Other News

Indian Railways is planning to introduce biodiesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) as locomotive fuels in an attempt to cut down on pollution says. Currently, the railways uses diesel and electricity, which is an indirect pollutant as a bulk of the country’s power capacity is coal-fired. ‘Successful trials have been carried out by using 10% blend of biodiesel on trains,’ minister of…
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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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Floridian biofuel start-up Ag-Oil plans to build a $20 million (€14.2 million) pilot-scale biodiesel production facility with the potential to produce 15 million gallons a year on Delray Beach. The biorefinery will use a patented technology to convert jatropha seeds, algae and related by-products into biodiesel fuel. The company, the recipient of a $2.5 million state renewable energy grant,…
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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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The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) has announced a number of clean energy projects, including biogas, and funding in the developed world. REEEP provided €667,500 in seed funding for eight new finance projects to accelerate the clean energy market in these countries. Microfinance facilities are a way to open up access to energy services for the rural poor. REEEP…
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Researchers at the US’ Argonne National Laboratory are studying a systems approach to sustainable biomass feedstock production. If implemented the approach could mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of biomass for biofuels production on food crops, help restore contaminated water resources and reduce the cost of transporting biomass. In the study, agricultural, energy and…
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Energy company Cello Energy has received a court order to pay $10.4 million (€7.4 million) over allegations the firm fraudulently claimed it could produce cheap fuel from hay, waste wood and other material. A jury ruled that Cello Energy, owned by a former head of the Alabama Ethics Commission, was liable for breach of contract with New York-based paper company Parsons & Whittemore,…
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Bache Commodities Group has launched the Bache Commodity Green Index (BCGI) to offer investors a tool to invest in commodities with a focus on biofuels. The BCGI comprises two components: the Bache Biofuel Composite and Bache Clear Air Composite. The Bache Biofuel Composite includes agricultural commodities such as corn and sugar used for ethanol production, along with oilseeds used for…
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The UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Renewable Transport Fuels Group will host a meeting on 6 July at the House of Commons in London starting at 16:30 p.m. The role of the All-Party Group is to provide a forum for parliamentarians and other interested parties to generate informed discussion on the role of all renewable transport fuels, including biofuels, hydrogen, and electric vehicles in…
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Choren Industries’ new generation biomass biofuel plant is expected to begin initial commercial production in 2010. The plant is being built in Freiberg, Germany, with a capacity to produce around 15,000 tonnes of biomass-to-liquid (BTL) fuels largely using wood products and wood-based waste. Germany is among the first European countries building test plants to produce commercial volumes of…
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US, New Jersey-based Garden State Ethanol has selected a landfill site in Woodbine, Philadelphia, for the location of a $200 million (€142 million) biofuel plant that would use more than 100 bioreactor tanks to convert algae into ethanol and biodiesel oil. An environmental study has cleared the site over the threat to any endangered species and a site analysis is planned, nearby rail lines are…
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ReNvision Biofuels has secured the services of SRS Engineering to build it a 10 million gallons per year biodiesel multi-feedstock plant in, Alberta, Canada. SRS Engineering will provide the complete design and engineering services and the equipment required to build this biodiesel plant. The project will use a number of feedstocks that are available locally, including animal fats, canola and…
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Pipeline company Kinder Morgan Energy Partners has announced the first successful commercial shipment of biodiesel to be transported through a pipeline in the US. The shipment saw a 5% biodiesel blend transported from Mississippi to Georgia, and from Mississippi to Virginia, via the Plantation Pipe Line Company, jointly owned by Kinder Morgan (51%) and Exxon Mobil (49%). December 2008 saw…
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