Other News

New Delhi, India-based Mavens Biotech is planning to set up three biomass power plants with a total capacity of 30 MW. The Rs 700,000,000 (€10.8 million) investment on the proposed power project is likely to be met with internal accruals and debt, M D Kanther, chairman of the company, says. The company reported net sales of Rs 37.14 crore in the nine month ending 31 December 2009 compared to…
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British Airways has agreed to a deal with US company Solena Group that will see Europe’s first waste-matter-to-jet-fuel plant being erected in London, UK. Construction will begin within two years and the plant is due to be online from 2014, although it will not be producing at full capacity immediately. Eventually, 16 million gallons of fuel will be produced each year from 500,000 tonnes of…
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In Georgia, US, American Process Inc (API) has unveiled its cellulosic ethanol pilot plant. A joint venture between ethanol producer Valero and API, the plant will produce cellulosic ethanol from wood biomass and will be the foundation for eventual expansion to a commercial scale plant co-located with a pulp and paper mill. According to API, it might license its technology for…
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Brick-by-brick the wall standing in the way of biodiesel production is finally being removed. The US Senate voted 62-36 on Wednesday 12 March to pass a tax bill that included a one-year extension of the $1-a-gallon (€0.72) biodiesel tax credit, retroactive to 1 January. When the tax credit expired on 31 December profitable biodiesel operations became a distant reality. The House still must…
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US-based Terra Energy Resources is a step closer to acquiring an oil terminal in Pennsylvania. The company plans to turn the 24,000 gallon facility into a biodiesel production facility for use in home heating fuel while taking advantage of incentives offered by the state of Pennsylvania for production of alternative fuels. This acquisition will include land, buildings, and…
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Two South Korean companies are joining forces to develop a biofuels plantation in Malaysia by the middle of 2010. Jusin Cenox (M) Sdn Bhd is the joint venture between Jusin Group and Gaiax Energy that will see the development of a 30,000-hectare cassava plantation in Banggi Island, Kudat. The cassava will be grown and harvested to produce bioethanol and biodiesel as well as other bioenergy…
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New World Energy (NWE) is dedicated to the research, development, and operation of alternative renewable energy projects and has teamed up with Germany-based Bosch and Siemens Home and Appliance Group (BSH) on a pilot project in Indonesia to produce environmentally friendly stoves. Instead of running on Indonesia’s first choice cooking fuel, kerosene, the Protos stove will run on jatropha oil…
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Canada-based cellulosic ethanol producer Lignol Energy’s subsidiary Lignol Innovations has successfully completed integrated production campaigns and met operability targets for the production of cellulosic ethanol and lignin with its industrial-scale biorefinery pilot plant in Burnaby, British Columbia. The company made enhancements to its biorefinery pilot plant in late 2009 and over the…
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Covanta, a US company which incinerates municipal solid waste to generate electricity, and its partner Global Energy have completed construction of a commercial pilot municipal solid waste to diesel plant in the US. The two companies signed a contract to set up the plant two and a half years ago. Covanta will operate hundreds of facilities, which will use Global Energy's KDV technology…
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In Columbus, Nebraska, US, ethanol producer Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) has inaugurated its recently constructed dry milling plant and ethanol production facility. The christening took place on 9 July this year after the facility opened in November last year. The project was originally announced in February 2006. The dry mill has the capacity the produce 300 million gallons of…
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In the northeastern state of Bahia, Brazil, Petrobras is planning to increase the production capacity of its biodiesel plant in Candeias. Investments totalling €28.8 million will be pumped into the facility in order for it to reach a 217.2 million litres output capacity. The plant has produced 81.3 million litres of biodiesel since it began operations.
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The opening ceremony of the world’s first plant for the production of the renewable fuel BioDME will take place on 9 September 2010 in Piteå, Sweden. Located at the Smurfit Kappa pulp and paper container board mill, the plant utilises black liquor, a by-product of the pulping process, to produce the BioDME. The gasification technology comes from Chemrec AB, while Haldor Topsøe A/S provides…
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By 2019 it is predicted that the production of ethanol for vehicle fuel will reach 64 billion litres, over double what is currently produced today. According to energy minister Marcio Zimmerman: ‘Brazil produces 26 billion litres today and will reach 64 billion litres in 2019. With that we will even have a surplus to export.’ To date 47% of the nation’s energy is produced from renewable…
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Brazil-based integrated energy company Petrobras and Novozymes have entered into an agreement to develop a new process for the production of biofuel from sugarcane bagasse. The deal will see the development of enzymes and production processes to make second generation lignocellulosic ethanol from bagasse in an enzymatic process. The commercial potential of cellulosic ethanol is substantial due…
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