Other News

The demand for biodiesel in Europe has spurred one Bulgarian port to develop a storage terminal. Infrastructure is being eyed for an imported palm oil storage facility at one of its Black Sea ports. Palm oil will arrive from Indonesia. The nation is conducting market expansion of agricultural products to Europe. Aside from feedstocks that could be used to create biodiesel, Indonesia will…
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Chicago-based Zenergy International has acquired Greenlight Biofuels and its assets for $1.5 million (€1.1 million) in a deal that will see Zenergy expanding the company’s revenue. Zenergy plans to generate capability by providing resources to create a bigger biodiesel client base to purchase the fuel. This is first of many planned acquisitions that Zenergy has been planned for the…
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The decision by the German government to raise taxes on biofuels and to reduce blending rates in fossil fuels will mean more biodiesel plants in the country will face closure, a German biofuels industry association says. Europe’s largest biodiesel industry has been operating at under 60% of its 5 million tonne a year capacity, Johannes Lackmann, CEO of German biofuels industry association VDB,…
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Iowa, US-based biodiesel producer and marketer Renewable Energy Group has opened a new biodiesel blending terminal in Alamosa, Colorado, US. At the Alamosa terminal REG has partnered with petroleum company and biodiesel marketer Alta Fuels to facilitate the company’s marketing efforts of its branded REG-9000 biodiesel at the site. Alta Fuels also has an on-site laboratory to ensure quality…
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Adage and Energy Northwest have agreed to develop 50MW wood waste biomass power plants in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon, in the US. The companies plan to jointly-market wood biopower to regional utilities. Adage is a joint venture between Areva and Duke Energy. Areva will build the biomass power plants, and Duke Energy Generation Services will run the facilities.
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South Africa signed a contract to export between 70 and 90% of output from a planned 400,000 tonnes a year biodiesel plant to Germany. An environmental impact assessment is under way and production from the plant, located in the Elidz area, will start next year. This is part of an initiative by the South African government to encourage export-oriented growth in the country through the attraction…
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Royal Dutch Shell will focus on biofuel expansion in 2009 and 2010 Shell is no longer in a position to contribute development in solar and wind power, say officials. The global energy company will now focus on next generation biofuel research, exploring new technologies such as algae, and cellulosic derived biofuels. This change of direction came after considering algae’s ability to grow…
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Spain's biodiesel plants are running at just nine percent of capacity, according to producers. The producers hope recent duties imposed by the European Union on US imports will help revive production. ‘Nonetheless, imports and subsidiaries from countries like Argentina, Malaysia and Indonesia, could also become as damaging as those from the US,’ a report by the biofuels division of…
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The German and Polish governments have agreed an alliance for cooperation on the development of bioenergy feedstocks, after a meeting between the Polish Minister for Agriculture Marek Sawicki and German Agricultural Minister Ilse Aigner. The move establishes Bio-GEPOIT, a task force group that will be coordinated by the Polish Research Institute of Construction, Mechanics and Electricity, and…
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New Zealand will spend as much as NZ$36 million (€16 million) in subsidies for biodiesel over the next three years in an attempt to encourage investments by improving the fuel’s competitiveness against petrol and ethanol. A grant of as much as NZ$0.42 per litre will be available from 1 July on sales of domestically produced biodiesel that meets government standards. The payment matches an…
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Dong Energy’s bioethanol producing subsidiary Inbicon has signed a deal with Statoil that will see it deliver the first 5 million litres of its second-generation bioethanol from its plant near Asnaes Power Station in Kalundborg, Denmark. The plant, which is presently under construction, aims to demonstrate that second-generation bioethanol can be produced on an industrial scale using…
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Independent oil firm Eastern Petroleum plans to set up a $30 million (€21.5 million) ethanol plant in Isabela, the Philippines, next year. The ethanol producing facility has a projected capacity of 100,000 litres a day, or 30 million litres a year, and is expected to come online in 2012. To fund the project the firm’s subsidiary Eastern Renewables and Fuels has begun enquiring about…
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BP Biofuels, a subsidiary of UK energy giant BP, and US agri-tech company DuPont have formed Butamax Advanced Biofuels to accelerate biobutanol commercialisation. BP and DuPont have conducted four years of extensive technology development and fuel testing. The technology demonstration facility located at the BP Saltend site in Hull, UK, is planned to be operational in 2010. The first…
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Colorado-based cellulosic ethanol specialist ZeaChem is on track to achieve yields of over 2,000 gallons per acre per year at a demonstration plant under construction in Boardman, Oregon, US. This yield is comparable with algae, but with fewer technical challenges to surmount. By contrast, the highest attained yields of ethanol from corn are about 450 gallons per acre per year. The…
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