Other News

It has been reported that an ethanol company located in south Minnesota, US may have to sell its plant. Denver-based Biofuel Energy was a victim of the long drought that affected US corn availability and prices last summer and it shut down the plant, which can produce up to 115 millions gallons a year, in September as it became ‘unprofitable’. ‘When those corn prices rise that…
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SCS Global Services has announced the expansion of its biofuel certification services in south east Asia. The third-party environmental certification body will now conduct audits under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) programme, which will allow biofuel producers in south east Asia to meet the requirements for export into the European Union under its Renewable…
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) believes its country’s farmers will grow the most corn since 1936 as growers look to take advantage of high prices driven by last year’s drought. A forecast of 97.3 million acres of corn is set to be sown in 2013 to help boost dwindling supplies, while soyabean plantings have been placed at 77.1 million acres. Wheat crops will rise 1% to 56.4…
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UK-based bioethanol producer Ensus has ‘temporarily’ taken its 450 million gallon capacity facility offline for the second time since it started operations in 2010. In a statement the company says a ‘poor wheat harvest in the UK last year has had an adverse impact on the quality and price of the crop as a feedstock’ that is used within the plant. ‘Alongside that,…
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Spain-based sustainable technologies provider Abengoa has seen operations at a demo plant that uses its waste-to-biofuels technology begin. The facility, located in Salamanca, has capacity to treat 25,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste to produce around 1.5 million litres of bioethanol. The infrastructure of the plant has gone through more than 6,000 continuous hours of tests to validate the…
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Botlek Tank Terminal (BTT) has loaded the first train at its new loading/unloading station. The new station entered service on 2 April and loaded around 1,000 tonnes of biodiesel for export to a Bavaria-based refinery in Germany. The fuel was transferred from one of the storage tanks. In addition to Germany, the station will also be used to load and unload biodiesel going to and coming from…
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US-based ethanol producer Valero Energy has restarted its facility in Ohio and aims to resume operations at another in Indiana ‘in the coming weeks’. After the US drought of 2012, that placed extreme pressure on corn levels and prices for both the biofuels and food industries, Valero idled three plants last June but now it is coming back positively. ‘Margins have improved where…
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Full details of the sentence received by Jeffrey Gunselman, the man behind over $40 million (€31.2 million) worth of RIN fraud, have been revealed. The West Texas native has been sentenced to at least 15 years in prison and ordered to pay out $55 million in restitution by a federal judge. In a story followed by Biofuels International, Gunselman started a bogus biodiesel company named…
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SkyNRG, a manufacturer of sustainable aviation fuel, has been awarded certification from the RSB Services Foundation, making it the world's first biofuel operator to earn the RSB certification for its supply chain of renewable jet fuel including separation, blending and logistics. The audit was conducted by certification body DNV Business Assurance. 'Curbing the carbon dioxide footprint of jet…
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The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, presented details on the UAE's growth and export potential in the biofuels-from-algae sector in March. The Algae Research Laboratory and Microbial Environmental and Chemical Engineering Laboratory (MECEL) has been undertaking research that looks into making new types…
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Biofutures International has raised £32.5 million (€37.3 million) via share placing to help with its proposed acquisition of Malaysia-based biofuels company Platinum NanoChem (PN). PN is a global nanotechnology company which designs, manufactures and markets a range of speciality chemicals and advanced materials, including graphene, from waste feedstocks. The new capital will provide…
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Jatropha developer Joil has signed a memorandum of understanding to develop plantations in West Africa with Agritech Faso. The pair will explore the development of 250,000 hectares of jatropha plantations intercropped with food crops using Joil’s high-yielding varieties. Field trials will also be carried out using Joil’s growing materials at Agritech’s plantations in Burkina…
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Independent bulk liquids storage and distribution company Standic BV, based in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, has received sustainability certification for biofuels storage. The company has been awarded ISCC-EU (International Sustainability and Carbon Commission) and the German version ISCC System GmbH. Standic says the certification is 'essential' for both itself and its biofuels clients. 'With…
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