Other News

One of the world’s poorest countries, Ethiopia, is developing biofuel crops on over 500,000 hectares of arid land. ‘Castor oil plants, jatropha and palm oil plants are being developed to reduce land-locked Ethiopia's dependency on imported oil,’ Ephrem Hassen, coordinator of biofuels development in the Ministry of Mines and Energy, comments. Ethiopia's programme will not use…
Read More »

Azerbaijan is tapping into new alternative energy sources. The country’s chairman of the parliamentary commission on energy, ecology and natural resources Valekh Alaskarov says Azerbaijan has the ability to use various types of alternative energy sources with a focus on biogas. ‘It will enable providing remote regions of the country with alternative energy expeditiously and justifiably…
Read More »

Tank Storage/Biofuels Asia expo & conference at the Suntec Centre, Singapore, is now just days away! As an added incentive visitors to the combined exhibition on 19-20th November will now receive access to the complementary networking cocktail reception on 19th November at 17.00 This gives you an opportunity to network with both the speakers and the conference delegates. Companies already…
Read More »

Nine biomass plants could be built in Scotland, UK, if a funding programme is fruitful. UK-based investment company Invicta Capital has launched a fund aiming to raise £300 million (€336.5 million) to invest in the plants, which will produce up to 90 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy. The plants will produce enough power to supply 140,000 homes using biomass technology whereby organic…
Read More »

It must be the luck of the Irish – the UK Government has implemented a new environmental regulation under which fuel companies must sell 4% of sales in biofuels in Ireland by July 2010. The Government approved the biofuels obligation a year later than originally envisaged. There will be a requirement that the biofuels used by oil companies must produce 35% less greenhouse gases than fossil…
Read More »

Funds for a Chilean biomass power plant have been approved. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) gave the go-ahead on a loan of $6.5 million (€4.3 million) to build a 15.6-megawatt biomass power plant in the South American country. The plant will use agricultural, forestry and industrial waste as fuel, emitting zero carbon dioxide, meeting the strict international environmental…
Read More »

The Netherlands’ energy major Shell has sold its stake in second generation biofuels producer Choren. Choren is building Germany's first cellulosic ethanol plant using non-food raw materials as feedstock with a commercial operational target of 2010. Shell sold its minority shareholding to other shareholders, which comprise German vehicles groups Volkswagen and Daimler plus a consortium…
Read More »

State-owned China National Petroleum Corp(CNPC) will work with Honeywell’s subsidiary UOP to develop biofuels for road transport and aviation. Under an agreement the two companies will collaborate to produce biodiesel and green jet fuel using feedstocks available in China. CNPC will also look at establishing a demonstration-scale facility for producing biodiesel using UOP technology, in…
Read More »

The inaugural Biofuels International Canada expo & conference attracted over 300 attendees from as far as Mexico, Peru, UAE and Peru – all wanting to learn more about the sector in Canada. This year’s Biofuels International Canada expo & conference was perfectly timed to bring together regulators, producers, suppliers, traders and other experts just before new targets are brought in…
Read More »

Next year will see a worldwide ethanol surplus of over half a billion litres. A modest global ethanol surplus of around 700 million litres is set to come in during 2010, according to F.O. Licht analysis. Total consumption in the US, Europe, Asia could increase to 76.4 billion litres, while supply is estimated at around 77.1 billion. Referring to the modest global ethanol surplus expected in…
Read More »

In Florida, US, Port Everglades wants to upgrade idled tanks to develop as an ethanol hub but finding a company to do the job has caused set-backs. A Broward County selection committee in April had picked one contender, an affiliate of a Brazilian company. But after repeated objections, it switched in October to the protesting runner-up, an Oklahoma firm. In early November the committee decided…
Read More »

Petroleum company Indian Oil is pondering pond matter as a biofuel. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with PetroAlgae to license the latter’s proprietary technology for producing and harvesting algae. The Florida-based green fuel company has developed bioreactors and harvesting methods for converting algae grown in open-pond freshwater farms into biodiesel. The first…
Read More »

Norway’s Borregaard has received €4 million in research grants from the EU, which will be used for demonstration plants within development projects connected to Borregaard's biorefinery concept. The EU's seventh framework programme for R&D is offering altogether €57 million through the Joint Biorefinery Call during the period 2010-2014. More than 50 projects applied at the…
Read More »

Spain’s agricultural potential could prove more energetic than before. The nation has the resources for agro-industrial biogas production of 8 billion m3 a year, a survey carried out by the Probiogas Project finds. The biogas could be produced using the 83.5 million tonnes of agricultural by-products generated in Spain. Spain produces 49 million tonnes a year of livestock by-products,…
Read More »