Other News

Just weeks after a predicted bust, UK-based energy crop developer D1 Oils has reached a conditional agreement with BP to acquire BP's 50% interest in D1-BP Fuel Crops, its joint venture with BP for the planting of jatropha. D1 will thereby to take back sole ownership the global planting assets and interests of the joint venture. In June the company announced it had failed to attract a…
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Texas, US-based Terrabon is working on a renewable green petrol fuel, identical to ordinary petroleum-based fuel, which can be made from organic material like cornstalks. Terrabon has been testing a technology known as MixAlco. Developed by scientists at Texas A&M University, it uses an acid fermentation process that can convert biomass into chemicals that can be further processed into…
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While many ethanol producers are going down, California-headquartered GreenHouse Energy is going bottoms-up. The producer is teaming-up with Karl Strauss Brewing Company to convert spent beer yeast into ethanol fuel. Together, the two companies and the state are part of the GreenHouse Developmental Pilot Program, a distribution model being introduced first in Southern California. Within the…
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Brazil’s largest producer of sugar and ethanol Cosan has signed a three-year contract with Mitsubishi to export bioethanol to the Japanese market starting in 2010. Cosan will ship around 80,000 kl of bioethanol a year, reports say. Mitsubishi will the import it as the raw material for making ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE), a petroladditive used for production of biopetrol. Brazilian-made…
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For the year ended 30 April 2009 Canadian cellulosic ethanol developer Lignol made a loss of $6.2 million (€4.4 million) compared to a loss of $4.6 million in fiscal 2008. The company has spent more on research and development attributed to the construction and start-up of operations of the company’s new fully integrated pilot plant and expansion of research and lignin product development…
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Consent has been given to one of the world’s largest biomass plants from the UK Government. Approval for the £500 million (€587 million) Tees Renewable Energy Plant being built by MGT Power was given under Section 36 of the Electricity Act. The 300MW plant, which will enter commercial operation in 2012, will save 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and will generate enough…
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In the US a lawsuit to clean up 75,000 gallons of ethanol that leaked following a train derailment in Rockford, Illinois, on 19 June has found a railway company responsible. Canadian National Railway and its subsidiary Chicago, Central & Pacific Railroad, will be required by Illinois to perform the environmental cleanup of ethanol in surrounding soil and nearby waterways. According to the…
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Management, engineering and development consultancy Mott MacDonald has completed a report on Thailand’s eight-year programme working to promote the renewable energy sector, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented through the Energy for Environment Foundation. The programme which includes a biomass energy focus has seen by many in the industry as significantly…
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It’s been 22 years since crime-fighting Robocop cleaned up the dirty Detroit streets. Now a new ‘greener’ robot has entered the scene. A steam-powered, robot designed for the Pentagon, headquarters of the US Department of Defense, has been programmed to fuel itself on biomass. Maryland-based Robotic Technology’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) can find, ingest, and…
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Only a few slots remain for the upcoming Biofuels International Asia expo & conference, being held in Singapore on 19-20 November 2009. After the success of Biofuels International expo & conference in Europe in 2008, leading global publication Biofuels International magazine widened its portfolio to include Biofuels International Asia expo & conference. Confirmed speakers for the…
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In the US the Renewable Fuels Association has called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take the immediate interim step of moving to an E12 blend while it waits for the EPA to rule on the E15 waiver request. The EPA is not required to do so until 1 December 2009. Increasing the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s fuel supply is both scientifically justified and…
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Exxon Mobil has finally joined the likes of BP in entering the biofuels industry. The US energy company will make its first major investment in biofuels in a $600 million (€426 million) partnership with biotech company Synthetic Genomics to develop transportation fuels from algae. A late-comer to the green fuels sector, one of the company's requirements was finding a biofuel source that…
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Following recent reports of poor output in Spain and Germany, the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) has released figures showing EU capacity climbed more than 35% in 2008. EBB capacity will grow again this year although half the plants are idle due to poor demand, the producers group says. The European production of biodiesel had reached 7.76 million tonnes last year putting the EU's global…
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