
Oct 29, 2008
Australia launches second generation biofuels R&D programme
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Oct 29, 2008
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing says biofuel-powered aircraft could be carrying millions of passengers around the world within three years. 'The certification will happen much sooner than anybody thought,' Darrin Morgan, an environmental expert at the US jet manufacturer, says, adding the group was expecting official approval of biofuel use in the near future.
'We... [Read More]
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Oct 29, 2008
Several international renewable energy investors are pumping F$174 million (74 million Euro's) into plans to produce biodiesel in Fiji using Pongamia oil. Pongamia is a deciduous tree that grows to about 15-25 metres in height with a large canopy.
Bio Fuels International, Evergreen Fuels from Australia and biofuels investors in the US are collaborating with Naitasiri... [Read More]
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Oct 29, 2008
The construction of a government-backed, privately-led bioethanol project in barangays Bayanga and Mambuaya, the Philippines, could pollute the Cagayan de Oro River, an environmental conservation group has warned.
The Kagayan Watershed Alliance (Kawal) has vowed to oppose the P2.4 billion (38 million Euro's) project that Alsons Consolidated Resources (ACR) had planned... [Read More]
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Oct 29, 2008
The first compressed biomethane (CBM) re-fuelling facility in London, UK, has been set up to support a trial of a CBM-powered street cleansing vehicle. Following the launch earlier this year of a commercial trial of the vehicle in the London Borough of Camden Council, the group has now announced that the re-fuelling facility is ready.
Gasrec, the UK's first producer... [Read More]
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Oct 29, 2008
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Germany have announced a new method of producing high efficiency and easily available biofuels from wood, grass and plants could soon be available.
The researchers have devised a more effective method of breaking down the cellulose found in plants into sugar molecules, which can then be used to produce ethanol.... [Read More]
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Oct 29, 2008
Illinois-based renewable energy company Coskata plans to market cellulosic ethanol produced from its novel production process in China. Coskata intends to establish technology licensing and/or partnership agreements to bring the company's ethanol production process to China. Coskata has short- to medium-term goals that focus on developing relationships with potential... [Read More]
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Oct 29, 2008
Bulgarian biofuel producers have threatened to file a lawsuit against the Customs Agency after the agency said that it would impose an excise on pure biofuel products starting from October, the National Biofuels Association in Bulgaria has announced.
Earlier in October, deputy finance minister Kiril Zhelev commented that biofuel producers will be obligated to pay excise... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
California-based Cobalt Biofuels plans to build a pilot plant in the San Francisco Bay Area by next year. In early October the company closed $25 million (19.5 million Euro's) in its third round of funding. It plans to build a pilot plant producing tens of thousands of gallons of biobutanol a year.
The commercial project will be located near sources of non-food materials,... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras and Galp Energia SGPS have signed an investment agreement to create a joint-venture to develop a biofuel production and marketing project.
The agreement is the outcome of a Memorandum of Understanding the companies signed last May, which was aimed at studying the feasibility of joint biodiesel production, marketing and distribution... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
US-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) has announced successful ethanol movements through its Central Florida pipeline system and has begun tests to assess transporting biodiesel through its pipelines on a commercial basis. The company is conducting a test movement of blended B5 biodiesel in a segment of the Plantation Pipe Line system that transports petrol and... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
The Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation (PetroVietnam) will invest $120 million (93 million Euro's) to set up a bioethanol plant in the Dung Quat economic zone in central Ngai province. The Deputy Minister of Sciences and Technology Nguyen Van Lang says Vietnam has an urgent need to develop biofuels to meet its energy demands.
The country is placing a high priority on... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp Limited (HPCL) has formed a biofuels joint venture with Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency (CSREDA). The joint venture, CSREDA-HPCL Biofuels Limited (CHBL), would cultivate tree-borne oil (TBO) plants such as jatropha curcas, which serve as feedstock for biodiesel.
HPCL would operate CHBL as its subsidiary with... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
A group of Brazilian companies and industrial organisations will set up a joint venture to finance research in cellulosic ethanol, the Sao Paulo Industry Federation (Fiesp) says. The initiative includes Brazil's leading sugar and ethanol producer, Copersucar, the country's Sugar Cane Industry Association, Unica, and the local subsidiary of commodities giant Bunge.... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
French water and waste management group Veolia will launch its first biodiesel plant in France in early 2009 using oil recycled from the restaurant trade.
The plant in Limay, near Paris, would be Veolia's first move in the biofuels industry, Laurent Bromet, head of biofuels at the group, says.
Bromet anticipates that recycled cooking oil could account in the future... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
Tokyo-based Cosmo Oil will invest 30 million yen (260,000 Euro's) in a bioventure company in eastern Japan to improve its activity to develop bioethanol.
Cosmo Oil will acquire a 40% equity stake in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture-based Biomaterial in Tokyo, which has technology to make cellulose-based ethanol.
The major oil distributor is aiming to develop technology... [Read More]
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Oct 24, 2008
Malaysia has raised its 2008 biodiesel export forecast to 200,000 tonnes, more than double that of last year's 95,013 tonnes.
'Export of biodiesel is picking up in volume and speed,' Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin states. 'The spread between the selling price of palm methyl ester and the feedstock is allowing biodiesel... [Read More]