Other News

US ethanol producer Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings has warned it has defaulted on some debt payments and could be seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Shares for the company fell to $0.12 (€0.09) on the news. The company is seeking equity financing or a buyer for all or part of the company, but will choose bankruptcy if those efforts fail. Aventine operates ethanol plants in Pekin…
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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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StocExpo Europe 2009 opened in style today with a pre-show tour of the Port of Rotterdam, the home of the storage industry. To mark the beginning of the fifth European event dedicated to bulk liquid storage, the Port of Rotterdam Authority showed guests key sights including building work on the new Gate LNG terminal, construction of Spanish biofuel producer Abengoa's ethanol plant, and…
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South Africa’s Eastern Cape has been selected as the site for a pilot project for which marine algae will be used to convert carbon dioxide into biofuels and other products. Jacobs University in Germany has partnered with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to expand the research with the intention of establishing pilot sites at various Eastern Cape…
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Quebec, Canada-headquartered Enerkem, an advanced biofuels and green chemicals technology company, has announced plans to build and operate a second-generation biofuels production facility located in Pontotoc, Mississippi, US. Plans call for the plant to be built, owned and operated by Enerkem Mississippi Biofuels, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enerkem. It is expected to produce 20 million…
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Connecticut, US-based biofuels developer Greenleaf Biofuels has received a $1.3 million (€952,000) grant from the state of Connecticut to help finance the construction of a 6.7mgy biodiesel plant in New Haven Harbor, Connecticut. Connecticut’s Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) has backed the project, and it has been administered through the Connecticut Center for…
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A biodiesel plant has arrived in El Salvador from Colombia to be used in a pilot plan this month to study the profitability of producing biofuel. The plan will look at the entire production chain. The government has purchased 18.5 tonnes of palm oil from Honduras to produce the biodiesel and test the biofuel in vehicles of the national agriculture technology centre. The palm oil purchase will…
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Magellan Midstream Partners is collaborating with US ethanol producer Poet to progress a feasibility assessment of constructing a dedicated ethanol pipeline from the Midwest to distribution terminals in the north-eastern US. Since February 2008, Magellan has been exploring the feasibility of constructing a 1,700-mile dedicated renewable fuels pipeline from northwest Iowa to New York harbour. It…
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The Czech power group CEZ raised production of electricity from biomass by a third to 327 GWh in the Czech Republic during 2008. CEZ used 347,000 tonnes of biomass last year, 50% more on the year before, with all sources burning biomass together with brown coal. The amount of power would cover the annual consumption of over 93,000 households. CEZ, which is majority owned by the state, intends…
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US ethanol lobby groups have combined to officially file a petition with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requesting the amount of ethanol that is blended into petrol be raised from 10% to 15%. The March 6 filing was accompanied by hundreds of pages of research supporting the groups’ claims that no significant damage would be incurred by the nation’s vehicles if the increase were…
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Plans for Marinna Energy’s AU$200 million (€102 million) ethanol plant in southern New South Wales, Australia, have been put on hold due to the poor economy. The plans were announced over two years ago with operations eyed for early this year. Marinna Energy's director, John Durst, says there is significant overseas involvement in the refinery, which includes technology from the US and…
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Honda Motor Company has developed what it calls the world's first motorcycle powered by an eco-friendly fuel mixed with bioethanol and petrol due for sale in Brazil later this month. Honda's Brazilian subsidiary plans to sell about 200,000 units of the CG150 Titan Mix, which will come in three models with prices ranging from 6,340 reais to 7,290 reais (€2139-2460). The models will…
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UK wood recycler Growing Beds has signed a joint venture agreement with waste to energy company Bioflame to build a 2.5MW renewable energy power station capable of producing 20,000MW hours a year. The plant will be located in a disused Ministry of Defence research and development building in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire. The £7 million+ (€7.6 million) power station will be built and operated by…
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The biomass power industry in Western Australia is gaining steam with plans to establish three new regional plants. The latest plan in the south coast town of Esperance would see a thirty-million-dollar plant process one-hundred-thousand-tonne of biomass each year. Don Harrison from energy company Verve says tree plantations already established in the region would be used to fuel the plant.…
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