Other News

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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Lionel Clarke, Global strategic programme manager for Innovation at Shell Global Solutions, joins the list of 40 high level speakers at Biofuels International expo & conference 2009. Shell is a world leader in R&D into next generation biofuels. Its technology division Shell Global Solutions has a dedicated bio-team working at several centres around the world and has forged multiple…
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South Dakota, US-based KL Energy and Prairie Green Renewable Energy of Alberta, Canada, are conducting a joint effort to develop a cellulosic ethanol plant near Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, Canada. The companies plan to build a plant that initially provides 5mgy of cellulose ethanol to the Saskatchewan market. Plans include a second facility that will allow doubling production. The Northeast…
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The Iowa Power Fund Board has approved a $14.75 million (€11.7 million) contract with Poet for the development of a commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, US. Poet’s Project Liberty will add 25 million gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol production capacity to an existing grain-to-ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The project is jointly funded by Poet, the United States…
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Honda Motor company has announced an agreement for the construction of a new cellulosic ethanol research facility in Japan. Honda plans to build a single 1,050m2 building as a testing facility. The construction is scheduled to begin in April 2009, with operations targeted for November 2009. The new Kazusa-branch facility of Honda R&D Fundamental Technology Research Center, will be built…
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US producer Pacific Ethanol says it will temporarily close its $120 million (€95.4 million) ethanol plant in Burley in southwest Idaho. Plant manager Ken Wilson says low petrol prices make biofuels too expensive to compete. Burley Mayor Jon Anderson says it is unclear how long the plant could be mothballed. He notes company officials say it could be as short as three weeks, or much…
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State-owned Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) plans to develop at least three ethanol plants in collaboration with other companies. The plants will be set up in the southern province of Binh Phuoc, the northern province of Phu Tho, and at Dung Quat in the central province of Quang Ngai. PetroVietnam will develop the facilities in the northern and southern provinces. Each plant…
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Brazil’s oil giant Petrobras has announced a business plan for investments of $2.4 billion (€1.89 billion) into biodiesel and ethanol production for the 2009-2013 period, 91% of which will be in Brazil. This amount is part of the total of $2.8 billion Petrobras has earmarked for the biofuels business, which also foresees expenditures of $400 million in infrastructure, such as ethanol…
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The Netherlands-based private equity firm Waterland has reached a final agreement with sustainable energy company Econcern for participation in BioMCN’s biomethanol projects. The additional capital enables producer BioMCN to continue further investments in the construction of processing units for the production of biomethanol, on the world’s largest second generation biofuel plant. The…
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Brazil’s BNDES state development bank will lend 2.5 billion reais (€834 million) to ethanol producers to boost production. The funding will be used to stockpile 3.3 billion litres of ethanol, the Agriculture Ministry says. Producers will be required to commit some of their own funds to store ethanol, boosting total inventories under the programme to 5 billion litres, the ministry said. The…
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Brazilian company Uniduto Logistica will begin building the first phase of a major Brazilian ethanol pipeline in April 2010, with operations due for 2011-2012. The pipeline will run from Brazil's main sugarcane-producing region in Sao Paulo state to the port of Santos. The first phase has a budget of 1.8 billion reais (€603 million) to build 600km of pipeline. Uniduto was created…
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Craton Equity Partners, a Southern California, US-based clean technology fund, has made a commitment of $10 million (€7.9 million) to Principle Energy Limited (PEL), a sustainable biofuel development company with projects that target sub-Saharan Africa. PEL is developing a sugarcane ethanol operation in Mozambique. The project is expected to manufacture around 60 million gallons of ethanol a…
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Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), India’s second-largest state-owned oil refining and marketing company, is increasing activities in the ethanol sector. An investment of Rs 600 crore (€91.3 million) has been lined up by the company to re-start the two sugar mills it has acquired in Bihar. Apart from sugar, the mills will produce ethanol and generate around 100MW of power using bagasse in…
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