Other News

In New Haven, Connecticut, US, biodiesel producer Greenleaf Biofuels has broken ground on its biodiesel plant. The plant, which has been designed to manufacture 10 million gallons a year of biodiesel, has been under development for five years and could be operational by Q2 2012. Upon completion, a system from Greenline Industries will be installed, enabling the plant to include methanol recovery,…
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Biodiesel company Evogene has extended its agreement with Brazilian agriculture company SLC Agricola in order to further develop castor bean seeds as a feedstock for biofuels. This follows the development of seed varieties in trials in northeast Brazil through this year which the companies say has been successful. The partnership between the two companies began in 2010 and involves developing…
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The $12 billion (€9.1 billion) joint venture between Brazilian sugar and ethanol company Cosan Indústria e Comércio and oil major Royal Dutch Shell has been cleared by the European Commission. The approval was granted on the 4 January 2011, following a binding agreement which both companies signed in August last year. Shell and Cosan will together produce and commercialise ethanol and…
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Between March and September 2011 Thailand's government will launch an E95 bus fleet trial to test the viability of replacing the current diesel- and LNG-fuelled buses with a 95% ethanol blend. 1.3 million litres a day of ethanol are consumed by the nation today, but the government is hoping to ramp this up to 9 million litres a day by 2022. The buses used in the trial will come from heavy truck,…
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The world's largest ethanol producer Poet will open its newest ethanol production facility this year and will hold a grand opening on 15 March 2011. Poet Biorefining – Cloverdale is the company's 27th ethanol plant. Based in Indiana, US, the 90 million gallon-a-year plant will put the state's total ethanol production above the its goal of 1 billion gallons. The event will feature public…
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US-based renewable fuels producer Pacific Ethanol released its fourth quarter and year-end 2010 financial results on 28 March 2011. The company sold 50% more ethanol gallons in the fourth quarter of 2010 and increase 57% for all of 2010, compared to the same periods in 2009. Net sales were $134.2 million (€95 million) for the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to $87.9 million for the fourth…
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In the Piura Region on the North coast of Peru, integrated independent energy company Maple Energy is still on target to commence commercial operations at its ethanol project in Q4 2011 as development continues. The 60kV electric transmission line connecting the ethanol project to the national power grid is now largely complete, as are certain sections of the electric distribution system for the…
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In Malawi, Bio Energy Resources is planning to build an $18 million (€12.8 million) jatropha-to-biofuel production plant. The company hopes for the plant to begin producing commercial quantities of biodiesel in 2016, following a trial output which is due to commence in Q4 2011. The new plant will provide jobs for approximately 30,000 local farmers, who will cultivate jatropha for use at the…
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In Hopkins, Missouri, US, the nation's fourth largest ethanol producer Green Plains Renewable Energy has acquired 2 million bushels of federally-licensed grain storage. The acquisition of the grain storage, which was previously owned by Horizon Grain and GS Grain, was completed through the company's wholly owned subsidiary Green Plains Grain Company. The grain elevator is located approximately 45…
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Green Source of Spain, a subsidiary of SNIACE, is moving forward with its plans to build a bioethanol plant in Poland. The company has bought a plot of land in Kostrzvn on which it will build the facility. Green Source is scheduled to break ground on the project in Q3 2011 and operations will begin almost two years later. The plant will produce 200,000 tonnes of bioethanol, in addition to 230,000…
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Brazil's energy giant Petrobras is looking to produce 5.6 billion litres of ethanol by 2015, according to Miguel Rossetto, CEO of the company's biofuel division Petrobras Combustíveis. The ramp up would see Petrobras obtain 12% of the domestic market. The company had a 3.3% share in the market last year, after it manufactured 1 billion litres of ethanol. Between now and 2015, Petrobras has…
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AltAir Fuels, a Washington, US-based company dedicated to the production of jet fuel, is developing a bio-jet production plant in Bakersfield, California. The facility is slated to come online towards the end of 2012, when it will produce bio-jet fuel from camelina. Local farmers in San Joaquin County, Central Valley and other areas of southern California are now being encouraged by the US Farm…
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Rentec Renewable Energy Technologies' proposed Olympiad Renewable Energy Centre (Olympiad Project), located in White River, Ontario, Canada, will be designed as a state-of-the-art energy facility that would employ the Rentech ClearFuels biomass gasification system and the Rentech process. The project is designed to produce 23 million gallons of bio-jet fuel, RenJet, and 13 million gallons of…
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The US Navy has flown an MQ-8B Fire Scout helicopter on a blend of biofuel and jet fuel, it said on 4 October. The unmanned biofuel-powered flight took place at Webster Field in St. Inigoes, Maryland. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Directorate piloted the aircraft, which used a blend of camelina-based fuel and JP-5 aviation fuel. 'Today's flight marks a significant milestone with Fire Scout…
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