crop waste-to-ethanol project in Brazil has received a multi-million dollar loan from the Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econmico and Social development bank. The $149.6 million (€113.7 million) will be used by a division of GranBio Investment to construct a facility capable of producing 82 million litres of fuel a year from sugarcane residuals. It believes the technology available can get…
Read More »

Two pilot projects have shown promising signs for biomass production that avoids indirect land use change (ILUC) via the relatively new Low Indirect Impact Biofuels (LIIB) methodology. Initial LIIB studies performed by sustainable energy consultancy Ecofys, which aims to supply eventual certification for biomass production which does not lead to ILUC, have taken place in the Ukraine and…
Read More »

Over the UK’s Department of Transport has released figures regarding the country’s use of renewable fuel between April 2012 and January. It states 965 million litres of renewable fuel were supplied during that period, of which 66% have proven to be sustainable, and 18% of that was sourced directly from UK feedstocks. The breakdown of the 965 million litres was: 55% bioethanol, 39%…
Read More »

US-based Advanced Biofuels has purchased an ethanol plant in Washington and plans to update the facility’s technology. The 7 million gallons a year plant, located at Moses Lake, will be retrofitted and new pre-treatment process equipment is to be added. This will bring the capacity of the plant down to 6 million gallons but upgrade the product to advanced ethanol. AB VP Rhys Dale has been…
Read More »

What do you get when you cross the Canadian federal government, a biofuels company and an oil giant? No not a Mexican stand-off but, according to recent news reports, a new biofuels facility. The CN$19 million (€14.4 million) plant slated for construction in northern Alberta will receive funding from the National Research Council. It will use CO2 emissions from oilsands to convert algae into…
Read More »

BioFuelNet Canada, a not-for-profit organization hosted by Montreal’s McGill University, has signed an agreement with Air Canada and Airbus to explore biofuel solutions for aviation. Air Canada and Airbus are part of a broad coalition, which has pledged Carbon Neutral Growth from 2020 and to reduce greenhouse emissions by 50% by 2050. BioFuelNet Canada will assess the viability of various…
Read More »

The Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels (LSB) met the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels this May at a meeting hosted by the ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy) Committee.EP VP Alejo Vidal Quadras introduced the positions of the EP ITRE Committee on the European Commission revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED).The Leaders sent a clear message to the EP members: ‘Second…
Read More »